Hunnewell Estates Historic District

Hunnewell Estates is a family compound of houses, gardens and farm buildings in the southwest part of Wellesley, Massachusetts, spread across 387 acres between the Charles River and Lake Waban. The core is made up of 18th-century houses bought by the Welles family, which Horatio Hollis Hunnewell expanded after he built his own house, "Wellesley," in 1851. He added lodges, a conservatory, an Italian garden with tiered topiary, and a nine-acre pinetum. From the 1870s he built houses for his children, using architects such as John H. Sturgis and Henry Van Brunt for early Queen Anne designs, and later his son's firm, Shaw and Hunnewell, for Queen Anne and Georgian Revival work. A few changes followed in the 1930s. The district counts 29 contributing buildings, 22 structures and 3 sites. It is significant for its architecture and for the social history of wealthy Bostonians' summer estates, and the estate's prominence is tied to the town's naming in 1881.