Child, Francis J., House
Why it's listed
Built in 1861 for Francis J. Child, this house at 67 Kirkland Street sits in Cambridge's Shady Hill neighborhood, beside the former home of Harvard president Charles W. Eliot. It is a wood-clapboard residence with a curved lower mansard roof covered in hexagonal slates, a full front porch with chamfered posts, and dormers topped with jigsaw-cut cornice boards. A projecting bay above the porch has acorn drops. The house is set well back from the street among trees and shrubs, and it still has its original siding. Its significance lies in its design. Two mansard-roofed blocks, each symmetrical, combine into an asymmetrical whole, an arrangement unusual for the early 1860s, when more formal layouts were favored. The picturesque Gothic ornament, the veranda linking house to setting, and the tall chimneys and slender porch posts reflect the influence of A. J. Downing's cottage designs. The house was recognized for this architectural character.
Significance in brief: The house is considered architecturally significant for combining the Mansard style with applied Gothic decoration like that found in A. J. Downing cottages. It is made up of two mansard-roofed blocks, each symmetrical but joined in an asymmetrical massing, which was unusual for the early 1860s. It meets criterion C.
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 83000791, listed June 30, 1983. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | 67 Kirkland St., Cambridge |
|---|---|
| County | Middlesex County |
| Listed | June 30, 1983 |
| Reference number | 83000791 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Architectural style | Mansard |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Architecture |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Residential use; the original use is stated as unchanged. Windows have been remodelled at an unknown date. |
| Acreage | 0.9 |
| Within district | Shady Hill Historic District |
| Coordinates | 42.37819, -71.10980 (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 83000791.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q14715475
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.