{"nrhp_refnum":"89001228","name":"Williams, Charles, Jr., House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1 Arlington St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Somerville","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.38600350100006,"lon":-71.08151050299995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1989-09-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Communications"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A center-gable Italianate house at 1 Arlington Street, Somerville, Massachusetts, built about 1858 by an unknown architect, with Eastlake-style trim added around 1888.","why_significant":"It was the terminus of the world's first outdoor experimental telephone line, completed April 4, 1877, running from Charles Williams Jr.'s Boston shop to his home. Williams was an early protege of Alexander Graham Bell and a major force in early commercial telephone service. The house is also architecturally notable for its extensive Eastlake overlay on an Italianate form.","narrative":"Standing at the northwest corner of Arlington and Lincoln Streets in Somerville, this house dates to about 1858 and began as a center-gable Italianate dwelling. Around 1888 it received an extensive overlay of Eastlake-style trim, inside and out. Notable features include an elaborate gable screen, a pedimented entrance porch with paired columns, and window hoods over the lower-story windows, supported by Eastlake braces and topped with iron cresting. Its wider importance comes from Charles Williams Jr., who bought the house in 1876 and lived there until his death in 1909. Williams ran an electrical shop in Boston where Bell and Watson developed their first telephone in 1875. In 1877 he had the world's first outdoor telephone line built from that shop to this house, a distance of three miles. The line was finished on April 4, 1877. The house is recognized for this telephone history and for its architecture.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Italianate, with later Eastlake trim","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Present use is residence; condition is listed as fair/good. Exterior walls are covered in aluminum siding.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:00.688331-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/56/7913/63791356/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/89001228.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89001228/1e5ee6d5d5-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89001228/1e5ee6d5d5-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SomervilleMA_CharlesWilliamsJrHouse.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">User:Magicpiano</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SomervilleMA_CharlesWilliamsJrHouse.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63791356","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Williams_Jr._House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14715435"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/williams-charles-jr-house-89001228/"}