{"nrhp_refnum":"95001450","name":"Riviera, The","other_names":["270 Huntington Ave."],"category":"building","location":{"address":"270 Huntington Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Boston","county":"Suffolk County","state":"MA","lat":42.341704821000064,"lon":-71.08599546599999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1995-12-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A seven-story brick and concrete combined apartment and commercial building at 270 Huntington Avenue in Boston, built in 1923 on filled land near the Fenway and designed by architect Fred A. Norcross.","why_significant":"The building is argued to be characteristic of early twentieth-century multi-tenant residential construction on the filled land around Huntington Avenue and the Fenway (Criterion A). It is also an example of the work of Fred A. Norcross, a prolific apartment house designer (Criterion C). It reflects building by local Jewish immigrant developers who created housing for Boston's growing population.","narrative":"Rising seven stories at 270 Huntington Avenue in Boston, the Riviera combines ground-floor shops with apartments above. Completed in 1923, it stands on land created from tidal flats filled in the 1870s and 1880s, in a dense urban area near Symphony Hall and the Fenway. Architect Fred A. Norcross faced the front and south side in buff brick and gave the facade alternating angled and flat bays, pilasters, false balconies and a decorated parapet. The lobby retains marble paneling and a wrought iron entrance grill bearing the building's name. Its significance lies in two areas: it typifies early twentieth-century apartment construction on the newly filled land west of the old Shawmut Peninsula, and it shows the work of Norcross, who designed many Boston-area apartment houses for Jewish immigrant developers, here the firm Coleman and Gilbert. The interiors remain largely intact, and a 1995 rehabilitation restored common areas and created 75 subsidized units.","period_of_significance":"1923-1945","architect_builder":"Fred A. Norcross/Coleman and Gilbert","architectural_style":"Late 19th and 20th Century Revival: Classical Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"A certified rehabilitation was completed in 1995, restoring common spaces including the lobby and rehabilitating 75 units for subsidized housing; ground-floor commercial uses continue.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.463579-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/33/7968/63796833/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/95001450.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/95001450/209d51db65-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/95001450/209d51db65-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Tim Pierce","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Riviera_(Boston).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Tim Pierce</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:The_Riviera_(Boston).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63796833","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Riviera_(Boston,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7761045"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/suffolk-county/riviera-the-95001450/"}