{"nrhp_refnum":"82001949","name":"Howells, William Dean, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"37 Concord Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cambridge","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.38021721400003,"lon":-71.12686856899995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-04-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Literature","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story Mansard-style wooden house at 37 Concord Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts, built in 1872-73 as the home of William Dean Howells.","why_significant":"The house was the home of writer William Dean Howells, and his wife designed it and supervised its construction. It was later enlarged with a careful rear addition that repeated the original detailing. A reviewer noted Howells's impact on American literature as a leading writer, editor and literary critic of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.","narrative":"This wooden Mansard-style house at 37 Concord Avenue in Cambridge was built in 1872-73 for the writer William Dean Howells. His wife designed it and supervised its construction. The two-story house is notable for beveled stickwork, especially around the front porch and on the first floor. In 1914 a three-story section was added to the rear to provide apartments, and the mansard windows at the front were enlarged into a double dormer. Architect R.C. Groverstein oversaw this work, and the alterations were done with care to repeat the original detailing. The house remains residential, the same use as when it was built. It was listed for its architectural character and for its association with Howells, whom reviewers recognized as a leading writer, editor and literary critic whose work shaped American literature in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The property sits on a lot with about 70 feet of frontage, set roughly 30 feet back from the street.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Mrs. William Dean Howells (designer); R.C. Groverstein oversaw the 1914 alterations and addition","architectural_style":"Mansard","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Present use is residential; altered in 1914 with additions.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.48544-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/90/7904/63790490/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/82001949.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82001949/9627b2ca41-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82001949/9627b2ca41-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Daderot","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Dean_Howells_House_(Cambridge,_MA).JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Daderot</a>, <a href=\"http://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:William_Dean_Howells_House_(Cambridge,_MA).JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63790490","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Dean_Howells_House_(Cambridge,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8007718"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/howells-william-dean-house-82001949/"}