{"nrhp_refnum":"90001145","name":"Bowditch School","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"80--82 Greene St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Boston","county":"Suffolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.31173591500004,"lon":-71.10951396899998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1990-08-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story-plus-basement Classical Revival public school building at 80-82 Greene Street, Jamaica Plain, Boston, built 1890-1892 and designed by Harrison Henry Atwood, then City Architect.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is tied to the growth of Jamaica Plain and its public education during the 1880s-1890s suburban building boom (Criterion A). It is also a nearly unaltered, well-proportioned Classical Revival school by a prominent local architect and politician (Criterion C).","narrative":"Built between 1890 and 1892 at the corner of Greene and Cheshire Streets in Jamaica Plain, this Boston school is a Classical Revival building of sandy-colored brick with North River stone trim, set on a quarry-faced granite base under a slate hipped roof. Harrison Henry Atwood, Boston's City Architect at the time, designed it as a twelve-room grammar school with a third-floor exhibition hall, which later served as an auditorium. Inside, the three main floors are arranged around central corridors with maple floors, plaster arches and beaded-board wainscot. The school went up during the 1880s and 1890s development boom that followed streetcar expansion, when many schools and public buildings were built in the area. It served as a public school for nearly ninety years. A 1943 fire damaged the auditorium, attic and roof, but repairs followed original details. Exterior changes were limited largely to rear fire escapes. The city declared the building surplus in 1981, and it has been vacant since.","period_of_significance":"1890-1939","architect_builder":"Atwood, Harrison Henry","architectural_style":"Late 19th/20th Century Revivals/Classical Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Declared surplus by the City of Boston in July 1981 and vacant since then; some water damage, graffiti, broken windows and minor vandalism.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:05.124887-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/59/7968/63796859/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/90001145.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90001145/25ce98553d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90001145/25ce98553d-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Jameslwoodward","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bowditch_School_Boston_MA_03.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jameslwoodward</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:Bowditch_School_Boston_MA_03.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796859","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowditch_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4950750"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/suffolk-county/bowditch-school-90001145/"}