Built 1770 to 1891 Added to NRHP 14 April 1988 | NRHP Reference # 88000438 Area 157 ha | |
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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: