{"nrhp_refnum":"85003276","name":"Hotel Adelaide","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"13--21 High St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Brookline","county":"Norfolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.33085270000004,"lon":-71.11792092499996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-10-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national","state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Hotel Adelaide is a brick and sandstone apartment house at 13-21 High Street (64 Walnut Street) in Brookline, Massachusetts, built in 1875 for Eben Wright and designed by O.F. Smith.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is a very early, if not the first, example of the duplex concept in apartment house architecture (Criterion C). It is also an early example of the apartment hotel concept that later fully evolved in Brookline Village (Criterion A). Its varied brick and wood detailing also gives it a distinctive appearance at the foot of High Street Hill.","narrative":"Built in 1875, this brick and sandstone apartment house stands at the foot of High Street Hill in Brookline, where High and Walnut Streets meet. Eben Wright, who lived in Nahant, built it and rented units to lawyers, clerks, widows, teachers and businessmen, including a Brookline physician. Architect Obed F. Smith, a Brookline resident, gave it a bracketed cornice, stone banding, Gothic-like window details and brick crosses. In an 1884 letter to a professional journal, Smith described the unit layout: parlor and dining room on one floor, bedrooms above, joined by a private staircase. He suggested this may have been one of the earliest designs of its kind. The building was listed as an early example of the duplex apartment concept and of the apartment hotel, a type that later developed fully in Brookline Village. Storefronts were altered in 1963, and it still holds apartments and a store.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"O.F. Smith (Obed F. Smith); built for Eben Wright","architectural_style":"Some \"Victorian Gothic\" influence","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Present use is apartments and a store; new store fronts were added to nos. 13 and 15 in 1963.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:56.109168-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/34/7926/63792634/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/85003276.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85003276/c31c91137a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85003276/c31c91137a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BrooklineMA_HotelAdelaide.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_HotelAdelaide.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63792634","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Adelaide","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5911151"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/norfolk-county/hotel-adelaide-85003276/"}