{"nrhp_refnum":"85002012","name":"Sutton Block","other_names":["Colonial Building"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"76--78 Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Peabody","county":"Essex County","state":"MA","lat":42.525174554000046,"lon":-70.92493708199999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-09-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story Italianate brick commercial block at 76-78 Main Street, on the corner of Main and Wallis Streets in Peabody, Massachusetts, erected in 1859 for Ebenezer Sutton. The architect and builder are unknown.","why_significant":"The block is tied to Ebenezer Sutton, a leading nineteenth-century woolen industrialist. It was among the earliest purpose-built commercial buildings on a largely residential Main Street, foreshadowing the expansion of Peabody's commercial center. It is also the city's only Italianate commercial block.","narrative":"Built in 1859 at the corner of Main and Wallis Streets in Peabody, this three-story Italianate commercial block was erected by Ebenezer Sutton, a woolen manufacturer, railroad director and militia colonel. Its red brick walls are trimmed with brownstone and granite, with segmentally arched windows and an elaborate bracketed wood cornice. The original hip roof was replaced with a flat roof, and the ground-floor storefront dates from the mid-twentieth century. At the time, Main Street was almost entirely residential, so a building constructed specifically for commerce was unusual and anticipated the later growth of the downtown. It remains the only Italianate commercial building in the city. Tenants included a grocery from the 1880s to the late 1920s. The third-floor Sutton Hall served as the town's main dance hall and hosted the Knights of Pythias, a Jewish folk school, a WPA office and other groups. The upper hall is now vacant.","period_of_significance":"1859","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Italianate","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Ground-floor commercial space has been continuously occupied since the 1940s; the third-floor Sutton Hall is now vacant.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:56.70492-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/18/7947/63794718/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/85002012.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85002012/4335a4a87a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85002012/4335a4a87a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sutton_House,_Peabody_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:Sutton_House,_Peabody_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63794718","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutton_Block","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7650217"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/essex-county/sutton-block-85002012/"}