{"nrhp_refnum":"98000122","name":"Palmer School","other_names":["Little Red Schoolhouse","District No. 2 School"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"33 Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Boxford","county":"Essex County","state":"MA","lat":42.65892902200005,"lon":-71.00214499399993,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1998-02-20","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History","Education"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story, timber-frame Greek Revival district schoolhouse at 33 Main Street, Boxford, Massachusetts, built in 1845 and moved to its present site in 1931.","why_significant":"It is the last surviving 19th-century school building in Boxford. It shows how the town responded to mid-19th-century population growth with public education, and it is the only remaining example of its building type in town. It meets Criteria A and C at the local level, and Criteria Consideration B because it was moved.","narrative":"Built in 1845 as the District Two school, this one-story timber-frame schoolhouse is the last surviving 19th-century school building in Boxford, Massachusetts. It has a gable roof, clapboard siding, granite and fieldstone foundations, and Greek Revival corner pilasters and cornice. It was named for Deacon Julius A. Palmer in 1914. When the two-room Aaron Wood School opened in 1931, the building became obsolete. A summer resident, Edna Rich Morse, bought it and had it moved by oxen about a quarter mile to its present site, intending it as a community house for local children. Later uses included temporary classrooms, a kindergarten, an arts and crafts room and town offices. Alterations include a added vestibule, 1928 window changes and interior remodeling. The building was listed for its role in the town's mid-19th-century expansion of public education and as the only remaining example of its type in Boxford. It is currently unused, and restoration as a one-room schoolhouse is planned.","period_of_significance":"1845-1947","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Greek Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Currently not in use; plans call for restoring it as a historic one-room schoolhouse.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.984401-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/90/7949/63794990/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/98000122.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/98000122/3a69e932d0-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/98000122/3a69e932d0-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palmer_School_Boxford.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger)</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palmer_School_Boxford.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63794990","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_School","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7128267"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/essex-county/palmer-school-98000122/"}