{"nrhp_refnum":"85003249","name":"Bowditch, William Ingersoll, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"9 Toxteth St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Brookline","county":"Norfolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.33556406300005,"lon":-71.11637984699996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-10-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["national","state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 1½-story, L-shaped wooden cottage at 9 Toxteth Street, Brookline, Massachusetts, built around 1843-1845 on Linden Square and used today as a single-family residence.","why_significant":"The house is argued to meet criteria A, B and C. It served as an Underground Railroad site where William Ingersoll Bowditch, a prominent Brookline abolitionist, sheltered fugitive slaves, including a son of John Brown. It is also an early part of Thomas Aspinwall Davis' picturesque Linden Place development and a modest example of Brookline's mid-century wooden cottages.","narrative":"This small wooden cottage at 9 Toxteth Street in Brookline faces Linden Square. Built around 1844-1845, it is an L-shaped vernacular Gothic Revival house with Greek Revival elements, including full-length sidelights, square-headed drip moldings over the original openings and two pointed-arch dormers. It was one of seven cottages in Thomas Aspinwall Davis' Linden Place development, an early planned community in the picturesque mode. William Ingersoll Bowditch, a Boston conveyancer, bought the property in 1845 and owned it until 1867. He served as a Brookline selectman and town meeting moderator and was an committed abolitionist. He used the house to shelter fugitive slaves, including a South Carolina couple in 1849-1850, and a son of John Brown was reportedly hidden there after the Harper's Ferry raid. Later alterations include aluminum siding, a moved front bay and added dormers, yet the house remains a modest example of Brookline's mid-century cottages.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Possibly Joshua E. Fernald; the historical text also credits the cottage to Joseph Fernald","architectural_style":"Gothic Revival/Greek Revival","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"Present use is a single-family residence; the exterior is now clad in aluminum siding and the rear ell has been removed.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:57.240058-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/40/7926/63792640/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/85003249.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85003249/671ebde4b3-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85003249/671ebde4b3-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BrooklineMA_WilliamIngersollBowditchHouse.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:BrooklineMA_WilliamIngersollBowditchHouse.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63792640","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Ingersoll_Bowditch_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8012813"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/norfolk-county/bowditch-william-ingersoll-house-85003249/"}