Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is roughly 8 miles (13 km) west of downtown Boston, and comprises a patchwork of thirteen villages. The city borders Boston to the northeast and southeast, Brookline to the east, Watertown and Waltham to the north, and Weston, Wellesley, and Needham to the west. At the 2020 U.S. census, the population of Newton was 88,923.
The Newton and Boston Street Railway was a streetcar company in the Boston, Massachusetts area, eventually bought by the Middlesex and Boston Street Railway. Its line is now the 59 Needham Junction – Watertown Square via Newtonville bus.
William Claflin was an American politician, industrialist, and philanthropist from Massachusetts. He served as the 27th governor of Massachusetts from 1869 to 1872 and as a member of the United States Congress from 1877 to 1881. He also served as chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1868 to 1872, serving as a moderating force between the Radical and moderate wings of the Republican Party. His name is given to Claflin University in South Carolina, a historically black college founded with funding from him and his father.
Newtonville is one of the thirteen villages within the city of Newton in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States.
West Newton is one of the thirteen villages within the city of Newton in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States.
The West Newton Village Center Historic District encompasses the heart of the village of West Newton, in the city of Newton, Massachusetts in the United States. It extends along Washington Street between Lucas Court in the west and Davis Court in the east, and includes a few properties on immediately adjacent side streets, including Watertown Street and Waltham Street. The village is the second-largest of Newton's commercial centers and is the best-preserved of its late 19th and early 20th century village centers. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
The Second Church in Newton, United Church of Christ, is located at 60 Highland Street in West Newton, a village of Newton, Massachusetts. This church is rooted in the Congregational denomination, welcomes all visitors, and does not require uniformity of belief. Its present church building, a Gothic Victorian structure designed by architects Allen & Collens and completed in 1916, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
The First Unitarian Universalist Society in Newton occupies a prominent location at 1326 Washington Street in the heart of the village of West Newton in Newton, Massachusetts. Architect Ralph Adams Cram designed the church, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. designed the grounds, the cornerstone was laid in 1905, and it was dedicated in 1906; it is one of the village's oldest buildings. The church is in Cram's signature Gothic Revival style, with buttressed walls and a blocky square tower with crenellations and spires. An enclosed courtyard is formed by an office wing, banquet hall, and parish house, which are built to resemble Elizabethan architecture with brick first floor and half-timbered upper level.
The Claflin School is a historic former school building at 110–112 Washington Park, Newtonville, Massachusetts. It is a 2+1⁄2-story brick building, with a tall hip roof, projecting side-gabled wings, and a tall central gable section. The main facade is symmetrically arranged, with brick quoining around windows and corners, and entrances set in round-arch openings. Named for William Claflin, it was built in 1891, and is a well-preserved example of Richardsonian Romanesque design. Its architect was Merrill J. Brown.
Auburndale station is an MBTA Commuter Rail station in Auburndale, Massachusetts. It serves the Framingham/Worcester Line. It is located next to the Massachusetts Turnpike near Lasell College. The modern station platform, built around 1961, replaced a highly acclaimed 1881 depot building designed by H. H. Richardson. A full renovation of the station for accessibility is planned.
The Washington Park Historic District is a historic district in the village of Newtonville, in Newton, Massachusetts. It includes the following properties, dating to between 1870 and 1900: 4 to 97 Washington Park plus 5 and 15 Park Place. The focal point of the district is the city park which is located in the median of the street of the same name. On March 12, 2008, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The former First Church of Christ, Scientist, built in 1940, is an historic Christian Science church building located at 391 Walnut Street on the corner of Otis Street in the village of Newtonville, in Newton, Massachusetts. It was designed in the redbrick Colonial Revival style by Densmore, LeClear and Robbins, architects. Due to cost constraints, its steeple was added later. In September, 2004, the church sold its building for $1,050,000 to be converted into apartments. The church in 2007 held services in rented rooms at 300 Walnut Street in the Masonic Building., but is now meeting at 1141 Walnut Street, in Newton Highlands. The building has since been divided into 11 condominium units. It is now called the Oxford House, and was the city's first inclusionary zoning project.
The Central Congregational Church is an historic church building located at 218 Walnut Street, in the village of Newtonville in Newton, Massachusetts. Built in 1895, it is the only ecclesiastical work in the city by the noted Boston architects Hartwell and Richardson, and one of its finest examples of Romanesque architecture. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. Since September 7, 2003, it has been the Newton Campus of the Boston Chinese Evangelical Church.
The Central Square Historic District is a historic district encompassing the central town common of the city of Waltham, Massachusetts, and several commercial buildings facing the common or in its immediate vicinity. The common is bounded by Carter, Moody, Main, and Elm Streets; the district includes fourteen buildings, which are located on Main, Elm, Lexington, and Church Streets, on the north and east side of the common. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
1–6 Walnut Terrace in the Newtonville village of Newton, Massachusetts is a distinctive Shingle style rowhouse. Built in 1887, it is one of the city's few examples of a 19th-century rowhouse. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
The Adams Claflin House is a historic house at 156 Grant Avenue in the village of Newton Centre in Newton, Massachusetts. It is a large 2+1⁄2-story cross-gable wood-frame structure, built in the Shingle style to a design by Samuel Brown for Adams Davenport Claflin. Claflin was the son of Massachusetts Governor and Newtonville resident William Claflin, and was a major landowner in Newtonville as well as president of the Boston and Suburban Electric Company. Claflin was a major developer of the streetcar system that served Newton. Architecturally, the house shows vestiges of the Queen Anne style, with its asymmetrical massing and wealth of projections and gables, as well as elements of the Colonial Revival, exemplified by a Palladian window, and by the pedimented front porch. The house is one of several designed by Brown for the Claflin family.
The Farlow and Kenrick Parks Historic District is a predominantly residential historic district in the Newton Corner area of Newton, Massachusetts. The district is roughly triangular in shape, and is bounded on the north by the Massachusetts Turnpike, Park Street to the east, and Franklin and Newtonville Avenues to the west. It is roughly bisected by Church Street, and is named for two parks that are significant focal elements of the district. Kenrick Park is a small lozenge-shaped park at the southern tip of the district designed by Alexander Wadsworth; it was laid out at the request of William Kenrick, a horticulturalist whose c. 1822 Federal style house was moved to the area after the park was completed. Farlow Park is a larger rectangular park, in the district's northwest, which was established by a gift from John Farlow. It is landscaped in a manner similar to the Boston Public Garden, with specimen trees and an artificial pond with bridge.
The House at 170 Otis Street in Newton, Massachusetts is a rare local work of the nationally known Boston architect Hammatt Billings. The two story Second Empire house was built in 1870–71 for Charles Ellis and Emma Claflin Ellis, the daughter of William Claflin, then Governor of Massachusetts, whose own home was in Newtonville. The house's most prominent feature is its mansard-roofed 2+1⁄2-story tower, topped with iron cresting.
The Newton Highlands Historic District encompasses the historic heart of the village of Newton Highlands in Newton, Massachusetts. When it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, the district extended along Lincoln Street from Woodward to Hartford Streets, and included blocks of Bowdoin, Erie and Hartford Streets south of Lincoln Street. The district was enlarged in 1990 to include the cluster of commercial buildings on Lincoln Street between Hartford and Walnut Streets.
Charles Jay Connick (1875–1945) was a prominent American painter, muralist, and designer best known for his work in stained glass in the Gothic Revival style. Born in Springboro, Pennsylvania, Connick eventually settled in the Boston area where he opened his studio in 1913. Connick's work is contained in many preeminent churches and chapels, including examples in Boston, Chicago, Detroit, New York City, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. He also authored the book Adventures in Light and Color in 1937. Connick's studio continued to operate, and remained a leading producer of stained glass, until 1986.
