{"nrhp_refnum":"85003277","name":"Hotel Kempsford","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"72 Walnut St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Brookline","county":"Norfolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.330663730000026,"lon":-71.11840005799996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-10-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national","state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"An apartment house at 72 Walnut Street in Brookline, Massachusetts, built in 1875 as an original apartment hotel in the Victorian Gothic style, designed by Obed 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. It is also a fine and unusual example of Victorian Gothic commercial architecture in Brookline. Its distinctive brick patterns, stone banding and stone brackets add to its character.","narrative":"Hotel Kempsford is a brick and sandstone apartment building at 72 Walnut Street in Brookline, at the foot of High Street Hill. Built in 1875 as an apartment hotel, it was designed by Obed F. Smith for Eben Wright, who also built the neighboring Hotel Adelaide on the corner. The two buildings share an almost identical Victorian Gothic style. Distinctive details include patterned brickwork on the upper floor, stone banding and stone brackets. Wright lived in Nahant and rented units to people who worked in Brookline and to commuters who took the railroad from nearby Brookline Village to Boston. In an 1884 letter, Smith described the unit layout: parlor and dining room on one floor, bedrooms above, joined by a private staircase. He suggested it was among the earliest designs of this type. The building was listed for being a very early, possibly first, example of the duplex concept in apartment architecture. It still serves as an apartment house, with a 1928 two-car garage on the lot.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Obed F. Smith (architect); Eben Wright (builder)","architectural_style":"Victorian Gothic","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Presently used as an apartment house; apartments were modernized in 1975.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:56.670585-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/72/7924/63792472/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/85003277.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85003277/f65af0d666-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85003277/f65af0d666-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hotel_Kempsford,_Brookline_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:Hotel_Kempsford,_Brookline_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63792472","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Kempsford","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5911644"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/norfolk-county/hotel-kempsford-85003277/"}