{"nrhp_refnum":"89001277","name":"House at 81 Pearl Street","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"81 Pearl St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Somerville","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.384868296000036,"lon":-71.08450981899995,"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 two-and-one-half story Italianate house at 81 Pearl Street in East Somerville, Massachusetts, built around 1860 (documented as standing by 1869) and known as the Benjamin Gage House. It has clapboard walls and is still used as a residence.","why_significant":"The house is an intact example of the Italianate housing built in Somerville in the 1860s and 1870s, and it is one of the more elaborate surviving examples in East Somerville. It also reflects the area's growth from a Boston-linked residential district into a dense neighborhood housing industrial workers. It is significant at the local level under Criteria A and C.","narrative":"This Italianate house at 81 Pearl Street in East Somerville dates to about 1860 and was standing by 1869, when it was associated with Benjamin Gage, a machinist. It is a two-and-one-half story, gable-end, three-bay clapboard dwelling with a side-hall entrance and paired doors. Its raking cornice has wide returns and paired ornamental brackets, and a full-length open porch carries an unusual cornice trim of scalloped arches and drop finials between the columns. It has had no major alterations and remains a residence. East Somerville was laid out for development in the early to mid 1800s, helped by nearby Boston and the Boston and Lowell railroad. By the 1860s and 1870s, factory growth brought laborers and dense housing on narrow lots. The house represents that period and is among the more elaborate surviving examples nearby. It is significant locally for its architecture and for its link to the area's development.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Italianate","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Present use is residential; condition is listed as fair, with no major alterations and no outbuildings.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:02.025724-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/65/7917/63791765/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/89001277.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89001277/22102159c4-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89001277/22102159c4-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HouseAt81PearlStreet.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:HouseAt81PearlStreet.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63791765","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_at_81_Pearl_Street","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5914476"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/house-at-81-pearl-street-89001277/"}