The Nathaniel Topliff Allen Homestead is a historic house at 35 Webster Street in the village of West Newton, 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 ...

. The Greek Revival house is notable as the home of Nathaniel Topliff Allen (1823–1903), an innovative educator in the mid-19th century. Allen's pioneering work influenced the development of new teaching methods taught at the state

normal school A normal school or normal college is an institution created to Teacher education, train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high s ...

(established in Newton, now

Framingham State University Framingham State University (Framingham State or FSU) is a public university in Framingham, Massachusetts. It offers undergraduate programs as well as Graduate school, graduate programs, including MBA, MEd, and Master of Science, MS. History As ...

). The house is listed in 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 ...

, and is currently owned by Newton Cultural Alliance.

Description and history

The Allen Homestead, located at the northeast corner of Webster and Cherry Streets in West Newton village, consists of three connected wood-frame structures: Allen's -story Greek Revival house with a temple front facing Webster Street, built about 1848–1852 (probably by Milo Lucas, a local builder); a two-story flat-roofed structure, built in the late 19th century as a dormitory; and a -story gable-roofed schoolhouse. In 1847,

Horace Mann Horace Mann (May 4, 1796August 2, 1859) was an American educational reformer, slavery abolitionist and Whig politician known for his commitment to promoting public education. In 1848, after public service as Secretary of the Massachusetts Sta ...

, the Massachusetts Secretary of Education, hired Allen to operate a model school in Newton, where students could be taught using methods developed at the nearby

Normal School A normal school or normal college is an institution created to Teacher education, train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high s ...

. Allen had attended

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute () (RPI) is a private research university in Troy, New York, with an additional campus in Hartford, Connecticut. A third campus in Groton, Connecticut closed in 2018. RPI was established in 1824 by Stephen Van ...

and taught previously in a number of public high-schools before coming to West Newton. Allen's school became an internationally renowned showcase for teaching methods, and rapidly outgrew its facilities. When the Normal School moved to

Framingham Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The city proper covers with a popul ...

(becoming the school now known as

), Allen purchased its building to continue running his school,

West Newton English and Classical School West Newton English and Classical School, also known as the Allen School, was a model school in West Newton, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1854 by Nathaniel Topliff Allen (1823–1903), an educator and protege of Horace Mann ...

. Allen's innovations included the first-ever

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

, and an emphasis on physical fitness, exemplified in part by the school's large (for the period) gymnasium. Nathaniel Allen married Caroline Swift Bassett of Nantucket in 1853; their daughters also taught at the school.

References

{{Authority control Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Newton, Massachusetts Houses completed in 1848 History of education in the United States Greek Revival houses in Massachusetts

Description and history

See also

References