This survey of house histories in the Waltham Highlands includes the part of Waltham lying north of the former Massachusetts Central Railroad right of way (just south of Guinan Street), south of the "Lanes" section of the Piety Corner area (just north of Dale Street), west of Bacon Street, and east of Prospect Hill Park (see maps at end of section).  For completeness, Dale Street east of Bacon Street has also been included. Between 1850 and 1900, Waltham's population increased five-fold from about 4,500 to 23,500, with an average increase of about 40% every ten years.  At the beginning of this period, the Highlands area was primarily private woodlots, with some agricultural land near Bacon Street.  Through this period, much of the area was converted to a good quality residential area for the rising middle class and skilled worker population, which was increasing and spreading out from the more congested industrial areas near the river.  This is the story of that development, house by house.   Individual house histories can be found here or under the "List of Homes" tab at the top of the webpage, and subarea histories can be found under their individual tabs at the top of the webpage.

General Background

January 30, 2021, August 26, 2021

(Maps at bottom of page)

For the purposes of this survey of house histories, the Waltham Highlands is considered to be the part of Waltham lying north of the former Massachusetts Central Railroad right of way (just south of Guinan Street), south of the "Lanes" section of the Piety Corner area (just north of Dale Street), west of Bacon Street, and east of Prospect Hill Park (see map at end of section). However, some houses on and off Dale Street east of Bacon Street will also be included. The survey is also limited to houses built before around 1900, or shortly thereafter. Before the mid-1800s, most of the western portion of this land was heavily forested (used as wood lots since colonial times), while some the eastern portion near Bacon Street was used for farming, as well as for wood lots and peat bogs. Geographically, Bacon Street marks the approximate dividing line between upland areas to the west (rising towards Prospect Hill) and wet meadow lands to the east (merging into the Chester Brook, Beaver Brook, and Charles River plains).

Historically, the area is interesting as the meeting point of three of the major, early land grants, which determined the later development of land ownership in the area (see map at end of section). Waltham was originally part of colonial Watertown, which was founded by English settlers in 1630, the same year Boston was founded. Colonial Watertown originally included today's Waltham, Weston, and much of Belmont, as well as today's Watertown. Starting in 1636, the founders of Watertown granted to themselves as individual "freemen" much of the land of the town, instead of keeping it in common as was done in the other towns comprising the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The first set of land grants, in 1636, was called "The Great Dividends" land grants, and consisted of mostly rectangular lots between about 20 and 60 acres in size, with their northern sides aligned with the boundary between today's Lexington and Waltham. For this reason, many of today's roads and house lots in Waltham still have this orientation. The second set of land grants, in 1637, was called the "Beaver Brook Plowlands" land grants and involved much of the flatter land in the Chester Brook and Beaver Brook plains near the Charles River. The boundaries of these grants were more or less aligned with Main Street. And, the third set of land grants of interest, was the "Lieu of Township" land grants of 1638, which were south of the Great Dividend grants and were aligned with them and the Lexington border. The point where these three sets of land grants met was approximately at the rear of the back yard of 35 Summit Street next to Galen Street. There is a trace of an old stone wall along the back of the yard, which may be marking the dividing line between the Great Dividend land grants and the Lieu of Township grants. If so, this wall may have been here since around 1670, when the final surveying of all these grants was carried out.

Before the mid-1800s, there were only two roads going north from Main Street near this area: Bacon Street and Prospect Hill Road. Main Street, itself, follows along the route of a major native American trail, which preceded English colonial settlement, going west from the coast, along Main Street and then Weston Street through what would later become Waltham. Afterwards, it became part of the Boston Post Road system. Bacon Street is one of the oldest streets in Waltham, dating back to, at least, the 1730s. Its original name appears to have been "The Way to the School House", and it connected Main Street to the first school house built in what would become Waltham, in 1731. Originally, the route of Bacon Street jogged to the west along the portion of today's Farnsworth Street that runs in front of the Plympton School, and then went north along today's Hazel Street, continuing along this alignment to merge with today's Bacon Street just south of the intersection of today's Lexington Street and Totten Pond Road. The first school house was located near this intersection. This location, known as Piety Corner, was one of the earliest sections of Waltham to be settled, in the later 1600s. The jog to the west was probably to keep the road on higher ground, avoiding the wet meadows to the east. Bacon Street, including the Hazel Street jog also followed original colonial land-grant lot lines from the 1600s. At some later time, the Hazel Street section of Bacon Street was also called "Skunk Lane", possibly after it was abandoned following the straightening of Bacon Street in the mid-1800s.

The only other major early road in this area was Prospect Hill Road, which was originally laid out in 1731, in order to give the farms north and west of Prospect Hill access to Main Street, and also, probably, to give woodlot owners access to their lots on the hill. The lower portion of the road is much as it exists, today, except that it started on Prospect Hill Avenue; however, the upper portion continued into what is today's Prospect Hill Park, through the southern gate and along most of what is today's paved park road (now called Glen Road).

Although the areas of Piety Corner and along Main Street were settled in the 1600s, there were no houses built along and west of Bacon Street outside these areas prior to the mid-1800s. It was at that time that the street was straightened and improved, and that residential development began in the area. In addition to some development occurring along Bacon Street, three individuals purchased large lots in the area at the time. These later formed the bases for large scale residential developments (see map at end of section).

Dale-Bacon Area: The first large land purchase west of Bacon Street was by Oel Farnsworth in 1847. In that year he purchased the 60 acre wood lot of John Clark on the west side of Bacon Street, stretching west from Hazel Street (old Bacon Street) all the way to Prospect Hill, and straddling today's Dale Street for most of its way. Farnsworth supplemented this purchase with two others in 1848 that brought his land all the way to today's Bacon Street, and stretching along Bacon Street from a little north of Kendall Park to about Farnsworth Street. This led to much of the development on and off of the part of Dale Street west of Bacon Street, including parts of Murray, Caughey, Hammond, Lord and Tomlin Streets, and Woodlawn Avenue. The land on the east of Bacon Street was also owned at this time by the Clark family, who sold it off to other members of the Swedenborgian church in Piety Corner, the Church of the New Jerusalem. This then led to the development of much of the land along the east side of Bacon Street, and Dale Street east of Bacon Street. For more details, click here.

Plympton-Bacon Area: The second large land purchase west if Bacon Street was by Ebenezer Plympton in 1851. He purchased a ten acre lot just south of Farnsworth's, straddling today's Plympton Street and stretching west from Bacon Street almost to today's Leonard Street, on the north of Plympton Street, and to today's Hammond Street, on the south of it. This led to the development of the eastern end of Plympton Street as well as Plympton Avenue and parts of Caughey and Murray Street. For more details click here.

Lawrence Estates Area: The third large land purchase west of Bacon Street was by Frederick Lawrence in 1855, whose lot was immediately south of Farnsworth's and stretched from Plympton's lot to Prospect Hill. Although Lawrence owned the land from 1855, it was not developed for residential housing until after his death in the 1880s by his heirs. This early planned suburban development was called the Lawrence Estates. This included the development of Lawrence, Leonard, and Summit Streets, the northern section of Irving Street, the western end of Plympton Street, and the northern part of Hammond Street. For more details click here.

Guinan Street Area: In addition to these three early and large land acquisitions, a fourth, somewhat smaller one west of Bacon Street, by William Guinan in 1873, led to the development of Guinan Street and the housing along it. For more details click here.

Portion of 1738 Map of Waltham as drawn by Edmund L. Sanderson in 1936 showing original land grants of 1630s.