Baird House
The pin is a point inside the NPS boundary polygon, not a surveyed location.
Why it's listed
Set at the back of a deep wooded lot about a mile south of Amherst center, this low, one-story house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1940 for an Amherst College English professor and his wife. It follows Wright's Usonian ideas: a flat roof with deep overhangs, long horizontal walls of red brick and grooved cypress, and bands of floor-to-ceiling casement windows facing south to gather solar warmth. Inside, a concrete floor painted dark red holds the heating pipes, and much of the furniture is built in. A separate apartment for the owner's mother and a fenced dog yard linking the house to a storage shed show how the design answered the clients' needs. Wright's son-in-law William Wesley Peters took over construction after local contractors failed to produce a suitable bid. The house is the only Wright work in Massachusetts and one of few in New England, and it has remained essentially unaltered.
Significance in brief: The nomination presents it as an intact, classic example of Wright's Usonian architecture, with horizontal massing, a simple rectangular plan, modest materials and a close tie to its setting. It is the only Wright-designed building in Massachusetts and one of only a few in New England. It was accepted under Criterion C at the state level, with Exception G because it was less than 50 years old.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 85000026, listed January 3, 1985. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence high).
Key facts
| Address | 38 Shays St., Amherst |
|---|---|
| County | Hampshire County |
| Listed | January 3, 1985 |
| Reference number | 85000026 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Period of significance | 1940 |
| Architect / builder | Frank Lloyd Wright |
| Architectural style | Usonian (Frank Lloyd Wright) |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Architecture |
| Level of significance | State |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Excellent condition and unaltered apart from replacement of the original roof; still occupied as a private residence by its original owners at the time of nomination. |
| Acreage | 6.5 |
| Coordinates | 42.35037, -72.51876 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
National Register listing is honorary for a privately owned home: it does not by itself restrict what an owner may do with their own money, and it does not require public access. Restrictions come from local landmark or historic-district ordinances, which are separate (how they differ).
Owner-occupied houses are not eligible for the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit, which applies to income-producing buildings, but many states offer credits for homeowners. Listing also opens the door to preservation easements and to buying a plaque. Start with what listing means for homeowners, renovating a listed house and selling one.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 85000026.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q7781692
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.