{"nrhp_refnum":"99001385","name":"Phillipston Center Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly along The Common, Baldwinville, Petersham and Templeton Rds.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Phillipston","county":"Worcester County","state":"MA","lat":42.55146000000008,"lon":-72.13217421880995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1999-11-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Community Planning and Development"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A roughly 44-acre village historic district in the center of Phillipston, Worcester County, Massachusetts, organized around the town common and parts of the roads that radiate from it. It holds 31 contributing and 11 noncontributing resources, mostly wooden civic and residential buildings from the late 18th to mid 19th century.","why_significant":"The district keeps the look and layout of a 19th-century rural New England village, shaped by the town's late-18th to mid-19th century growth and prosperity. Its Federal and Greek Revival buildings, especially the remodeled Congregational Meeting House, school house, and town hall, along with granite walls, foundations, and the town pound, show how a small community adapted older buildings to changing taste and the need to separate church and town functions.","narrative":"Phillipston Center is a village historic district of about 44 acres in the northern part of Worcester County, Massachusetts. It is arranged around a grassy common ringed by The Common Road, with Baldwinville, Templeton and Petersham roads leading outward. The district contains 31 contributing and 11 noncontributing resources, including wooden houses, civic buildings, a cemetery, a town pump and a granite town pound dating to 1806. Buildings are mostly Federal or Greek Revival in style. The Congregational Meeting House, built in 1786 and remodeled in 1837, was given a temple front and belfry and a vestry that doubled as a town meeting space. School House #1 and the 1891 Town Hall also show Greek Revival form. Granite walls, steps, posts and foundations, along with mature trees, add to the character of the setting. Little 20th-century construction has intruded, so the center still reads as a village from the town's period of growth and prosperity between the late 1700s and mid-1800s.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Isaac Bellows (master workman, 1786 meeting house); Daniel Thompson (possible designer-builder, 1837 remodeling); Adolph Johnson and Forrest Jones (architects, Phillipston Memorial School 1948 and 1971)","architectural_style":"Early Republic/Federal; Mid 19th Century/Greek Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Many buildings remain in use as dwellings, town hall, school, church and cemetery; the town pound is in good condition but serves no particular purpose.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:03.529526-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/4/7973/63797304/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/99001385.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/99001385/5169f650c2-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/99001385/5169f650c2-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"John Phelan, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Phillipston_Common,_Phillipston_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63797304","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillipston_Center_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7185966"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/worcester-county/phillipston-center-historic-district-99001385/"}