Mount Pleasant Historic District
Why it's listed
Mount Pleasant is a residential district in the Roxbury section of Boston, containing 99 contributing buildings erected between 1833 and 1925. The earliest buildings are wood-frame, detached houses set back from tree-lined streets, many of them vernacular Greek Revival double houses and side-hall cottages. Gothic Revival cottages, Italianate houses and Second Empire townhouses followed in the 1850s and 1860s. After horse railroads extended along Dudley Street and Boston annexed Roxbury in 1868, development became denser. Brick row houses, such as the ten-unit row at 80-98 Mt. Pleasant Ave., and apartment hotels like Hotel Vine and Hotel Mount Pleasant brought the idea of horizontal apartments, or French flats, to the area. Yellow-brick apartment blocks of the 1890s and a brick mansion built for Thomas Ray in 1886 add further variety. The district is listed for its concentration of mid-nineteenth-century house types and for showing how a suburban neighborhood grew into a dense urban one. Most buildings are well maintained, though some are vacant or in poor condition.
Significance in brief: The district is notable for its concentration of mid-19th-century house types, especially vernacular Greek Revival houses, along with Gothic Revival, Italianate and Second Empire examples. It also records the shift from a suburban area of wood-frame houses to dense apartment hotels, flats and row houses in the late 19th century, after horse railroads arrived and Roxbury was annexed to Boston in 1868.
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 89000004, listed February 9, 1989. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | Roughly bounded by Forest St. and Mount Pleasant Ave., Boston |
|---|---|
| County | Suffolk County |
| Listed | February 9, 1989 |
| Reference number | 89000004 |
| Resource type | District |
| Period of significance | 1833-1925 |
| Architectural style | Multiple styles, including Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Second Empire and Shingle Style |
| Areas of significance | Community Planning and Development, Architecture |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Most buildings are generally well maintained, with alterations mainly in later siding. A small number are unoccupied, three row houses at 64-72 Forest St. are vacant and boarded, and 114-116 Mt. Pleasant Ave. is in poor condition and uninhabited. Twenty vacant lots lie within the district. |
| Acreage | 170 |
| Coordinates | 42.32647, -71.07824 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
This is a historic district. Buildings within its boundary are either contributing (they add to the district's significance) or non-contributing. Owners of contributing income-producing buildings can claim the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit; homeowners should look at state credits. National Register districts impose no design review by themselves; a local historic district ordinance, if one exists, does (the difference explained).
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 89000004.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q6922920
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.