{"nrhp_refnum":"85003280","name":"House at 12 Vernon Street","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"12 Vernon St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Brookline","county":"Norfolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.33851856600006,"lon":-71.12218408899997,"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":"A Queen Anne style, front-gable house at 12 Vernon Street in Brookline, Massachusetts, built in 1890 to designs by Tristram Griffin. It sits in a mixed residential neighborhood near Harvard Street.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it one of the more flamboyant Queen Anne houses in Brookline and a unique example of the front-gable Queen Anne style combining spindlework with free classical detailing. Neighboring houses of similar age and scale are less elaborately designed and less well preserved. It is argued to meet criterion C.","narrative":"Built in 1890 from a building permit and designed by Tristram Griffin, this house at 12 Vernon Street in Brookline is a front-gable Queen Anne residence clad in clapboard and shingle. Its decoration is exceptionally dense: a turreted bay with vertical boarding, sunrise motifs, a wide entry porch with spindlework and contrasting classical supports, lattice-type work in the porch gable and on the second floor, projecting bays, and a swan's neck pedimented window. Little of the exterior surface is left smooth or flat. Other houses on the street date from the same period and are of similar size and scale, but none is as elaborately designed or as well preserved. The original owner, William Boynton, ran a wholesale flour business on Blackstone Street in Boston, like many of his neighbors who worked in the city. The house was converted to two-family use in 1958 and remains residential. It was listed for its architecture, as a distinctive example of the style combining spindlework with free classical detail.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Tristram Griffin","architectural_style":"Queen Anne (Front gable)","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Present use is residential; converted to a two-family house in 1958. A garage is the only outbuilding. The form describes the house as well preserved.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:56.315959-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/65/7924/63792465/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/85003280.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85003280/54cf76a5b5-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85003280/54cf76a5b5-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BrooklineMA_12VernonStreet.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_12VernonStreet.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63792465","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_at_12_Vernon_Street","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14715566"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/norfolk-county/house-at-12-vernon-street-85003280/"}