{"nrhp_refnum":"86001766","name":"West Newton Hill Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by Highland Ave., Lenox, Hampshire, and Chestnut Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Newton","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.343539434000036,"lon":-71.22067769491963,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-09-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 36-acre residential historic district on the summit and north slope of West Newton Hill in Newton, Massachusetts, with 73 buildings and an 1903 bronze fountain, built mainly between 1860 and 1910.","why_significant":"The district is argued to be a cohesive grouping of high-style Queen Anne, Shingle Style and Colonial Revival houses. It shows West Newton's growth as a fashionable suburb for Boston businessmen, many prominent in Newton's social and political life. It meets criteria A, B and C.","narrative":"West Newton Hill Historic District is a 36-acre residential neighborhood of large single-family houses on the summit and north slope of a hill in Newton, Massachusetts. It contains 73 buildings and a small bronze fountain installed in 1903. Most of the 58 contributing houses went up between 1880 and 1900 in the Queen Anne, Shingle and Colonial Revival styles, on generous lots. The hill was wooded and nearly empty until streets were laid out after the railroad arrived in the 1830s and 1840s. Developers then subdivided the land as Sylvan Heights, and later builders opened Regent, Lenox and Valentine streets. The district matters as a record of West Newton's growth into a fashionable suburb for Boston businessmen and as a collection of high-style period architecture. Notable pieces include the 1887 Queen Anne house by Bertrand Taylor at 304 Otis Street and a group of Shingle Style houses on Lenox Street.","period_of_significance":"1860-1910","architect_builder":"Bertrand Taylor (304 Otis Street); Eugene L. Clark (82 Lenox Street); Willard Sears (builder of 274 Otis Street); Edward Leland (developer-builder of Otis Street houses); Anne Whitney (sculptor of the Lambert Fountain)","architectural_style":"Queen Anne, Shingle Style and Colonial Revival, with some Italianate, Mansard, Stick Style and Richardsonian Romanesque examples","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"Present use residential; general condition stated as good. Fifteen of the buildings are non-contributing because of post-1907 construction.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:01.329349-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/59/7919/63791959/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/86001766.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86001766/4aabfc6bd0-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86001766/4aabfc6bd0-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NewtonMA_WestNewtonHillHD.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_WestNewtonHillHD.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63791959","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Newton_Hill_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7986076"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/west-newton-hill-historic-district-86001766/"}