{"nrhp_refnum":"83000824","name":"Porcellian Club","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1320-24 Massachusetts Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cambridge","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.37300151200003,"lon":-71.11775894499993,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-06-30","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A brick clubhouse with shop front at 1320-24 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts, built in 1890 to designs by William Y. Peters for the Porcellian Club, a Harvard final club.","why_significant":"The building is presented as a fine example of Federal Revival architecture, with delicate window and entrance details on an austere brick facade. It was built to mark the club's 100th anniversary. The Porcellian, founded in 1791, is described as the most prestigious and exclusive of Harvard's final clubs.","narrative":"Standing at 1320-24 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, this brick building was completed in 1890 as a clubhouse for the Porcellian Club, with a shop front at street level. William Y. Peters was the architect. Brown Roman brick forms the austere facade, trimmed with brownstone. The elliptical fanlight over the entrance is echoed above the second-floor Palladian window, and broken scroll pediments cap eight-over-eight dormers that line up with the windows below. The flat facade, delicate detailing and harmonious proportions are characteristic of Federal architecture, here revived in a late nineteenth-century form. The Porcellian was founded in 1791 and was the third of Harvard's final clubs, which admit only juniors and seniors. It drew members from elite families across the Northeast and South, and it remains the most prestigious and most limited in membership. The building was erected to mark the club's hundredth anniversary and still serves as its meeting place.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"William Y. Peters","architectural_style":"Federal Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Continues in use as a meeting place for the club; present use listed as residential/commercial. Recorded as unaltered and not moved.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:57.044117-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/34/7904/63790434/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/83000824.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83000824/1f9ed3120c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83000824/1f9ed3120c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"Tim Pierce","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1324_Massachusetts_Ave_Cambridge_MA.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:1324_Massachusetts_Ave_Cambridge_MA.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"86003654","name":"Harvard Square Historic District (Boundary Increase)","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/massachusetts/harvard-square-historic-district-boundary-increase-86003654/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63790434","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porcellian_Club","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16975475"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/porcellian-club-83000824/"}