{"nrhp_refnum":"84002431","name":"Searles High School","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"41 Pleasant St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Methuen","county":"Essex County","state":"MA","lat":42.729993774000036,"lon":-71.18349735499999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-01-20","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 3½-story granite-trimmed brick high school building at 41 Pleasant Street, Methuen, Massachusetts, built in 1904 and designed by architect Henry Vaughn for Edward F. Searles's endowment to the town.","why_significant":"The building is presented as an excellent example of the English Renaissance Revival and Queen Anne styles favored by Searles and his architect. It illustrates the scale and architectural treatment of the structures Searles endowed to Methuen and built for himself. The form says it retains integrity of location, setting, design, workmanship and materials.","narrative":"Searles High School, at 41 Pleasant Street in Methuen, was completed in 1904 as a gift of millionaire Edward F. Searles to the town. Architect Henry Vaughn, trained in Britain and a student of English architect G. F. Bodley, designed it in an English Renaissance Revival and Queen Anne manner. The monumentally scaled building rises three and a half stories in granite-trimmed red brick on a high rusticated granite foundation, and a granite retaining wall surrounds it. Three finial-capped projecting pavilions on the main facade are joined by a two-level granite-trimmed arcade. Finial-topped wall dormers and heavily trimmed chimneys add vertical emphasis, while granite quoins and string courses frame the rectangular windows. The building faces the Searles Estate and sits on about 1.4 acres in a residential setting. It was listed for its association with Searles's endowments to Methuen, for its architecture, and for its preserved integrity. It now serves as the Methuen Schools administration building.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Henry Vaughn (architect)","architectural_style":"Jacobethan - English Revival (English Renaissance Revival and Queen Anne)","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"Currently used as the Methuen Schools administration building, owned by the Town of Methuen; the form lists no major alterations.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:56.847719-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/14/7902/63790214/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/84002431.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84002431/5a67b460c0-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84002431/5a67b460c0-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.0","author":"The original uploader was EraserGirl at English Wikipedia. (Original text: EraserGirl (talk))","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Methuen_City_Hall_-_2006.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">The original uploader was EraserGirl at English Wikipedia. (Original text: EraserGirl (talk))</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Methuen_City_Hall_-_2006.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63790214","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searles_High_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7441765"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/essex-county/searles-high-school-84002431/"}