{"nrhp_refnum":"82001908","name":"Almshouse","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"41 Orchard St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cambridge","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.40218093000004,"lon":-71.13222819799995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-04-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Former city almshouse at 45 Matignon Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts, built in 1850 to designs by Gridley J. F. Bryant with Rev. Louis Dwight, using a radial plan and slate and granite masonry.","why_significant":"The building is locally significant for applying Greek Revival/Italianate styling to a large public building, and for its radial plan with a central octagon and four wings, drawn from jail prototypes. It is also tied to the social humanitarian movement in Cambridge through its use as the city's Poor Farm facility. Its slate masonry with granite quoins is noted as its finest feature.","narrative":"Built in 1850 at 45 Matignon Avenue in Cambridge, this former almshouse served as the city's Poor Farm, the fifth such facility in Cambridge. The city bought an eighteenth century estate in 1849 for the site. The design came from Rev. Louis Dwight, known for prison reform and care of the poor, and architect Gridley J. F. Bryant, who later designed Boston's Old City Hall. The building follows a radial plan with a central octagon and four residential wings, an approach drawn from late eighteenth century English jails and also used in the architects' Charles Street Jail and Deer Island House of Correction. Its style is a transitional Greek Revival/Italianate with little ornament. The masonry is its most admired feature: grey-green and grey-ochre slate from a ledge on the site, laid in random ashlar with dark granite quoins. The city sold the building to the Archdiocese of Boston in 1927, and it has since housed a parish school and convent, largely intact.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Gridley J. F. Bryant (with Rev. Louis Dwight, per the historical significance statement)","architectural_style":"Greek Revival/Italianate","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Occupied since 1927 by a parish school and convent; present use listed as religious. The building is described as intact except for a few later additions.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.342299-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/90/7905/63790590/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/82001908.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82001908/aeba7d08d3-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82001908/aeba7d08d3-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Rapaceone","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ISBOS.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Rapaceone</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ISBOS.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63790590","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almshouse_(Cambridge,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4734021"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/almshouse-82001908/"}