{"nrhp_refnum":"86001763","name":"Union Street Historic District","other_names":["See Also:Newton Center Station"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly Union St. between Langley Rd. and Herrick St., and 17--31 Herrick St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Newton","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.32953350300005,"lon":-71.19307745739818,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-09-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small commercial historic district of about 1.8 acres on Union Street and Herrick Road in Newton Centre, Newton, Massachusetts, built around the Newton Centre railroad station. Its buildings date mainly from the 1890s.","why_significant":"The district is described as one of the city's only intact clusters of late nineteenth-century commercial buildings. It shows how a small business district grew up around a suburban railroad depot. The form cites Criteria A and C.","narrative":"Union Street Historic District is a compact commercial area in Newton Centre, Massachusetts, organized around the commuter railroad station. Before improved rail service, Newton Centre had little development, with fewer than ten buildings near the common. After the Boston & Albany Railroad upgraded the line, the station was completed in 1890 by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge following H.H. Richardson's death. It has granite and brownstone walls and a large overhanging slate roof. New commercial buildings followed. Mellen Bray, an inventor and investor, built Bray's Block in 1893, a buff brick Classical Revival building that once held an assembly hall, a bowling alley, offices and shops. The Union Building of 1896 is Georgian Revival. Bray also built Bradford Court in 1913, the village's first apartment building. The district is considered the city's best surviving cluster of nineteenth-century commercial buildings and shows how a small business center developed around a suburban depot.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Newton Centre Station completed by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge after H.H. Richardson's death; landscaping by F.L. Olmsted; Bray's Block built by Mellen Bray","architectural_style":"Richardsonian (station), Classical Revival (Bray's Block), Georgian Revival (Union Building), Jacobean Revival (Bradford Court)","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"General condition is given as very good; present use is commercial. The Baggage & Express Building was demolished in 1985 and the original Olmsted landscaping does not survive.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:00.827592-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/81/7914/63791481/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/86001763.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86001763/c32a878de8-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86001763/c32a878de8-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Mshteinie at English Wikipedia","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Union_Street_in_Newton_Centre.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Mshteinie at English Wikipedia</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Union_Street_in_Newton_Centre.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63791481","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Street_Historic_District_(Newton,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7886137"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/union-street-historic-district-86001763/"}