{"nrhp_refnum":"86001756","name":"Old Chestnut Hill Historic District","other_names":["See also:Old Chestnut Hill Historic District (Boundary Incre"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Along Hammond St. and Chestnut Hill Rd. roughly bounded by Beacon St. and Essex Rd., and Suffolk Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Newton","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.32800100000006,"lon":-71.16670792784227,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-09-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 59.7-acre residential historic district in the Chestnut Hill village of Newton, Massachusetts, centered on Hammond Street and bounded by Beacon Street, Brookline and Route 9. It contains houses mostly built between 1880 and 1900, plus a church and a school.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the district keeps its integrity of location, design, setting, materials and workmanship, and reflects Newton's nineteenth-century growth as a fashionable Boston suburb. It exemplifies an upper-class suburban enclave of the 1880s and 1890s, with architect-designed houses, picturesque planning and careful landscaping in a uniformly residential setting. It is argued to meet Criterion C.","narrative":"Old Chestnut Hill is a residential neighborhood in the east of Newton, Massachusetts, laid out along Hammond Street, which was referred to as a highway by 1658. Hammond family farms occupied the land for generations. After Beacon Street was extended in 1850 and a railroad station opened, the Lee family subdivided their farm and promoted the area to Boston businessmen. Development grew faster after the Circuit Railroad opened in 1886. The district holds large houses on spacious, landscaped lots, built mainly between 1880 and 1900 in Colonial Revival, Georgian Revival, Tudor Revival and Shingle styles. Several were designed by known architects, including Welles Bosworth and William Ralph Emerson. Two Hammond houses survive, one dated 1723 and one c.1662, the latter considered the oldest structure in Newton. The district also includes the Church of the Redeemer and Chestnut Hill Chapel. It was listed for retaining the character of an upper-class late nineteenth-century suburb.","period_of_significance":"1880 to 1900","architect_builder":"Welles Bosworth (190 Chestnut Hill Road); Simon Stone (Slade-Hovey House); William Ralph Emerson (517 Hammond Street); Henry Vaughan (Church of the Redeemer); Charles Follen (Chestnut Hill Chapel)","architectural_style":"Colonial Revival, Georgian Revival, Tudor Revival and Shingle styles, with some Georgian and Italianate examples","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Present use is residential and general condition is excellent. The Richardson-designed Chestnut Hill railroad station was demolished around 1960.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:02.044379-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/70/7916/63791670/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/86001756.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86001756/39e5c2360c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86001756/39e5c2360c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NewtonMA_HammondStreet_ChestnutHillHD.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_HammondStreet_ChestnutHillHD.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"90000007","name":"Old Chestnut Hill Historic District (Boundary Increase)","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/massachusetts/old-chestnut-hill-historic-district-boundary-increase-90000007/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63791670","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Chestnut_Hill_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14715794"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/old-chestnut-hill-historic-district-86001756/"}