{"nrhp_refnum":"90000198","name":"Beverly Grammar School","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"50 Essex St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Beverly","county":"Essex County","state":"MA","lat":42.55183917000005,"lon":-70.87557603299996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1990-03-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Historic - Non-Aboriginal","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small 1 1/2-story clapboard cottage at 50 Essex Street, Beverly, Massachusetts, built about 1716 as a public grammar school and later moved to its present site and enlarged. It is now used as a residence.","why_significant":"The building preserves the framed core of a rare First Period schoolhouse, with an unusual two-bay plan without a chimney bay and single-story height. Its late First Period framing and decoration, such as quirk-beaded beams, flat chamfers and a molded post head, match 1716 documentation for a grammar school. It is also considered a source of unique information about early building methods.","narrative":"This small 1 1/2-story clapboard cottage at 50 Essex Street in Beverly began as the town's grammar school, documented in 1716. The building was moved from its original site in the early 20th century and now serves as a residence. Its main room measures 21 by 17 feet and retains an early frame with a quirk-beaded summer beam, narrow flat chamfers with tapered stops on the end girts, and a molded post head at the original left front corner. A later addition to the east was built in the early Second Period. Split laths with incised ship drawings are said to come from the early school, and some boards are said to be original pupils' desk tops. The building was once thought to be an earlier meeting house, but the 1716 school documentation matches the surviving structure. It was listed for its rare two-bay, single-story plan and First Period construction, and for the information its framing can provide.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"First Period","criteria":["C","D"],"status_note":"Present use is residential; condition is described as good.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:03.576488-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/21/7898/63789821/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/90000198.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000198/aa517468f5-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90000198/aa517468f5-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Fletcher6","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beverly_Grammar_School.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Fletcher6</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:Beverly_Grammar_School.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63789821","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverly_Grammar_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4899527"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/essex-county/beverly-grammar-school-90000198/"}