{"nrhp_refnum":"89001262","name":"First Universalist Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"125 Highland St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Somerville","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.38772107200003,"lon":-71.10088255099998,"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 religious building at 125 Highland Avenue on Central Hill in Somerville, Massachusetts, built between 1916 and 1923 and designed by architect Ralph Adams Cram.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the church keeps its integrity of location, design, materials, workmanship and association with Somerville's early 20th century religious community. It is the only local example of work by Ralph Adams Cram, who is known mainly for Gothic architecture. It was also the last large church built in the Central Hill area.","narrative":"Built between 1916 and 1923 at 125 Highland Avenue in Somerville, this church was designed by Ralph Adams Cram, an architect best known for Gothic work. Here he used an Italian Romanesque design combined with a Gothic cruciform plan and an attached side tower. Brick, stucco and terra cotta give variety to a restrained exterior, with Romanesque windows, tower stringcourses and buttresses as the main decoration, plus a single round stained glass window on the west facade. Douglas Tucci called the design \"uniformly bland\", yet the materials add interest. The church sits on Central Hill, along a route that was extended to Davis Square in 1870 and became home to civic buildings, large congregations and substantial houses. It was the last major church built in the area and faces the First Unitarian Church diagonally across the avenue. It is the only local example of Cram's work, and it remains well preserved and in religious use.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Ralph Adams Cram","architectural_style":"Italian Romanesque","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Recorded in good condition with no major alterations; present use is religious, the same as its original use.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:12:59.824788-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/50/7917/63791750/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/89001262.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89001262/df1121f58e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89001262/df1121f58e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SomervilleMA_FirstUniversalistChurch.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_FirstUniversalistChurch.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63791750","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Universalist_Church_(Somerville,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5454037"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/first-universalist-church-89001262/"}