{"nrhp_refnum":"84002838","name":"Temple, Mark, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"141 Summer Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Reading","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.52373401600005,"lon":-71.11870815299994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-07-19","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A Georgian-style dwelling at 141 Summer Avenue in Reading, Massachusetts, built about 1753 for Jonathan Temple and remodeled in 1856. It is known as the Uncle Mark Temple House.","why_significant":"The house is significant as an early dwelling remodeled during the 19th-century real estate boom on Reading's West Side. It is also tied to the locally important Temple family and to real estate developer Oscar Foote. The form says it keeps its general location, design, setting and association, and meets Criteria A, B and C.","narrative":"Built around 1753 on Summer Avenue in Reading, this farmhouse was one of several Temple family homesteads whose land ran along both sides of the street. Jonathan Temple, who built it, was a turner, a selectman in 1751 and a deacon of the Third Parish Church. Later family members included Daniel Temple Jr., a shoemaker turned missionary in Malta, and Mark Temple, known as Uncle Mark, who inherited the farm in 1836, helped found the Bethesda Church and served as selectman. His wife Sarah was active in the Reading Female Antislavery Society. About 1856 the house was turned a quarter turn and raised on its foundation, and a Greek Revival portico with fluted Doric columns was probably added. Although the original door enframement was lost and windows altered, the house keeps the lines and proportions of local Georgian dwellings. Oscar Foote, a developer who laid out Mineral and Hancock Streets, bought it in 1863.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Jonathan Temple (original owner and builder); architect n/a","architectural_style":"Georgian (with Greek Revival portico)","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"Described as a private dwelling; the form notes alterations including the house being turned and raised in 1856 and fire escapes added in 1973.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:56.205482-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/15/7908/63790815/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/84002838.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84002838/23bfb6cc3d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84002838/23bfb6cc3d-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mark_Temple_House,_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:Mark_Temple_House,_Reading_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63790815","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Temple_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6769963"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/temple-mark-house-84002838/"}