{"nrhp_refnum":"96001479","name":"Still River Baptist Church","other_names":["Harvard Historical Society"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"213 Still River Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Harvard","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.49162697400004,"lon":-71.61735852299995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1996-12-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History","Religion"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A towered Gothic Revival, nave-plan Baptist church at 213 Still River Road in the village of Still River, Harvard, Worcester County, Massachusetts. It was built in 1832 as the second meetinghouse of Harvard's Baptist congregation and has a 1902 rear addition.","why_significant":"The nomination marks Architecture and Religion as areas of significance and checks Criterion A. It presents the church as a prominent public building of the village and a surviving example of early 19th century Gothic Revival church design. It also reflects the history of Baptist dissent in a town with many alternative religious groups. The church contributes to the character of Still River as a New England village.","narrative":"Built in 1832, this clapboard church at 213 Still River Road in Harvard, Massachusetts, served as the second meetinghouse of the town's Baptist congregation. It is a Gothic Revival nave-plan building with a shallow entry tower, a pinnacled belfry, lancet-shaped entries and windows, and a cut-granite foundation. A two-part rear addition was built in 1902. Inside, most of the original slip pews survive, along with a Stevens organ installed in 1870 and a baptismal tank added in 1902. The church sits in Still River, a linear village on a ridge above the Nashua River valley, where many colonial, Federal and Greek Revival houses survive. It represents Baptist dissent from Harvard's established First Church, which began in 1776, and it remains the village's main public building. After the Baptist Society ended in 1970, the Harvard Historical Society bought the building and now uses it as its headquarters, gallery and storage space.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Gothic Revival","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Owned by the Harvard Historical Society since the Baptist Society dissolved in 1970; well maintained and used as the Society's headquarters and museum.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:05.187288-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/74/7974/63797474/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/96001479.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/96001479/ada16c5f9e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/96001479/ada16c5f9e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Still_River_Baptist_Church,_Harvard_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Still_River_Baptist_Church,_Harvard_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63797474","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Still_River_Baptist_Church","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7617132"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/still-river-baptist-church-96001479/"}