{"nrhp_refnum":"98001443","name":"Belmont Railroad Station","other_names":["Belmont Lions Club Building"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1 Common St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Belmont","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.39585983400008,"lon":-71.17623810599997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1998-12-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Transportation","Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A Craftsman-style railroad station at 1 Common Street, Belmont, Massachusetts, built in 1907-08 into a railroad embankment. The nominated complex also includes a granite arch bridge, a pedestrian underpass and the embankment between them.","why_significant":"The station and bridge reflect the role of the Fitchburg Railroad in founding Belmont and the 1907 grade-crossing elimination at Concord Avenue. The fourth and last station to serve Belmont Center, it is a distinctive Craftsman-influenced design that is also representative of turn-of-the-century railroad station design.","narrative":"Built in 1907-08 at the corner of Concord Avenue and Common Street in Belmont, Massachusetts, this former railroad station is set into a steep embankment that carries the tracks over Concord Avenue. It is a rustic Craftsman building with an uncoursed fieldstone first story, a half-timbered stucco upper story and an overhanging red clay tile roof made by Ludowici-Celadon. Ramped and stepped colonnades of cast stone columns wrap the south, east and west sides. A granite arch bridge, a pedestrian underpass and the embankment complete the group. The project replaced a dangerous at-grade crossing, and town leaders lobbied for a masonry bridge in place of a steel girder design. The station was the fourth to serve Belmont Center, and the railroad had been central to the town's founding. Passenger service ended in the late 1950s, and the building has since served as a Lions Club building. Parts of the colonnade were filled with concrete block in 1973, but the south and west elevations and the interior plan remain largely intact.","period_of_significance":"1907-1948","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Late 19th and Early 20th Century American: Craftsman","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Owned by the Belmont Lions since the mid-1950s and used as a club house; passenger service ended in the late 1950s. The north and east colonnades were filled with concrete block in 1973, and the north roof tiles were replaced with asphalt.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.318785-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/36/7957/63795736/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/98001443.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/98001443/7d2e1ec074-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/98001443/7d2e1ec074-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Pi.1415926535","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Belmont_Center_station,_July_2019.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Pi.1415926535</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:Belmont_Center_station,_July_2019.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795736","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belmont_Center_station","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4884334"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/belmont-railroad-station-98001443/"}