{"nrhp_refnum":"86001744","name":"Lasell Neighborhood Historic District","other_names":["See Also:Winslow--Haskell House"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by Woodland and Studio Rds., Aspen and Seminary Aves., and Grove St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Newton","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.340870965500045,"lon":-71.24659265245697,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-09-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 50.5-acre historic district in the Auburndale village of Newton, Massachusetts, bounded by Woodland Road, Studio Road, Aspen Avenue and Grove Street. It contains mostly mid- to late-nineteenth century houses plus buildings of Lasell Junior College.","why_significant":"The district is significant under Criterion A for the major role the Auburndale Female Seminary (later Lasell) played in the village's development in the second half of the nineteenth century. Under Criterion C, it is a cohesive group of residential and institutional buildings showing the architectural styles most common in Auburndale at the time. It retains its character as a middle-class railroad suburb.","narrative":"Lasell Neighborhood Historic District covers about 50 acres in Auburndale, in western Newton, Massachusetts. It is made up mainly of houses built between the mid- and late 1800s, along with a few buildings of Lasell Junior College. The area grew after railroad service reached the village in the 1830s and 1850s, when land south of the tracks was developed by local investors. Some of those investors also backed the Auburndale Female Seminary, which opened in 1851 and later became the college. Over time the school bought nearby houses for dormitories and classrooms. The district shows many styles of the period, including Italianate, Mansard, Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Shingle and Georgian Revival. Its best-known building is the Winslow-Haskell mansion, called The Castle, a Victorian Gothic residence built in 1870 and already listed separately. The district was listed because of the seminary's influence on the village and because the buildings form a cohesive group of the area's typical architecture.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Billings and Sleeper (Bragdon Hall, now demolished)","architectural_style":"Italianate, Mansard, Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Victorian Gothic, Shingle, Georgian Revival and Stick","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"General condition is very good. The district has a mix of institutional and private use, and Lasell Junior College owns thirty-five nineteenth-century residences in it. Bragdon Hall has been demolished.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:12:59.811174-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/56/7920/63792056/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/86001744.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86001744/d66a4fa8c1-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86001744/d66a4fa8c1-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NewtonMA_LasellNeighborhoodHD.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">User:Magicpiano</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NewtonMA_LasellNeighborhoodHD.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63792056","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lasell_Neighborhood_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6492935"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/lasell-neighborhood-historic-district-86001744/"}