{"nrhp_refnum":"86001735","name":"Crystal Lake and Pleasant Street Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by Sudbury Aqueduct, Pleasant Ave., Lake Ave., and Crystal St. and Webster Ct.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Newton","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.33101388700004,"lon":-71.20025685452984,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-09-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A residential historic district of about 8.3 acres in Newton Centre, Newton, Massachusetts, along Pleasant Street and Lake Avenue near Crystal Lake, with houses dating from the 1860s to the 1890s.","why_significant":"The district is a cohesive grouping of residences built for suburban commuters after the Charles River Branch railroad was extended in the 1850s. It also holds the city's finest grouping of Carpenter Gothic houses and a range of high-quality mid- to late-nineteenth century styles.","narrative":"Crystal Lake and Pleasant Street Historic District is a residential neighborhood of about 8.3 acres in Newton Centre, Massachusetts, covering houses along Pleasant Street and along Lake Avenue at the north edge of Crystal Lake. Once mostly farmland and woods, the area began to develop after the Charles River Branch railroad was extended through Newton and Beacon Street was pushed westward. Roswell Turner, who had assembled land here in the 1840s, helped lay out Lake Avenue, and later Charles Davis, a piano manufacturer, bought several of his properties. The Pleasant Street houses date from the 1860s and the Lake Avenue houses from the 1880s and 1890s. The district contains the city's best group of Carpenter Gothic cottages, with scroll-sawn ornament inspired by A.J. Downing's pattern books. Italianate, Mansard, Stick Style, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival houses show how the neighborhood grew into a fashionable commuter suburb. Of 23 buildings, 3 are non-contributing.","period_of_significance":"1860-1895","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Carpenter Gothic, Italianate, Gothic Revival, Mansard, Queen Anne, Stick Style and Colonial Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Present use is residential; general condition is described as very good. The inventory lists 23 buildings, 3 of them non-contributing.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:01.457057-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/4/7914/63791404/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/86001735.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86001735/debe5df1a0-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86001735/debe5df1a0-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:House_on_Webster_Court,_Newton_Centre_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:House_on_Webster_Court,_Newton_Centre_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63791404","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Lake_and_Pleasant_Street_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5191266"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/crystal-lake-and-pleasant-street-historic-district-86001735/"}