{"nrhp_refnum":"84002630","name":"Hall, Stephen, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"64 Minot St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Reading","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.51964985500007,"lon":-71.10578786899998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-07-19","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A Gothic Revival house at 64 Minot Street in Reading, Massachusetts, built in the 1850s for Stephen Hall, a local mason, by John Stevens of South Reading.","why_significant":"It is one of Reading's few high-style examples of fully developed Gothic Revival design, closely resembling a Design in A. J. Downing's The Architecture of Country Houses. It is a remnant of the 1850s \"Cummingsville\" or \"Mudville\" real estate development. It is also linked to local architect John Stevens.","narrative":"Built in the 1850s at 64 Minot Street in Reading, this board-and-batten house reflects the Gothic Revival taste of mid-nineteenth-century America. It was built for Stephen Hall, a local mason, by John Stevens of South Reading, who later called himself an architect and worked in Reading, Boston and New Hampshire. The design closely resembles the \"Symmetrical Bracketed Cottage\" in A. J. Downing's 1850 book on country houses, and the house was copied from one in Wakefield. It keeps Downing's symmetrical massing, heavy porch and Italianate window caps, though its proportions differ. The house is also a remnant of the Cummingsville development, laid out by Amos Cummings from the old Sweetser farm and financed by a Boston loan association. The area flooded badly in wet weather and was nicknamed Mudville, and the venture failed. The house is listed for its connection to that development, to Stevens, and as one of Reading's few high-style Gothic Revival buildings.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"John Stevens","architectural_style":"Gothic Revival","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"Major alterations include replacement of the porch rails and stairs; a garage stands as an outbuilding.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:57.616371-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/78/7916/63791678/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/84002630.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84002630/dab0d6e969-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84002630/dab0d6e969-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ReadingMA_StephenHallHouse.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:ReadingMA_StephenHallHouse.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63791678","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hall_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7609410"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/hall-stephen-house-84002630/"}