{"nrhp_refnum":"86001310","name":"Memorial Drive Apartments Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"983--984, 985--986, 987--989, and 992--993 Memorial Dr.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cambridge","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.37311250000005,"lon":-71.12583572497395,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-05-19","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A district of four brick luxury apartment buildings of the courtyard type at 983-993 Memorial Drive in Cambridge, Massachusetts, facing the Charles River. They were built between 1914 and 1924.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the four buildings form Cambridge's most distinguished grouping of early twentieth century luxury apartment houses and the most impressive concentration of apartment buildings in the city. Though designed by three architects over ten years, they read as a single complex. The district retains its integrity and meets Criterion C for architecture.","narrative":"Four brick apartment buildings at 983-993 Memorial Drive in Cambridge form a riverside group of luxury housing built between 1914 and 1924. Strathcona-on-the-Charles (1914, W.L. Mowll) came first, with Elizabethan-style details and a plan that follows the curving site. Radnor Hall and Hampstead Hall (1916, Charles R. Greco) followed as Georgian Revival buildings with cast stone first stories and trim, and Barrington Court (1924, R.B. Whitten) completed the group with an unusually deep courtyard. Each is organized around a courtyard, a type introduced locally by Ralph Adams Cram in Brookline in 1898. The land had little development potential until Memorial Drive, designed by Charles Eliot, was completed in the late 1890s. The buildings face the Charles River and turn away from the working-class neighborhood to the northeast. Similar courtyards, brick, stone ornament and uniform height make them look like one complex, and together they were judged the most impressive concentration of apartment buildings in Cambridge, significant for architecture.","period_of_significance":"1914-1924","architect_builder":"W.L. Mowll (Strathcona-on-the-Charles); Charles R. Greco (Radnor Hall and Hampstead Hall); R.B. Whitten (Barrington Court)","architectural_style":"Neo-Georgian and Neo-Tudor (courtyard-type apartment buildings)","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"All four buildings are classed as contributing; Barrington Court is described as a condominium.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:02.154107-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/99/7906/63790699/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/86001310.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86001310/d2b85f0301-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86001310/d2b85f0301-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CambridgeMA_MemorialDriveApartments_01.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:CambridgeMA_MemorialDriveApartments_01.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63790699","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Drive_Apartments_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6815401"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/memorial-drive-apartments-historic-district-86001310/"}