{"nrhp_refnum":"87000282","name":"Round House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"971 W. Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Barnstable","county":"Barnstable County","state":"MA","lat":41.656613063000066,"lon":-70.32896232999997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1987-03-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story house on a round plan at 971 West Main Street in Centerville, a village of Barnstable, Massachusetts. It was built in 1930 by William Boyne, Jr., and his family.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is a rare example of a dwelling built on a round plan by its occupant and builder. It is described as locally and regionally unique, and one of only a handful of round-plan houses in the state. It is presented as a variant of the mid-19th-century octagon plan.","narrative":"Round in plan and two stories tall, this house at 971 West Main Street in Centerville was completed in 1930 for the Boyne family, who had emigrated from Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1921-22 and settled on Cape Cod in 1923. William Boyne, Jr., who had designed and flown airplanes in Scotland and England as early as 1910, designed the house. He and his father and brothers dug the cellar and cast their own cement blocks for the foundation. A central chimney rises through the house, and a flat roof carries a large round cupola with windows and a door. The cupola served as William Jr.'s workshop for model airplanes and ships. The ground floor is divided into a living room, kitchen and dining room, with five bedrooms and a bath upstairs. The round plan is a variant of the octagon plan popularized in the mid-19th century, and the house is one of a handful in Massachusetts to use it. It was listed for this rare design.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"William Boyne, Jr. (builder)","architectural_style":"Round","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Condition is given as fair-good; the property is in use as a dwelling, as it was originally. A balustrade was removed in 1986.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:01.98255-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/79/7890/63789079/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/87000282.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87000282/dd022e6be0-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87000282/dd022e6be0-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Kenneth C. Zirkel","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Round_House,_1930.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Kenneth C. Zirkel</a>, <a href=\"https://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:Round_House,_1930.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63789079","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_House_(Barnstable,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7371047"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/barnstable-county/round-house-87000282/"}