Front Street Historic District

Front Street Historic District covers roughly 77 acres on the western edge of Weymouth, Massachusetts, climbing a hillside from the Weymouth Landing commercial area. It holds 155 contributing resources: 145 buildings, six sites and four objects. Most are single-family houses, with garages and other outbuildings, ranging from an early 18th-century Cape Cod cottage to mid-20th-century homes. Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival examples show how local taste changed over time. Open land east of Front Street holds Ashwood Cemetery (1819), Weymouth Village Cemetery (about 1843) with its Gothic Revival chapel, the Colonial Revival Hunt School and Weston Park. The district reflects Weymouth Landing's growth after the arrival of the railroad in 1849 and the boot and shoe industry, whose small shops survive among the houses in altered form. Prosperous residents built fine houses here, and the park occupies the former estate where abolitionist Maria Weston Chapman spent her last years.