{"nrhp_refnum":"99000259","name":"Princeton Center Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Jct. of Hubbardston and Mountain Rds.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Princeton","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.449617000000046,"lon":-71.87716082120738,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1999-02-26","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Community Planning and Development","Education"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A roughly 11-acre town-center historic district in Princeton, Massachusetts, at the intersection of Hubbardston and Mountain Roads. It contains the Town Common, Bagg Hall (town hall, 1885) and the Goodnow Memorial Building (library, 1883), both designed by Stephen C. Earle.","why_significant":"The two Romanesque-style masonry civic buildings and the common form the dominant visual and civic focus of the town center. The library and town hall are very well preserved, and the library reflects the late 19th-century public library movement and Richardsonian Romanesque design. The district also has archaeological potential for historic resources.","narrative":"Princeton's town center is organized around a grassy, tree-lined common set on a rising, rocky knoll. At its northern end, two masonry buildings by architect Stephen C. Earle look down over the green. Goodnow Memorial Building, completed in 1883, is a Richardsonian Romanesque structure of Milford granite with brownstone trim and a seventy-foot clock tower. It was built to house both a library and a school. Bagg Hall, the town hall, followed in 1885 in pressed red brick with brownstone trim and a four-story conical-roofed turret. Its upper floor holds a meeting hall with a stage. Both buildings keep much of their original interior woodwork, stairs and stained glass. The district also includes the common itself, a c. 1950 granite War Memorial Bench and a 1992 bandstand that does not contribute to the historic character. Historic houses, a store and a church ring the common outside the boundary, reinforcing the strongly nineteenth-century character of the center.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Stephen C. Earle, architect (Bagg Hall and Goodnow Memorial Building); Norcross Brothers, builders (Goodnow Memorial Building); Keith Chenot, architect, and Wood Visions, builder (1992 bandstand)","architectural_style":"Late Victorian: Romanesque (Richardsonian Romanesque and Victorian Gothic/Romanesque Revival)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Town hall and library remain in use; the common is a public green. Both buildings are described as very well preserved inside and out.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.107526-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/48/7973/63797348/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/99000259.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/99000259/2a19c03bb1-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/99000259/2a19c03bb1-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Princeton_Public_Library,_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:Princeton_Public_Library,_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63797348","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princeton_Center_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7244943"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/princeton-center-historic-district-99000259/"}