Monadnock Road Historic District

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Monadnock Road Historic District

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View down Monadnock Road
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Location Roughly Monadnock Rd., Wachusett Rd., Hudson St., Tudor Rd., Beacon St., and Hobart Rd., Newton, Massachusetts
Coordinates 42°20′3″N71°10′47″W / 42.33417°N 71.17972°W / 42.33417; -71.17972 Coordinates: 42°20′3″N71°10′47″W / 42.33417°N 71.17972°W / 42.33417; -71.17972
Architect Multiple
Architectural style Late 19th And 20th Century Revivals, Bungalow/Craftsman, Queen Anne
MPS Newton MRA
NRHP reference #

90000019

[1]
Added to NRHP February 16, 1990

The Monadnock Road Historic District is a residential historic district encompassing a cohesive subdivision of a former estate in the 1920s in the Chestnut Hill section of Newton, Massachusetts. The development was typical of Newton's explosive residential growth at that time, and includes primarily Tudor Revival houses. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. [1]

Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts Village in Massachusetts, United States

Chestnut Hill is an affluent New England village located six miles (9.7 km) west of downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Like all Massachusetts villages, Chestnut Hill is not an incorporated municipal entity. Unlike most Massachusetts villages, it encompasses parts of three separate municipalities, each located in a different county: the town of Brookline in Norfolk County; the city of Boston in Suffolk County, and the city of Newton in Middlesex County. Chestnut Hill's borders are roughly defined by the 02467 ZIP Code. Chestnut Hill is not a topographical designation; the name refers to several small hills that overlook the 135-acre Chestnut Hill Reservoir rather than one particular hill. Chestnut Hill is best known as the home of Boston College, part of the Boston Marathon route, as well as the Collegiate Gothic canvas of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

Newton, Massachusetts City in Massachusetts, United States

Newton is a suburban city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is approximately 7 miles (11 km) west of downtown Boston and is bordered by Boston's Brighton and West Roxbury neighborhoods to the east and south, respectively, and by the suburb of Brookline to the east, the suburbs of Watertown and Waltham to the north, and Weston, Wellesley and Needham to the west. Rather than having a single city center, Newton resembles a patchwork of thirteen villages. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Newton was 85,146, making it the eleventh largest city in the state.

National Register of Historic Places federal list of historic sites in the United States

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property.

Contents

Description and history

Monadnock Road is located on the west side of Chestnut Hill, beginning at its southern end on Beacon Street, just west of the Boston College campus, and winding roughly northwest to an endpoint at Hobart Road, just south of Commonwealth Avenue. Commonwealth Avenue was completed in 1895, opening an area composed of large estates to development. Its construction was promoted by the Newton Boulevard Syndicate, a group that included local property owners, among them Robert Bishop, who owned the land in the western portion of this district. The eastern half the district was laid out in the 1924 subdivision of the estate of Louis Liggett, a drug store magnate. Monadnock Road and the adjacent streets were first identified in a subdivision plan created by Olmsted, Olmsted and Eliot for the syndicate in 1895, but development in that area did not begin until the 1910s and 1920s. [2]

Boston College private research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States

Boston College is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. The university's name reflects its early history as a liberal arts college and preparatory school in Dorchester. It is a member of the 568 Group and the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. Its main campus is a historic district and features some of the earliest examples of collegiate gothic architecture in North America.

Commonwealth Avenue (Boston)

Commonwealth Avenue is a major street in the cities of Boston and Newton, Massachusetts. It begins at the western edge of the Boston Public Garden, and continues west through the neighborhoods of the Back Bay, Kenmore Square, Allston, Brighton and Chestnut Hill. It continues as part of Route 30 through Newton until it crosses the Charles River at the border of the town of Weston.

The district includes 63 houses, primarily on Monadnock Road, but also include properties on Tudor Road, Hammond Street, Hammondswood Road, Wachusetts Road, and Hobart Street. The most common architectural style in the district is the Tudor Revival, although the Colonial Revival and Craftsman styles are also represented. The houses are generally large, well-proportioned, and of high quality. The district abuts the Gray Cliff Historic District, which was developed earlier on Robert Bishop's estate. [2]

Gray Cliff Historic District

The Gray Cliff Historic District is a residential historic district encompassing a cluster of exceptionally high quality houses built in Newton, Massachusetts, between about 1890 and 1940. When first listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, it included only the eight houses at 35, 39, 43, 53, 54, 64, 65, and 70 Gray Cliff Road, which were predominantly Shingle style house built before the turn of the 20th century. The district was expanded in 1990 to include an adjacent area known as The Ledges, where the houses were built between 1900 and 1940, and are mainly Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival in their styling.

See also

National Register of Historic Places listings in Newton, Massachusetts Wikimedia list article

List of Registered Historic Places in Newton, Massachusetts was transferred from List of Registered Historic Places in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and is an integral part of that list—which in turn is an integral part of List of National Register of Historic Places entries. There are over 180 places listed in Newton.

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