{"nrhp_refnum":"83000813","name":"Jones, William R., House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"307 Harvard St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cambridge","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.37015190400007,"lon":-71.10624724399997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-06-30","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A single-family Mansard-style house at 307 Harvard Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, built in 1865 for Boston soap manufacturer William R. Jones. The architect is unknown.","why_significant":"The house is one of three surviving Cambridge houses built in the Mansard style with a curvilinear facade gable. It is also a high-quality residence that reflects the early suburbanization of Cambridge and the development of Harvard Street and Dana Hill. It is one of only ten surviving single-family homes on Harvard Street.","narrative":"Built in 1865 at 307 Harvard Street in Cambridge, this wood-frame Mansard house was constructed for William R. Jones, a prosperous Boston soap manufacturer. Its curvilinear center gable holds an oculus window, a feature first seen in Cambridge at the Houghton House of 1857. Heavy ornament includes thick hood moldings, large paired brackets, curved-plate shingles on the mansard roof and an entrance porch with quadrant struts. The flush-boarded facade is scored to imitate ashlar masonry, and the cast iron fence in front is original. The house is one of three surviving Cambridge examples of a Mansard house with a curvilinear gable. It also records the growth of Harvard Street, which was promoted as a prestigious address for commuters to Boston and was divided into house lots from the former Dana estate in the 1830s. Only ten single-family homes survive on the street, and this is one of them.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Mansard","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Described as well-preserved, unaltered and unmoved, and in residential use at the time of the survey.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:57.96989-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/96/7905/63790596/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/83000813.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83000813/7996f2a5a9-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83000813/7996f2a5a9-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Daderot","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_R._Jones_House_-_307_Harvard_Street,_Cambridge,_MA_-_IMG_4138.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Daderot</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_R._Jones_House_-_307_Harvard_Street,_Cambridge,_MA_-_IMG_4138.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63790596","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_R._Jones_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8017231"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/jones-william-r-house-83000813/"}