{"nrhp_refnum":"82001880","name":"Gleason Building","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"349-351 Essex St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Lawrence","county":"Essex County","state":"MA","lat":42.707703148000064,"lon":-71.16233630099998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-04-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A six-story brick commercial building at 349A-351 Essex Street in downtown Lawrence, Massachusetts, built in 1890 in the Victorian Romanesque style and designed by Lawrence architect Arthur F. Gray.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is a major local example of Romanesque commercial architecture, meeting criterion C, and retains integrity of location, design and materials. It was the largest commercial building in the city when built and the first in Lawrence with a hydraulic elevator. It is also one of the few important buildings outside the Downtown Lawrence Historic District.","narrative":"Rising six stories above Essex Street in downtown Lawrence, this brick commercial block was completed in 1890 to designs by local architect Arthur F. Gray. William Oswald, a prominent dry goods merchant and founder of the Merchants National Bank, had it built. Its yellow brick facade is trimmed with brownstone and organized by pilasters, rounded arches, stringcourses and iron lintels, with bands of windows that were novel in the city. When new, it was the largest building of its kind in Lawrence, with forty-four offices above the ground-floor store and a top-floor photographer's studio lit by a skylight. It also had the city's first hydraulic elevator, plus steam heat and electric lights. A fire in 1897 gutted the interior, and everything but the facade was rebuilt. The ground floor has since been altered, but the upper facade remains intact. As other nineteenth-century commercial buildings on Essex Street disappear, it stands as a representative of Lawrence's commercial growth and one of its few Romanesque commercial buildings.","period_of_significance":"1890","architect_builder":"Arthur F. Gray","architectural_style":"Victorian Romanesque","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Listed as occupied and in good condition; the ground floor has been altered, while the upper five stories of the facade are unaltered.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.477095-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/24/7947/63794724/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/82001880.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82001880/4831e04704-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82001880/4831e04704-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.0","author":"EraserGirl","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gleason_Building,_Lawrence,_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">EraserGirl</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gleason_Building,_Lawrence,_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63794724","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleason_Building_(Lawrence,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5567403"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/essex-county/gleason-building-82001880/"}