Harman Patil (Editor)

Hunnewell Estates Historic District

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Built
  
1770 to 1891

Address
  
Wellesley, MA 02482, USA

Added to NRHP
  
14 April 1988

NRHP Reference #
  
88000438

Area
  
157 ha

Hunnewell Estates Historic District

Location
  
Wellesley, Massachusetts

Architect
  
Arthur Gilman, John Sturgis, Gridley J.F. Bryant, Ware & Van Brunt, and Shaw & Hunnewell.

Architectural style
  
Italianate, Colonial Revival, Late Victorian, 19th & 20th Century Revivals.

Similar
  
Hunnewell Elementary School, Nehoiden Golf Club, Carisbroo Reservati, Wellesley College, Sprague Field

The Hunnewell Estates Historic District is an historic district between the Charles River and Lake Waban in Wellesley and Natick, Massachusetts, about 17 miles west of Boston. It consists of the large group of 18th to 21st century agricultural and estate properties with farmland, gardens, residences, and landscapes of the Hunnewell and Welles families. The properties in the Historic District are still largely owned and occupied by members of the Hunnewell family. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

Contents

History

The Hunnewell estates began with talented railroad financier and businessman, landscape designer, and horticulturalist H. Hollis Hunnewell in the late 1840s, and continued with his adult children, and the following generations. Mr. Hunnewell and his family gave much to the town of Wellesley (formerly West Needham), which was named after his wife's family - the Welles, and to Boston, with civic philanthropy in numerous fields.

They also were generous to the New England horticulture community for over 75 years via importing, testing, and distributing many new plant introductions, estate site planning and garden design examples, and supportive leadership in the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. Horatio Hollis Hunnewell was especially interested in coniferous and broad-leaved evergreens, and Asian rhododendrons.

At their peak during the early 20th century 'American Country Place' era, there were twenty contiguous Hunnewell estates along Washington Street and Pond Road in southwest Wellesley.

Conservation

The family has placed hundreds of acres in the district under perpetual conservation restrictions, primarily with The Trustees of Reservations, protecting Lake Waban and the Charles River, as well as the farmland, gardens, landscapes, vistas, and natural native landscapes from development. These restrictions, starting in 1974, were among the first placed with the Trustees of Reservations. None of the properties is open to the public. However, while maintaining its property rights in this regard, the family allows members of the neighboring Wellesley College community to enter the properties to walk the path around Lake Waban.

Historic district

The district includes the original Welles homestead, the Hunnewell Farm, and the eight contiguous country houses H. H. Hunnewell built for himself and seven of his nine children:

  • "Welles House" (1770) - original country homestead of the Welles family of Boston and Paris.
  • "H. H. Hunnewell House" (1851) - the H. H. Hunnewell estate, with renaissance revival style residence designed by Arthur Gilman, renowned lakeside topiary Italian Garden (1854), and Pinetum (1867). In 1865-1866, two gate lodges were built and a large conservatory was added to the residence, all designed by Gridley J.F. Bryant. Mr. Hunnewell was his own landscape architect and did not employ a professional firm to lay out his grounds.
  • "The Cottage" (1870) - Queen Anne style guest cottage, designed by John Sturgis, and including 1923 landscape design by the Olmsted Brothers.
  • "The Oaks" (1871) - residence of Arthur Hunnewell, designed by John Sturgis, burned in 1891, and replaced with a new residence designed by Shaw & Hunnewell, with first private golf course in New England (1892), in use until World War II.
  • "Walter Hunnewell House" (1875) - gothic revival residence of Walter Hunnewell, designed by Ware & Van Brunt and including many of the same features as their design for Memorial Hall at Harvard, which was designed and built contemporaneously. In 1881 Stanford White redesigned the front entry and one interior room.
  • "Hill Hurst" (1883) - brick Victorian residence of Hollis Hunnewell, designed by Shaw & Hunnewell, and including 1892 squash courts, being the first of their kind in the United States.
  • "The Cedars" (1891) - residence of Henry Sargent Hunnewell, designed by Shaw & Hunnewell, and including a large landscape designed by Charles Eliot and organized around long directed 'view avenues' to Morse's Pond and other features. The original house was pulled down in 1953 and replaced with a more modest brick dwelling in 1954.
  • "The Morrill House" (1775) - residence of Dr. Isaac Morrill, purchased by John Welles in 1836, and passed from him to his daughter Isabella Pratt Welles, wife of H. H. Hunnewell. The house was greatly enlarged in 1891 along plans of Shaw & Hunnewell as a residence for Mr. & Mrs. Francis Williams Sargent. Mrs. Sargent was a daughter of H. H. Hunnewell, and a grandmother of Francis W. Sargent, Governor of Massachusetts from 1969-1975.
  • "The Pines" (1891) - residence of Mr. & Mrs. Robert Gould Shaw, designed by Shaw & Hunnewell. Mrs. Shaw was a daughter of H. H. Hunnewell. Mr. Shaw is not to be confused with his cousin, Robert Gould Shaw, who commanded the African-American 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry during the US Civil War. This property is no longer in the family, having been sold to Wellesley College in the 1970s.

    • References

    Hunnewell Estates Historic District Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA