East Main Street Historic District (Waltham, Massachusetts)

East Main Street Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
House on East Main Street
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Location	Roughly E. Main St. from Townsend St. to Chamberlain Ter., Waltham, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°22′37″N 71°13′39″W / 42.37694°N 71.22750°W / 42.37694; -71.22750
Built	1844
Architectural style	Colonial Revival, Greek Revival, Italianate
MPS	Waltham MRA
NRHP reference No.	89001498[1]
Added to NRHP	September 28, 1989

The East Main Street Historic District is a small residential historic district in Waltham, Massachusetts. It encompasses part of an area that was, before the 1813 construction of the Boston Manufacturing Company further west, developing as a center of the community. Because of the company's economic influence, the center was more fully developed further west, and East Main Street became a fashionable area for upper class housing. The four houses on the south side of East Main Street between Townsend Street and Chamberlain Terrace are a well-preserved remnant of this later period.^[2] The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.^[1]

The Lyman Reed House, at 436 Main Street, is the oldest of the four houses. Built in 1844, it is one of a few temple-front Greek Revival houses in the city. It has a full suite of high-style Greek Revival features, including pilastered corner boards, a full entablature, and full-length windows on the first floor of the main facade. The newest of the houses is the Charles P. Nutting House at 446 Main Street. Built c. 1900, it is a Colonial Revival structure with significant Queen Anne and Shingle style elements. Its gambrel roof sweeps down to the first floor, where it covers a veranda that extends across the front. The veranda has a fieldstone skirt and piers, with a round arch entry.^[2]

The other two houses are both Italianate in style. The Francis Blanchard House, at 428 Main Street, was built c. 1850-54, and has Greek Revival features, including a pedimented gable end facing the street and corner pilasters, but it also has a typically Italianate round-arch window in the gable. The George W. Chamberlain House at 418 Main Street (built about the same time) is more strongly Italianate, with a projecting gable roof that has paired brackets and a crowning belvedere. Greek Revival elements include flushboard siding and corner pilasters.^[2]

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Waltham, Massachusetts

References

This page was last edited on 6 August 2023, at 05:17