{"nrhp_refnum":"84002857","name":"Wisteria Lodge","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"146 Summer Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Reading","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.52445529200003,"lon":-71.06942619899996,"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 Second Empire dwelling at 146 Summer Avenue in Reading, Massachusetts, built in 1873 for Oscar Foote. Architect unknown; clapboard exterior with a garage outbuilding on a lot of about 42,541 square feet.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is significant as a product of the 19th-century real estate boom on the West Side. It is also tied to Oscar Foote, a real estate developer and mineral-water entrepreneur. It is an excellent example of high-style Second Empire architecture in Reading and retains its integrity.","narrative":"Wisteria Lodge, at 146 Summer Avenue in Reading, Massachusetts, is a clapboard house built in 1873 in the Second Empire style. Its features include a mansard roof with fish-scale slate, Italianate oriels, a porte cochère, incised and bossed brackets, twisted rope moldings on the cornerboards, and Eastlake designs above the windows of its two-story paired bays. The architect is unknown. Oscar Foote, a Vermont native who came to Boston in 1850, built it for his second wife. He was active in real estate and developed large parts of the Highlands. Foote tried to bottle mineral water from nearby springs, and the house became known as the Reading Highlands Mineral Spring House. The venture failed but gave Mineral Street its name. The house later operated briefly as the Summer Avenue House Hotel and has been called Wisteria Lodge since 1940. It was listed for its connection to the West Side real estate boom, to Foote, and as a fine local example of high-style Second Empire design.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Second Empire (High-style)","criteria":["A","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 02:11:57.905289-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/93/7918/63791893/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/84002857.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84002857/4d7c54d20a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84002857/4d7c54d20a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ReadingMA_WisteriaLodge.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_WisteriaLodge.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63791893","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisteria_Lodge_(Reading,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8027751"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/wisteria-lodge-84002857/"}