{"nrhp_refnum":"90001536","name":"Monument Square Historic District","other_names":["Pondside"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by Jamaicaway, Pond, Centre and Eliot Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Boston","county":"Suffolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.312718500000074,"lon":-71.11723079149743,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1990-10-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 43-acre residential historic district in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston, Massachusetts, near Jamaica Pond and Centre Street. It holds 164 contributing buildings plus a site and an object, mostly houses built between 1860 and 1910, with the earliest dating to 1755.","why_significant":"The district shows how the area changed from an early village to a region of estates and then a well-to-do suburb. It also has a wide range of nineteenth and early twentieth century architectural styles, including work by several Boston-area architects. The form notes archaeological potential for prehistoric, colonial and nineteenth-century sites.","narrative":"Monument Square Historic District covers 43 acres in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood, between Jamaica Pond and Centre Street. Streets run outward from the pond in a pattern that follows old estate property lines. The district holds 194 buildings, a site and an object, mostly wood-frame single-family houses built from 1860 to 1910, with one portion dating to 1755. Greek Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Stick, Queen Anne, Shingle, Colonial Revival and Bungalow styles all appear, along with two Gothic Revival churches, an early school, a hall and an 1871 granite Soldiers' Monument. Architects such as Nathaniel J. Bradlee, William Ralph Emerson and Lewis and Paine designed some of the buildings. The area was listed for showing the shift from village to estates to suburb, for the quality and variety of its architecture, and for possible archaeological remains. The period of significance runs from 1755 to about 1930.","period_of_significance":"1755-ca. 1930","architect_builder":"Architects include Nathaniel J. Bradlee, William Ralph Emerson, Bradlee and Winslow, Lewis and Paine, Ball and Dabney, and J.T. Kavanaugh; builders include Joseph P. Shaw, John James, Elisha James and Stephen Heath.","architectural_style":"Late Victorian (Italianate, Stick, Queen Anne, Second Empire, Shingle), Federal, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italian Villa, Colonial Revival, Classical Revival, Bungalow","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Largely intact residential neighborhood with houses, two churches, a hall and a school still in domestic, religious and educational use; the form reports few significant alterations, little modern infill and no vacant lots.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.651524-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/51/7968/63796851/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/90001536.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90001536/0d52201e97-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90001536/0d52201e97-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Biruitorul","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FirstChurchofJP.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Biruitorul</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FirstChurchofJP.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796851","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_Square_Historic_District_(Jamaica_Plain,_Boston,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q17194309"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/suffolk-county/monument-square-historic-district-90001536/"}