The John Buckingham House is a historic house at 33–35 Waban Street in the

Newton Corner Newton Corner is one of the thirteen villages within the city of Newton in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. Newton Corner borders Brighton, a neighborhood of Boston, as well as the city of Watertown, Massachusetts. Newton Corne ...

village of

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 ...

. Built about 1864, it is a good local example of

Second Empire architecture Second Empire style, also known as the Napoleon III style, is a highly eclectic style of architecture and decorative arts, which uses elements of many different historical styles, and also made innovative use of modern materials, such as i ...

, typical of built at that time for upper middle class commuters to

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 ...

. It 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 1986.

Description and history

The John Buckingham House stands in a densely built residential area northwest of the center of Newton Corner, on the north side of Waban Street opposite Hovey Street. Its lot is fronted by a low stone retaining wall, which continues to a posted drive on the adjacent property, where the house's original carriage house is located. The house is a -story wood-frame structure, with a bell-cast mansard roof with fish-scale slate shingles and segmented-arch dormers. The cornice is denticulated, and there are single-story projecting bay windows on both sides, topped by bracketed roofs. A single-story porch extends across the front, supported by bracketed chamfered square posts; a similar porch is set on the right side near the rear. The neighborhood was laid out sometime after the railroad arrived at Newton Corner in 1844, and may have been designed by landscape architect Alexander Wadsworth. This house is estimated to have been built c. 1864, and was bought in 1866 by John Buckingham, pastor of the Chestnut Hill Unitarian Church. It remained in his family until the 1970s. The Second Empire style house is typical of commuter-oriented housing built in Newton Corner after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, and is notable for the surviving carriage house. Carriage house with iron fence

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buckingham, John, House Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Newton, Massachusetts Second Empire architecture in Massachusetts Houses completed in 1864

Description and history

See also

References