{"nrhp_refnum":"82001967","name":"Odd Fellows Hall","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"536 Massachusetts Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cambridge","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.36419548900005,"lon":-71.10204075699994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-04-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Entertainment/Recreation","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Odd Fellows Hall is a five-story brick commercial and meeting hall building at 536 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridgeport, Cambridge, Massachusetts, designed in 1883 and built in 1884 by the firm Hartwell and Richardson.","why_significant":"The building is a noteworthy example of a 19th-century hall building, where upper floors housed meetings, dances and concerts above ground-floor stores. Its design was influenced by the Richardson Romanesque Revival style. A federal reviewer judged it the most architecturally impressive and best preserved of the social halls built in Cambridgeport, and found it locally significant under criterion C.","narrative":"Odd Fellows Hall is a five-story brick building at 536 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridgeport, Cambridge. Designed in 1883 and completed in 1884 by the architectural firm Hartwell and Richardson, it follows the style of H.H. Richardson. Stores occupy the ground floor, a two-story galleried meeting hall sits behind the large arches of the facade, and lodge and banquet rooms fill the upper floors. The facade is built of pressed brick with molded brick and terra cotta ornament, and all decoration is confined to the front, where it emphasizes the meeting hall space. Buildings of this type served community life by hosting meetings, dances and concerts in upper-floor space that might otherwise have gone unused. In the early twentieth century the hall housed a moving picture theatre and a vaudeville theatre. Reviewers considered it the most architecturally impressive and best preserved of the social halls built in Cambridgeport, and it was recognized for its local architectural significance.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Hartwell & Richardson (Hartwell and Richardson)","architectural_style":"Richardsonian (Richardson Romanesque Revival influence)","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Present use is commercial; the form states the building has not been altered or moved.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.803211-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/2/7905/63790502/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/82001967.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82001967/fcb0f1fd3d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82001967/fcb0f1fd3d-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"Tim Pierce","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Former_Odd_Fellows_building,_Cambridge,_Massachusetts.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Tim Pierce</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Former_Odd_Fellows_building,_Cambridge,_Massachusetts.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"90000128","name":"Central Square Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/massachusetts/central-square-historic-district-90000128/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63790502","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odd_Fellows_Hall_(Cambridge,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7077351"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/odd-fellows-hall-82001967/"}