Sumner Hill Historic District

Sumner Hill is a hilltop residential district in Jamaica Plain, Boston, developed mainly between 1850 and 1900 on land subdivided from large earlier estates, beginning with the David Greenough property. Its curving streets, deep setbacks, puddingstone retaining walls and mature trees give it a park-like feel. The houses show nearly every major nineteenth-century style, including Italianate, Second Empire, Stick, Queen Anne, Shingle and Colonial Revival. Boston architects such as Ware and Van Brunt, William Ralph Emerson and Clarence Blackall designed some of them, and local builder John D. Webster designed others. Two Gothic Revival churches and the Tudor Revival former high school of 1901 add public buildings of high quality. The district was listed for its architecture and for what it shows about commuter suburb growth after the Boston and Providence railroad arrived in 1834. Alterations have been modest, mostly synthetic siding, enclosed porches and small additions.