{"nrhp_refnum":"82001920","name":"Berkeley Street Historic District","other_names":["See Also:Berkeley Street Historic District (Boundary Increas"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Berkeley St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cambridge","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.37799879900007,"lon":-71.12509318699995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-04-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A residential historic district made up of Berkeley Street and Berkeley Place in the Old Cambridge area of Cambridge, Massachusetts, covering about 4.9 acres. Its houses date mainly from 1852 to the early 1900s.","why_significant":"The district holds what the form calls the best concentration of Bracketed Italianate and Mansard houses in Cambridge, within a quiet, cohesive street setting. It is significant under Criterion C for its architecture and under Criterion B for associations with people in literature and education. Residents included Richard Henry Dana and John Fiske.","narrative":"Berkeley Street and Berkeley Place form a quiet residential enclave in Old Cambridge, Massachusetts. The land was part of a thirty-seven acre parcel bought in 1843 by Professor Joseph Worcester, who laid out the street in the early 1850s and sold lots for expensive houses. Most early houses are large Bracketed Italianate and Mansard homes built between 1852 and 1878, including T-plan suburban houses and the only textbook Italian Villa in Old Cambridge. Later Queen Anne, Shingle Style and Stucco Style houses, including Berkeley Place, laid out in 1890, follow the mass and siting of the earlier ones. The district is notable for architectural unity and for residents such as author Richard Henry Dana, historian John Fiske and Henry Ware, a state official who helped found the Boston symphony orchestra. Cul-de-sac Berkeley Place and brick buildings nearby leave the area feeling isolated from the surrounding city.","period_of_significance":"1850-1900","architect_builder":"Calvin Ryder; Oliver Hastings; Griffith Thomas; William Ralph Emerson; Dwight & Chandler; Kilham & Hopkins; Hartley Dennett; A.W. Jackson; Moses and Jedediah Ricker; Jonas Wyeth III","architectural_style":"Bracketed Italianate, Mansard, Queen Anne/Shingle Style, Stucco Style","criteria":["B","C"],"status_note":"Described as uniform in good to excellent condition, privately owned and in residential use. One house at 24 Berkeley Street (1936) is the only non-contributing building.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.348556-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/23/7906/63790623/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/82001920.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82001920/42b086f5bc-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82001920/42b086f5bc-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CambridgeMA_BerkeleyStreetHD.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">User:Magicpiano</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CambridgeMA_BerkeleyStreetHD.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"86001265","name":"Berkeley Street Historic District (Boundary Increase)","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/massachusetts/berkeley-street-historic-district-boundary-increase-86001265/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63790623","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Street_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4892113"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/berkeley-street-historic-district-82001920/"}