{"nrhp_refnum":"89001296","name":"Hollander Blocks","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Walnut St. and Pleasant Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Somerville","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.38395559300005,"lon":-71.09504768699998,"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":"Two adjoining Queen Anne apartment houses built around 1890 on a corner lot on Prospect Hill in Somerville, Massachusetts, at 56-58 Walnut Street and 4-6 Pleasant Avenue. They were built by investor T. Clarence Hollander.","why_significant":"The blocks keep their integrity and reflect the late 19th century residential development of Prospect Hill. They are architecturally significant for Queen Anne style with Colonial Revival features, and historically significant as housing built when demand rose sharply at the end of the 1800s. The corner site forms a focal point in a neighborhood of mostly single and two-family homes.","narrative":"Two apartment houses stand together on a corner lot on Prospect Hill in Somerville, one facing Walnut Street and one facing Pleasant Avenue. Built around 1890, they are Queen Anne in style, with Colonial Revival touches seen in their symmetry, abbreviated hipped roofs topped by elaborate copper cresting, and three-decker porches with simple balustrades and Tuscan-like columns. Clapboard siding is broken by wide bands of decorative shingles that mark the three stories. The land was part of an 1870 subdivision of Pleasant Avenue, later passed to Charles B. Hollander and then to his heirs. Investor T. Clarence Hollander built the 10-unit block at 56-58 Walnut Street and the 12-unit house at 4-6 Pleasant Avenue by 1895, answering a sharp rise in housing demand. The buildings retain their original character and anchor a neighborhood of mainly single and two-family homes, which is why they were recognized for architectural and local historical value.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"T. Clarence Hollander (investor/builder)","architectural_style":"Queen Anne with Colonial Revival features","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Present use residential; general condition stated as excellent.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:01.270951-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/42/7915/63791542/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/89001296.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89001296/187bc983f4-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89001296/187bc983f4-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Mangostar","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hollander_Blocks.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Mangostar</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hollander_Blocks.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63791542","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollander_Blocks","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14715546"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/hollander-blocks-89001296/"}