{"nrhp_refnum":"89001221","name":"Westwood Road Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by Summer St., Benton Rd., Westwood Rd., and Central St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Somerville","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.38713800000005,"lon":-71.10574106896549,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1989-09-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small residential historic district of about four acres on Westwood Road and part of Benton Road in Somerville, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, laid out as a subdivision in 1894 and built up from about 1895 to 1920.","why_significant":"The district is an intact turn-of-the-century subdivision, one of Somerville's few exclusive residential enclaves. It is significant for its development history (Criterion A) and for its architect-designed Shingle Style, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival houses (Criterion C), at the local level.","narrative":"Westwood Road and a short stretch of Benton Road in Somerville form a compact residential enclave of about four acres. The land, once used for dairy farming on Spring Hill, was replatted in 1894 by hardware dealer Charles Bradshaw, who built eight of the houses himself and added sewer, water and gas connections. In 1895 he moved mature elms and maples to the street line, a procedure described in 1897 as the first tree-moving in Massachusetts. The district holds 30 buildings, including 21 houses, nine garages and the brick Somerville Historical Society museum, built from 1925 to 1929 to a design by William Dykeman. Most houses are Shingle Style, Queen Anne or Colonial Revival, with original shingles, fieldstone, leaded glass and wrought iron still visible. Early owners were Somerville lawyers, pharmacists and manufacturers. The district was listed for its intact development history and its architecture.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1895-1920","architect_builder":"Charles Bradshaw (developer, built eight houses); William Dykeman (architect of the Somerville Historical Society building)","architectural_style":"Shingle Style, Queen Anne, Colonial Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Present use is residential, general condition good; 27 contributing and 3 non-contributing buildings, with only two houses drastically altered.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:01.965259-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/13/7919/63791913/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/89001221.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63791913","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":null},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/westwood-road-historic-district-89001221/"}