Pleasant Street Historic District

Pleasant Street in Belmont, seven miles northwest of Boston, preserves a neighborhood of sixty-eight buildings and two monuments, most of them nineteenth century houses. Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, Second Empire and Queen Anne styles appear along the route, with stone walls, shade trees and hillside lawns shaping the setting. The oldest building is the Captain Stephen Frost House, built about 1763. Landmarks include the 1881 Town Hall by Henry W. Hartwell, the 1902 Classical Revival Old Library by William R. Emerson, and the 1853 Italianate and Second Empire William Flagg Homer House. The street follows an old path from Arlington Center to Watertown. After rail service arrived, wealthy Boston merchants built summer and year-round homes here. Winslow Homer lived in the district and painted works here. Roscoe Pound, later Dean of Harvard Law School, lived in the Joseph Yates House, and David Mack founded the Orchard Hill boarding school. The district was listed for its architecture and these associations.