The Common District encompasses the main civic center of Wakefield, Massachusetts. It is centered on the historic town common, just south of Lake Quannapowitt, which was laid in 1644, when it became the heart of Old Reading. The area was separated from Reading as South Reading in 1818, and renamed Wakefield in 1868. The 25 acre district includes the buildings that line the common on Common Street and Main Street, which include the town hall, public library, YMCA, post office, and several churches. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
The Yale Avenue Historic District is a residential historic district near the center of Wakefield, Massachusetts. It encompasses eight residential properties, all but one of which were developed in the 1860s and 1870s, after the arrival of the railroad in town. These properties were built primarily for Boston businessmen, and mark the start of Wakefield's transition to a suburb.
The Jonas Cowdry House is a historic house at 61 Prospect Street in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Built c. 1833, the Federal style wood-frame house is three bays wide and four deep, a significant local variant to conventional Federal style architecture. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The Emerson–Franklin Poole House is a historic house at 23 Salem Street in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Built about 1795, it was in the 19th century home to Franklin Poole, a locally prominent landscape artist. Some of its walls are adorned with the murals drawn by Rufus Porter. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
Flanley's Block is a historic commercial building at 349–353 Main Street in Wakefield, Massachusetts, US. Built about 1895, it is a well-preserved local example of late 19th-century Italianate commercial architecture. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The House at 23 Avon Street in Wakefield, Massachusetts is one of the town's finest examples of Italianate. It was built about 1855, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The House at 21 Chestnut Street is one of the best preserved Italianate houses in Wakefield, Massachusetts. It was built c. 1855 to a design by local architect John Stevens, and was home for many years to local historian Ruth Woodbury. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
95 Chestnut Street is a historic house located in Wakefield, Massachusetts. It is significant as an example of a well-preserved vernacular Greek Revival style house.
The House at 118 Greenwood Street in Wakefield, Massachusetts is a rare well-preserved example of a Stick-style house. The 2+1⁄2-story house was built c. 1875, and features Stick-style bracing elements in its roof gables, hooded windows, with bracketing along those hoods and along the porch eave. Sawtooth edging to sections of board-and-batten siding give interest to the base of the gables, and on a projecting window bay. The house was built in an area that was farmland until the arrival of the railroad in the mid-19th century.
The House at 20 Hancock Road in Wakefield, Massachusetts is an unusual Italianate house. Built in the 1860s or early 1870s, the two-story wood-frame house is only four bays wide, with the entry door in the leftmost bay. The house has some Italianate details, including dentil molding in the cornice, but is predominantly Greek Revival in character. It is possible this house was built as an outbuilding of the Beebe estate on Main Street, and moved to its present location when Hancock Street was laid out.
The House at 42 Hopkins Street in Wakefield, Massachusetts is an excellent early example of an Italianate house. Built c. 1850, the 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure is an early example of balloon framing. It is three bays wide, with wide eaves and double brackets, corner pilasters, and a high granite foundation. Its front entry is sheltered by Colonial Revival portico added around the turn of the 20th century.
The House at 20 Lawrence Street in Wakefield, Massachusetts is a complex residential structure with elements of Queen Anne, Stick style, and Colonial Revival style. Built about 1880, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The House at 190 Main Street, also known as the William F. Young House, is a historic house at 190 Main Street in Wakefield, Massachusetts. The exact construction date of the 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house is uncertain: it follows a traditional three-bay side-hall plan, but was also extensively remodeled sometime before 1870 with Italianate styling, probably by William F. Young, a commuter who worked at a grocery firm in Boston. It has a round-arch window in the front gable end, and its porch features narrow chamfered posts topped by a flat arched frieze. The main entry portico is closed in, and it and the porch feature decorative brackets.
The House at 52 Oak Street in Wakefield, Massachusetts is one of the most elaborate Colonial Revival houses in the Greenwood section of town. The 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house was built in the 1890s. It has significant Queen Anne styling, including a turret and wraparound porch, but porch details such as the multiple columns on paneled piers are Colonial Revival in style, as are the hip-roof dormers. The house was built by Henry Savage, a developer with ultimately unsuccessful plans to develop the Greenwood area residentially in the 1880s.
The House at 8 Park Street, also known as the Dr. Joseph Poland House, is a historic house at 8 Park Street in Wakefield, Massachusetts. The 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house was built c. 1852 for Dr. Joseph Poland, who only briefly practiced in the town. The house is in a vernacular Italianate style, with a two-story ell on the rear and a porch on the right side. The house has elongated windows with entablatured surrounds. The porch and front portico are supported by turned columns with bracketed tops, the building corners are pilastered, and there are paired brackets found in the eaves and gable ends.
The House at 7 Salem Street in Wakefield, Massachusetts is a transitional Greek Revival/Italianate style house built c. 1855–57. The 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house has a typical Greek Revival side hall plan, with door and window surrounds that are also typical to that style. However, it also bears clear Italianate styling with the arched window in the gable, and the paired brackets in the eaves. A single-story porch wraps around the front and side, supported by simple square columns. Its occupant in 1857 was a ticket agent for the Boston and Maine Railroad.
15 Wave Avenue is a well-preserved Italianate style house in Wakefield, Massachusetts. It was built between 1875 and 1883, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 6, 1989.
The House at 28 Wiley Street in Wakefield, Massachusetts is an unusual Federal or Georgian style house. It is built of brick, a rare construction material in pre-Revolutionary Wakefield. It appears to have been built as an addition to another house, which has since been destroyed. Built into a hill, it presents 1.5 stories in front, and 2.5 stories in back. It has a tradition five bay main facade with a central door, which was embellished with a Federal style surround sometime after its initial construction. The house was probably built for a member of the Wiley family.
The Dr. Charles Jordan House is a historic house at 9 Jordan Avenue in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Built c. 1885, it is one Wakefield's most elaborate Queen Anne Victorian houses. The 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house is unusual for having a hipped roof; it also has a tower in the northwest corner, and a porch with Italianate pillars brackets. The house was built by Dr. Charles Jordan, a local physician and pharmacist with extensive land holdings in the area.
The Woodward Homestead is a historic house at 17 Main Street in Wakefield, Massachusetts, USA. It is an unusual style wood-frame house, with an older portion that is 1.5 stories and was probably built sometime before 1765. It was remodeled later in the 19th century in the Federal style, and in the 1830s the southern portion of the house was added, with Greek Revival style. The first known occupant was John Woodward in 1765; he was from a family that arrived in the area late in the 17th century.
