Newtonville Historic District (Boundary Increase)

This 7.82-acre addition to Newtonville's historic district covers two separate areas in Newton, Massachusetts. One is a compact commercial and institutional core along Walnut Street; the other is a group of houses on Birch Hill Road, Lowell Avenue and Otis Street. The Walnut Street section is made up of one-story masonry commercial blocks and banks built mostly between 1919 and 1938. Anchors include the Gothic Revival Methodist Church, the 1896 Masonic Hall and the 1938 Classical Revival branch library. Commercial growth followed the breakup of the Austin Mitchel estate after 1917. Birch Hill Road was laid out in the early 1890s by Clara S. Pulsifer, and most of its houses predate 1900. Number 36 was the home of architect Hubert G. Ripley. The extension was proposed because the village center is one of Newton's most intact, showing early 20th century growth and the services villages offered, and because it complements the residential district listed in 1986.