House at 15 Lawrence Avenue
Why it's listed
This house on Lawrence Street in Wakefield, Massachusetts, is a Queen Anne dwelling dated 1870-74 from an 1874 map. It sits on a rise behind a granite retaining wall and granite gate posts, with a carriage barn at the rear. The house reuses a Greek Revival form, a gable end to the street with a side-hall plan, and updates it with a jerkin head gable roof, a shallow front porch and a two-story bay window. Patterned shingles, multi-pane sash and turned porch posts are standard elements of vernacular Queen Anne style in Wakefield. Unlike the nearby house at 20 Lawrence Street, it gains its complexity through surface elaboration rather than massing. The carriage barn is one of few remaining in town and completes the picture of domestic building from the period. Lawrence Street was settled about 1871, and Frank A. Clapp, a real estate salesman, lived here in 1894. The property is in excellent condition and unaltered.
Significance in brief: The house is a well-preserved example of the complexity of Queen Anne detailing, achieved through surface elaboration rather than massing. It is one of the few houses in town whose carriage house survives intact, giving a complete picture of late 19th-century suburban domestic building. It is judged significant at the local level under 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 89000682, listed July 6, 1989. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | 15 Lawrence Ave., Wakefield |
|---|---|
| County | Middlesex County |
| Listed | July 6, 1989 |
| Reference number | 89000682 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Architectural style | Queen Anne |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Architecture |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Present use is a dwelling; condition is listed as excellent with no major alterations. |
| Acreage | 0.9 |
| Coordinates | 42.51031, -71.07005 (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 89000682.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q14715569
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.