{"nrhp_refnum":"70000737","name":"Vale, The","other_names":["Theodore Lyman Estate"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Lyman and Beaver Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Waltham","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.38270854600006,"lon":-71.2284856816873,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1970-12-30","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1970-12-30","areas_of_significance":["Landscape Architecture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The Vale (Theodore Lyman House) is a frame country mansion with landscaped grounds on Lyman Street at Beaver Street in Waltham, Massachusetts, built 1793-98 for Boston merchant Theodore Lyman to a design by Samuel McIntire.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it the finest surviving McIntire-designed Adamesque-Federal country house, though an 1882 remodeling obliterated much of the original design. The estate is also one of the few landscaped estates in New England to survive largely intact from the 18th century, with grounds laid out by English gardener William Bell.","narrative":"The Vale is a country estate in Waltham, Massachusetts, centered on a mansion built between 1793 and 1798 for the Boston merchant Theodore Lyman. Salem architect Samuel McIntire designed it as a five-part frame composition, with a tall central block linked by one-story hyphens to end pavilions. Craftsmen other than McIntire carried out the construction, so the house departs somewhat from his plan. In 1882 the firm of Richardson, Hartwell and Driver enlarged it in the Colonial Revival style, adding stories and projecting bays, and Nina Tupper redecorated two rooms in 1917. The oval room and the ballroom retain much of their original Adamesque character. The grounds were laid out by English gardener William Bell in the manner of Humphry Repton and include a pond, stable, greenhouses, summerhouses and gardens. The Lyman family gave the property, with 33 acres, to the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities in 1951, and it is open as a historic house museum.","period_of_significance":"1793-98, 1882","architect_builder":"Samuel McIntire (architect); William Bell (landscape gardener); Richardson, Hartwell and Driver (1882 remodeling); Miss Nina Tupper (1917 redecoration)","architectural_style":"Adamesque-Federal; Colonial Revival (1882 remodeling)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as in excellent condition and open to visitors as a furnished historic house museum, owned by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.5406-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/43/7937/63793743/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/70000737_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000737/6ec705c06e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000737/6ec705c06e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Daderot at en.wikipedia","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lyman_Estate,_Waltham,_Massachusetts_-_view_of_greenhouse.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Daderot at en.wikipedia</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lyman_Estate,_Waltham,_Massachusetts_-_view_of_greenhouse.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63793743","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyman_Estate","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6708024"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/vale-the-70000737/"}