The Avon Hill Historic District is a residential
historic district
A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...
near
Porter Square
Porter Square is a neighborhood in Cambridge and Somerville, Massachusetts, located around the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Somerville Avenue, between Harvard and Davis Squares. The Porter Square station serves both the MBTA Red Li ...
in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
. Set atop Avon Hill southwest of
Porter Square
Porter Square is a neighborhood in Cambridge and Somerville, Massachusetts, located around the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Somerville Avenue, between Harvard and Davis Squares. The Porter Square station serves both the MBTA Red Li ...
, this subdivision, laid out about 1870, contains a concentration of the finest Victorian and Second Empire residential buildings in the city. The district was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1983.
Description and history
Avon Hill was originally known as Jones Hill, and was used agriculturally from the mid-17th to mid-19th centuries. The five acres at the top of the hill were sold for development in 1869 to Henry Melendez and Gilbert Dexter, two prominent local businessmen. Each built a fine Second Empire house on Washington Street; that of Melendez survives, while Dexter's burned down in 1939. The area was built out by 1890 with architecturally distinguished houses on large landscaped lots, mainly for the owners of local businesses. Four of the houses were designed by the prominent firm of
Hartwell & Richardson, while a number of the others were designed by other local architects. Only two houses in the district were built after 1900.
The historic district extends along Washington Street between Upland and Lancaster Streets, and along Lancaster Street most of the way east to
Massachusetts Avenue Massachusetts Avenue may refer to:
* Massachusetts Avenue (metropolitan Boston), Massachusetts
** Massachusetts Avenue (MBTA Orange Line station), a subway station on the MBTA Orange Line
** Massachusetts Avenue (MBTA Silver Line station), a stati ...
. It also includes all of Walnut Street, most of Arlington Streets, and a few houses on Agassiz and Humboldt Streets, and on Hillside Avenue, all of which abut one of the other streets. There are 44 properties, all residential. Most of them are large -story wood-frame buildings; one building has brick walls, while another has a combination of brick and wooden finishes. All were originally built as single-family dwellings, but some have since been divided internally into multiple living units.
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See also
* National Register of Historic Places listings in Cambridge, Massachusetts
References
{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Historic districts in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Neighborhoods in Cambridge, Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts