Wakefield Park 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 ...

encompassing a portion of a late-19th/early-20th century planned development in western

Wakefield, Massachusetts Wakefield is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, incorporated in 1812 and located about north-northwest of Downtown Boston. Wakefield's population was 27,090 at the 2020 census. Wakefield offers ...

. The district encompasses sixteen properties on of land out of the approximately that comprised the original development. Most of the properties in the district are on Park Avenue, with a few located on immediately adjacent streets. The Wakefield Park development was laid out 1888 by J. S. Merrill, a local developer, on land southwest of the town center that had been used as farmland until the 1850s. Merrill developed some of the properties himself, and instituted deed restrictions on the sale of lots to ensure that the area would contain only high quality upper-middle-class homes. In the 1890s, when development in the area was at its peak, Merrill partnered with Charles Hanks, who successfully marketed the development as a healthy "garden suburb" alternative to city living. Architecturally, the houses that were built exhibited a variety of styles popular around the turn of the 20th century, often mixing architectural elements from different styles. One example of this eclecticism is the house at 8 Park Avenue: built c. 1900, it is a -story wood-frame house with a steeply pitched Colonial Revival-style roof, but with an entrance that is stylistically Craftsman/Bungalow. Its corner tower is typical of Queen Anne Victorians. A number of houses, including thouse at 2 and 4 Park, combine Shingle and Colonial Revival styles, while 24 Park is a more typical Queen Anne Victorian. 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.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Historic districts in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Wakefield, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Wakefield, Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts

See also

References