The Brae Burn Road 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 ...

on Brae Burn and Windermere Roads in

Newton, Massachusetts Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is approximately west of downtown Boston. Newton resembles a patchwork of thirteen villages, without a city center. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the population of Ne ...

. It encompasses as modest residential subdivision that was laid out in the then-rural area of Auburndale in 1911. Many of its houses were designed by the regionally notable firm of

Gay & Proctor ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

, and represent a well-preserved collection of modestly scaled Craftsman and Colonial Revival style houses. The district includes 26 houses. 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 1990.

Description and history

Auburndale is a village and neighborhood in northwestern

. Brae Burn and Windermere Roads are located on the southeastern part of the neighborhood, bounded on the north by Greenough Road, on the south and west by Commonwealth Avenue (

Massachusetts Route 30 Route 30 is a east–west arterial route, connecting Grafton with Packard's Corner in Boston. Route 30 runs roughly parallel to the Massachusetts Turnpike and Route 9, but unlike those two larger highways, takes a more meandering path fr ...

), and on the east by Arapahoe Road. Brae Burn Road runs roughly north-south between Greenough and Commonwealth, and Windermere runs north from Commonwealth before bending west to end at Brae Burn Road. These roads were laid out in 1911, in a period of renewed growth following an economic downturn. More than a dozen houses were built on these two roads between 1911 and 1916, with the remainder built no later than 1940. The houses are generally moderately-scaled frame structures, almost all of which are either Craftsman or Colonial Revival in style. Seven houses were designed by the regionally notable firm of Gay and Proctor, while four of the houses built after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

were designed by C. C. Crowell, a prolific local architect. Many of the early houses (including most of the Gay and Proctor houses) were apparently built on speculation, and were marketed by Attwood, Pattee, and Potter of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Newton, Massachusetts Historic districts in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Colonial Revival architecture in Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts

Description and history

See also

References