{"nrhp_refnum":"85000026","name":"Baird House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"38 Shays St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Amherst","county":"Hampshire County","state":"MA","lat":42.350374415500056,"lon":-72.51875540745945,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-01-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story Usonian house at 38 Shays Street in Amherst, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1940 for Professor Theodore Baird and his wife, with a small storage shed and an adjoining wood lot.","why_significant":"The nomination presents it as an intact, classic example of Wright's Usonian architecture, with horizontal massing, a simple rectangular plan, modest materials and a close tie to its setting. It is the only Wright-designed building in Massachusetts and one of only a few in New England. It was accepted under Criterion C at the state level, with Exception G because it was less than 50 years old.","narrative":"Set at the back of a deep wooded lot about a mile south of Amherst center, this low, one-story house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1940 for an Amherst College English professor and his wife. It follows Wright's Usonian ideas: a flat roof with deep overhangs, long horizontal walls of red brick and grooved cypress, and bands of floor-to-ceiling casement windows facing south to gather solar warmth. Inside, a concrete floor painted dark red holds the heating pipes, and much of the furniture is built in. A separate apartment for the owner's mother and a fenced dog yard linking the house to a storage shed show how the design answered the clients' needs. Wright's son-in-law William Wesley Peters took over construction after local contractors failed to produce a suitable bid. The house is the only Wright work in Massachusetts and one of few in New England, and it has remained essentially unaltered.","period_of_significance":"1940","architect_builder":"Frank Lloyd Wright","architectural_style":"Usonian (Frank Lloyd Wright)","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Excellent condition and unaltered apart from replacement of the original roof; still occupied as a private residence by its original owners at the time of nomination.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:57.222224-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/17/7954/63795417/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/85000026.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000026/005bc9488f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85000026/005bc9488f-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"John H. Martin","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AmherstMA_BairdHouse.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John H. Martin</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AmherstMA_BairdHouse.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795417","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Baird_Residence","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7781692"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/hampshire-county/baird-house-85000026/"}