{"nrhp_refnum":"86002071","name":"Divinity Hall","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"12 Divinity Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cambridge","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.37864872000006,"lon":-71.11430501499996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-09-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Divinity Hall is a three-story brick institutional building at 12 Divinity Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts, built in 1825 for Harvard's Divinity School and now used as a dormitory.","why_significant":"The nomination cites Criterion A for its association with the development of Harvard University, as the first major college building outside Harvard Yard. It cites Criterion C as a rare surviving example of a Federal institutional form with Greek Revival detailing in the Boston region. It is also notable as one of Solomon Willard's few designs executed in brick.","narrative":"Built in 1825 at 12 Divinity Avenue in Cambridge, Divinity Hall was the first major college building constructed outside Harvard Yard and later became a focus for development of the North Yard. It originally housed all the functions of Harvard's Divinity School: classrooms, a library and administrative offices. The three-story brick building, laid in Flemish bond on a granite foundation under a slate roof, has a symmetrical facade with a projecting three-bay center pavilion, brownstone trim and heavy Doric porticoes. Round-arched windows light a chapel in the central pavilion. The design came from Solomon Willard, adapted by Thomas W. Sumner, and is one of Willard's few works in brick rather than granite. Combining a Federal-period institutional form with Greek Revival heaviness of detail, it is described as a rare survivor of this type in the Boston region. It is now used as a dormitory and has no recorded major alterations.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Solomon Willard / Thomas W. Sumner","architectural_style":"Federal/Greek Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Present use is a dormitory; the form reports no major alterations and says the building has not been moved.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:01.026946-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/40/7920/63792040/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/86002071.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86002071/27f4e5ef9b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86002071/27f4e5ef9b-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":null,"credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Divinity_Hall_at_Harvard_Divinity_School,_July_2005.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Unknown author</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:Divinity_Hall_at_Harvard_Divinity_School,_July_2005.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63792040","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divinity_Hall,_Harvard_Divinity_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5284393"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/divinity-hall-86002071/"}