{"nrhp_refnum":"90000017","name":"West Newton Village Center Historic District","other_names":["See Also:Davis Hotel"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly Washington St. from Putnam to Davis Ct.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Newton","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.34994953900005,"lon":-71.22622049216668,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1990-02-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A commercial and institutional historic district of about 10.8 acres forming a linear corridor along Washington Street in the West Newton village center of Newton, Massachusetts. It contains 22 commercial blocks, 5 institutional buildings and 1 vacant lot, dating mainly from the 1830s to the 1930s.","why_significant":"West Newton is described as the most intact and second largest of Newton's village centers, preserving an extensive collection of late 19th and early 20th century commercial and institutional buildings. It illustrates the city's rapid growth and the expanded village services of the turn of the century. It also shows diverse architecture, from multi-story 19th century blocks to streamlined one-story blocks, and from small village institutions to the Court House/Police Station complex serving the whole city.","narrative":"West Newton Village Center is a linear commercial and civic district along Washington Street, bounded by railroad tracks and the Massachusetts Turnpike to the south. It covers roughly 10.8 acres and includes 22 commercial blocks, five institutional buildings and one vacant lot. Town and city government was based in West Newton until 1932, and the arrival of the railroad in 1834 helped spur growth. Much of the district dates from the 1920s and 1930s, when one-story brick and cast stone store blocks replaced older residential and commercial structures. Architects such as George Nelson Jacobs, Krokyn and Brown, and James H. Ritchie shaped its look. Institutional buildings include the Unitarian Church of 1905-06, the Davis School of 1922, the former Memorial Library, and the Police Headquarters and Courthouse of 1931. The 1831 Davis Hotel and the 1875 Robinson Block are among the surviving nineteenth century buildings. The district was listed for its intact character, its record of the city's growth and its varied architecture.","period_of_significance":"1830s-1930s","architect_builder":"Schein and Levine; Harty & Brown; George Nelson Jacobs; Krokyn and Brown; James H. Ritchie & Associates; Lewis H. Bacon; Edward B. Stratton; Cram & Ferguson; Hartwell and Richardson; builder Patrick Rich","architectural_style":"Classical Revival, Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, Moderne, Romanesque Revival, High Victorian Gothic, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"General condition described as good; present use commercial and institutional. One 1930 Colonial Revival gas station at 1235 Washington Street is noted as not in use.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.934844-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/79/7918/63791879/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/90000017.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000017/74bdaadcbd-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000017/74bdaadcbd-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NewtonMA_WestNewtonVillageCenter.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:NewtonMA_WestNewtonVillageCenter.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"86001764","name":"Webster Park Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/massachusetts/webster-park-historic-district-86001764/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63791879","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Newton_Village_Center_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7986077"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/west-newton-village-center-historic-district-90000017/"}