The National Park Service (NPS) designated the Uphams Corner neighborhood a historic district last week and listed it in the National Register of Historic Places. The decision came after a series of meetings last year.

The neighborhood’s cluster of late 19th and early 20th century commercial and residential buildings – 24 in all – were deemed historically significant and worthy of preservation, as well as assets such as the Dorchester North Burying Ground. The buildings include the Strand Theatre, the S.B. Pierce Building, the Upham’s Corner Market, the Comfort Station, and the Dorchester Savings Bank.

The buildings are constructed in architectural styles such as Gothic Revival, Panel Brick, Renaissance Revival, Romanesque Revival, Classical Revival, Colonial Revival, Mission Revival, and Art Deco. They are now eligible for certain funding incentives intended to encourage preservation. 

After Dorchester was settled in 1630, development of the Uphams Corner commercial district began to accelerate following the 1897 expansion of Columbia Road, which allowed for travel by streetcar and connected Uphams Corner to most of Boston through the Emerald Necklace. Large commercial buildings such as the Pierce Building, Dorchester Bay EDC’s home and a historic keystone of the Uphams Corner business district, were created as the anchors of the neighborhood.