{"nrhp_refnum":"83000782","name":"Avon Hill Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Washington and Walnut Aves. and Agassiz, Humboldt, Arlington and Lancaster Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cambridge","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.385920000000056,"lon":-71.12218924533586,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-06-30","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A residential historic district on Avon Hill in Cambridge, Massachusetts, covering about 20 acres of houses along Washington Avenue, Walnut Avenue, Arlington Street, Lancaster Street and parts of Agassiz and Humboldt Streets, mostly built between 1870 and 1890.","why_significant":"The district is significant for the high quality of its domestic architecture and the range of late nineteenth century styles it contains. It was developed by wealthy members of the emerging mercantile class in two phases, an early Mansard period and a later Queen Anne and Shingle Style period. Several houses were designed by the Boston firm Hartwell & Richardson.","narrative":"Avon Hill in Cambridge, Massachusetts, once known as Jones Hill, was open farmland until 1869, when five acres at the summit were sold to a shoe merchant and a newspaper founder. They built twin Mansard houses and sold nearby lots. The resulting district of roughly 20 acres includes houses on Washington Avenue, Walnut Avenue, Arlington Street, Lancaster Street and parts of Agassiz and Humboldt Streets. Two phases of building are visible: Mansard houses of the early 1870s on upper Washington Avenue and Arlington Street, and later Queen Anne, Shingle Style and Colonial Revival houses of the late 1880s on lower Washington Avenue and Lancaster Street. The later owners were self-made businessmen who chose to build away from Brattle Street. Four of seven large houses in that second group were designed by Hartwell & Richardson. Well-preserved houses on ample lots give the area a park-like setting and a cross-section of the city's late Victorian architecture.","period_of_significance":"1870-1890","architect_builder":"Hartwell & Richardson; Kendall, Taylor & Company; J.R. and W.P. Richards; William Mooney; Chamberlin & Whidden; Alfred Gould; H.S. Simpson; Eugene Clark; builders Albert Kelsey and Harvey Taylor","architectural_style":"Mansard, Queen Anne, Shingle Style, Italianate, Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as uniform in good to excellent condition, privately owned and in residential use; the Dexter House was destroyed by fire in 1939.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:57.960735-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/96/7910/63791096/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/83000782.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83000782/2a4e1b10cc-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83000782/2a4e1b10cc-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CambridgeMA_AvonHillHD.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_AvonHillHD.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63791096","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avon_Hill_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4829206"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/avon-hill-historic-district-83000782/"}