Woodbourne Historic District

Woodbourne is a 30-acre residential neighborhood in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston, laid out on land that began as several mid-19th-century estates. Most of its 424 resources were built in the first four decades of the 20th century. Development followed three patterns: a northern section subdivided from 1898 around the Olney estate, a core section built from 1911 to 1913 as a model housing scheme for the Boston Dwelling House Company to designs by Robert Anderson Pope, and a smaller southern section laid out by John Goodway on former North End Mission land. Streets curve with the hills, and old pines, oaks and stone walls survive from the estates. The houses are modest single-family, two-family and multi-family homes in Queen Anne, Shingle, Colonial Revival, Dutch Colonial, Tudor Revival and Craftsman styles. The neighborhood is recognized as a nearly intact record of early suburban housing, reform housing ideas and the growth of streetcar and automobile suburbs.