{"nrhp_refnum":"89000754","name":"Common District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by Lake Quannapowitt, Main St., Common St., Church St., and Lake Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Wakefield","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.50781550000005,"lon":-71.07206996567618,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1990-03-02","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A roughly 25-acre civic and religious historic district centered on the Town Common at the southern end of Lake Quannapowitt in Wakefield, Massachusetts, including surrounding churches, public buildings, houses, monuments and an old burial ground dating from 1640 to 1940.","why_significant":"The area has been the civic and ecclesiastical focus of the community for over 300 years, beginning as the site of the first meetinghouse and burying ground of old Reading. It keeps a varied group of buildings in Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, Romanesque Revival and Neo-Renaissance styles. The nomination argues it retains integrity and meets Criterion C.","narrative":"Wakefield's Common District covers about 25 acres around the Town Common at the southern end of Lake Quannapowitt. The common was set aside by Puritan settlers in the seventeenth century, when the area was part of old Reading, and it has served as the town's civic and religious center ever since. Its protected limits were fixed by town vote in 1741. Around the green stand four churches in Romanesque Revival, Italianate, Stick and Tudor Revival styles, along with the Town Hall, which began as an Italianate high school in about 1871 and was converted in 1938. Twentieth-century public buildings include the Y.M.C.A., the Lucius Beebe Library and the Post Office. Federal brick houses from the early 1800s line Main Street. The common also holds a bandstand and the Rockery from 1884-85, war memorials, and the Old Burial Ground dating to 1688-89. The district was listed for its architectural variety and its long record as the town's center.","period_of_significance":"1640-1940","architect_builder":"Hartwell and Richardson (First Parish Congregational Church); Cram and Ferguson (Lucius Beebe Library); Louis A. Simon (Post Office); John Stevens (former high school, now Town Hall); Ernest Bowditch (Rockery)","architectural_style":"Mixed styles including Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, Stick Style, Romanesque Revival, Tudor Revival, Neo-Colonial and Neo-Renaissance","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"General condition is stated as good; present use is residential and institutional. Intrusions are minimal, limited to four recent residences.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:03.580924-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/2/7913/63791302/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/89000754.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89000754/7a6663315c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89000754/7a6663315c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wakefield_Common,_Wakefield_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:Wakefield_Common,_Wakefield_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63791302","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_District_(Wakefield,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5153332"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/common-district-89000754/"}