{"nrhp_refnum":"85001575","name":"Richmond Court","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"1209-1217 Beacon St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Brookline","county":"Norfolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.34322747200008,"lon":-71.11590872799997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-07-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Landscape Architecture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Richmond Court is a four-story brick apartment complex with sandstone trim at 1209-1217 Beacon Street in Brookline, Massachusetts. It was built in 1896-1898 to designs by Boston architect Ralph Adams Cram and arranged as five attached houses around a U-shaped courtyard.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that it was the first apartment house in the Boston area designed in the Jacobethan (English manor) style and arranged around a central courtyard. It served as a prototype for many later higher-class apartment houses. It was also an early apartment building on Beacon Street after the street's 1886 transformation into a boulevard, and it has associations with Cram and the sculptor Lee Lawrie.","narrative":"Richmond Court is a four-story red brick apartment complex on Beacon Street in Brookline, built in 1896-1898 to designs by Boston architect Ralph Adams Cram. Five attached sections, each with its own entry, surround a U-shaped courtyard laid out as a small formal park with a fountain topped by a bronze nymph by sculptor Lee Lawrie. Sandstone quoins, belt courses and carved entries decorate the brick walls. The courtyard gave each apartment more windows, better light and air, and a quiet view away from the street. Local sources credit it as the first Boston-area apartment house in the Jacobethan style and the first arranged around a courtyard, and it became a model for later upscale apartment buildings. Cram himself lived there from 1903. It was built by a trust whose trustees included financier Noah W. Jordan, and early residents included architects, lawyers and publishers. The building has since been rehabilitated and remains in rental use.","period_of_significance":"1896-98","architect_builder":"Ralph Adams Cram","architectural_style":"Jacobethan (English manor style)","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"Occupied as rental residences; described as in excellent condition and recently given a certified rehabilitation.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:56.565888-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/20/7962/63796220/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/85001575.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85001575/4abefbd227-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85001575/4abefbd227-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 2.0","author":"Thomas Kelley from Boston, MA","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Richmond_Court,_Brookline,_Massachusetts.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Thomas Kelley from Boston, MA</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Richmond_Court,_Brookline,_Massachusetts.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"85003322","name":"Beacon Street Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/massachusetts/beacon-street-historic-district-85003322/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796220","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_Court","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7330804"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/norfolk-county/richmond-court-85001575/"}