{"nrhp_refnum":"85003308","name":"Ritchie Building","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"112 Cypress St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Brookline","county":"Norfolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.33088891600005,"lon":-71.12568981799996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-10-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Invention"],"significance_levels":["national","state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story flat-roofed brick factory and office building at 112 Cypress Street, Brookline, Massachusetts, built in 1883 by Edward S. Ritchie for his instrument-making firm. A one-story addition was added in 1918.","why_significant":"The nomination cites criteria A, B and C. It is one of the few surviving examples of Brookline's industrial history and shows elements of the Panel Brick style. It was also the factory of E. S. Ritchie, an inventor whose compasses and navigational instruments were distributed nationally.","narrative":"Built in 1883 at 112 Cypress Street in Brookline, this three-story brick building served as the factory and office of E. S. Ritchie & Sons, makers of philosophical and nautical instruments, especially liquid marine compasses. Edward S. Ritchie started the business in 1850, moved it from Boston to Brookline in 1868, and relocated it here from Brookline Village after outgrowing his earlier quarters. The site beside the railroad tracks was chosen for nearby spur tracks and a turntable. The design is plain but uses Panel Brick details: dentils, a string course resembling an entablature at the cornice, and radiating brick over segmentally arched windows. It was the first brick building of its kind outside the Village and Boylston Street area. The family ran the firm until 1936, and the company left for Pembroke in 1951. Later the building held hardware manufacturing and then offices. It is valued as a rare surviving piece of Brookline's industrial past.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Edward S. Ritchie (builder); architect information not available","architectural_style":"Panel Brick","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"Presently houses offices; previously used to manufacture hardware items after the Ritchie firm left in 1951.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:57.79142-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/84/7926/63792684/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/85003308.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85003308/d716fa3307-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85003308/d716fa3307-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BrooklineMA_RitchieBuilding.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_RitchieBuilding.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63792684","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritchie_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7336659"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/norfolk-county/ritchie-building-85003308/"}