{"nrhp_refnum":"84002723","name":"Kemp Place","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"186 Summer Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Reading","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.521607861000064,"lon":-71.11681015499994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-07-19","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 2-1/2-story Italianate house at 186 Summer Avenue in Reading, Massachusetts, built in 1853 for Robert Kemp, with a barn on a 1.568-acre lot.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is one of Reading's more high-styled Italianate houses and one of the few surviving houses with a cupola. It is also tied to Robert \"Father\" Kemp, a boot and shoe businessman and choral leader, and to public servants Charles and Katherine Howard. It is further presented as a product of the 19th-century West Side real estate boom and the railroad commuter.","narrative":"Built in 1853 at 186 Summer Avenue in Reading, this 2-1/2-story Italianate house has transverse gables, shouldered or \"eared\" window architraves, a veranda with pierced Gothic columns, a Gothic cupola and a roof carried on paired brackets. An exterior chimney is decorated with terra-cotta rosettes, and the south veranda was extended in the 1920s. Robert Kemp, a Boston boot and shoe businessman who commuted by rail, built it after buying land from his partner Mansfield. He also led \"Father Kemp's Old Folks,\" an amateur singing group that toured and travelled to England in 1861. Kemp sold the house in 1868 after financial reverses. Later owners included William Hawes, who started an early dollar store in Boston, and the Howard family. Charles Howard served as a lawyer, State Senator and town official, and his wife Katherine wrote a memoir and held national appointments. The house is valued for its architecture, its connection to these residents and its place in Reading's West Side growth.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Italianate","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":null,"vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:57.978418-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/33/7914/63791433/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/84002723.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84002723/1b5bd42f45-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84002723/1b5bd42f45-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kemp_Place,_Reading_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</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:Kemp_Place,_Reading_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63791433","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemp_Place","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6387022"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/kemp-place-84002723/"}