{"nrhp_refnum":"94001494","name":"Lower Roxbury Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly, area surrounding Coventry, Cunard, and Walpole Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Boston","county":"Suffolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.336779000000035,"lon":-71.08647221736709,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1994-12-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Community Planning and Development"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 3.2-acre urban historic district in the Lower Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, made up of 36 contributing turn-of-the-twentieth-century brick apartment and mixed commercial/residential buildings along Tremont Street, Columbus Avenue, Cunard Street and Walpole Street.","why_significant":"The district is significant for its intact collection of multi-story, brick, Classical Revival-style apartment buildings, mostly built between 1894 and 1900 and designed by Boston-area architects experienced in multi-family housing. It also reflects community planning and development, as earlier frame buildings were cleared and replaced with masonry under new fire regulations and the extension of Columbus Avenue.","narrative":"Lower Roxbury Historic District is a compact Boston neighborhood of about 3.2 acres where Tremont Street, Columbus Avenue, Cunard Street and Walpole Street frame a dense cluster of 36 brick buildings. Most are three- to five-story apartment blocks in red, buff or yellow brick, built mainly between 1894 and 1900, with Classical Revival cornices and angled metal-clad bay windows. Storefronts occupy the ground floors along the two main avenues, while side streets are entirely residential. The area was once filled marshland and a mix of factories and frame worker housing. Fire regulations introduced in 1885 required brick construction, and the widening of Columbus Avenue in the 1890s led to the demolition of all frame buildings, which were replaced by the masonry buildings now standing. Boston-area architects experienced in multi-family design shaped the streetscape. The earliest building is a Greek Revival/Italianate structure at 1011-1019 Tremont Street, likely from the 1850s. The district is listed for its architecture and its role in the area's redevelopment.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1850-1944","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Late Victorian: Renaissance; Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals: Classical Revival, Gothic Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Buildings remain in apartment, specialty store, restaurant and church-related use; the district contains 3 vacant lots and is largely isolated by open space and urban renewal projects.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.042124-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/55/7968/63796855/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/94001494.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/94001494/0abed48f0c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/94001494/0abed48f0c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BostonMA_LowerRoxburyHD.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:BostonMA_LowerRoxburyHD.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796855","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_Roxbury_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6693764"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/suffolk-county/lower-roxbury-historic-district-94001494/"}