Walking Tour Map of Lasell Campus

Areas in blue are presently owned by Lasell College. Those in magenta were formerly owned.
Missing photos removed 7-57-99 in order to save on server storage space.
 
 

Start at Grove St. & Woodland Rd
Woodland Rd

101 Lasell Seminary/Cushman Hall/Bragdon Hall  (ca. 1850, demolished 1973). The original main hall with classrooms and dormitory space. 120 Clark Cottage 1852 Italianate with later changes. Built by Abijah Johnson as a private residence. Was a boy's school before purchased by Lasell in 1892.

132 Hoag 1890 Late Queen Anne style. Lived in by local historian Louise Peloubet. Octagonal room is unique.

142
 
 

145 Karandon House 1898 Name is from Kate Ransom Bragdon was built as a president's house, then used as a dormitory.
 
 

150 Converse House The house at 150 Woodland Road was built in 1896, and represents a blending of the Shingle and Colonial Revival styles. Classical detailing in the design of the doorway, the Palladian-style window, and the delicate, Adamesque moldings is combined with a house form derived from the New England saltbox farmhouse. Shingled exterior walls and the 3-story turret-like bay on the Woodland Road facade are Shingle Style elements.  Lasell since 1958.


155 Plummer House 1865 Fredreick Plummer, long time resident generously contributed to the Auburndale Library. Lasell health center since 1945.  Now used as Lasell Inn Bed & Breakfast

173 Cushing Hall 1907 Formerly houseof Rev Melancthon Wheeler.  Lasell owned since 1938

174 Carpenter Hall Both Converse House and the Colonial Revival style Carpenter Hall, located across Maple Street at 174 Woodland Road (ca. 1895) are used by Lasell College as dormitories. To accommodate twentieth century expansion the college has constructed new brick buildings and also acquired a large number of neighborhood residences. Today, the college is the guardian of a significant portion of Auburndale's 19th century architectural heritage.

188 Case Across Woodland Road stand two houses of starkly contrasting character. The smaller house, No. 188, (ca. 1865) was built by Abijah S. Johnson for his son Frederick in the conservative Italianate style which he favored. Frederick Johnson achieved considerable financial success as a "weigher and inspector of hides" in Boston

195 A stone Mansard cottage (ca. 1885) stands just west of the Butler House at 198 Woodland Avenue. Random rubblestone is used in the walls, and sandstone quoins frame the corners of the 1 1/2 story house. A patterned slate roof and intricately gouged wood trim in the dormer windows and entrance porch complete the handsome design. Dr. Frank Donaldson practiced medicine for many years here.

204 Gardner Hall  In 1883 Frederick Johnson erected a symbol of his success, the high style Queen Anne mansion at 204 Woodland Avenue. Symmetry was avoided in Queen Anne designs, as illustrated in the numerous projections, planes, and grouping of elements in this residence. Surface detail was also considered desirable, exhibited here in the use of clapboards, patterned shingles and belt coursing, and in the variety of window sizes and positions.
 
 

221 Presidents House A fine example of the Georgian Revival style, the house at 221 Woodland Road (ca. 1892) was purchased by Lasell in 1958, and is now the college president's house. The strictly symmetrical residence features an abundance of classical detailing, which includes a modillion cornice, fluted Roman Ionic pilasters, and a semicircular portico. The invention of machines able to carve intricate ornament made elements like the three swan's neck pediment window enframements on the main facade readily available, but still expensive.
239 Bancroft House 1886, Stick style, Lasell since 1957.
Washington

Woodland Park Hotel 1888 "For in olden days, Boston residents traveled by horse and carriage to this well-known resort to spend a weekend in the country. The comfortable suites of this landmark hotel housed 110 students in the main part of the building and 19 in the "Casino" and it also contained a kitchen and dining room. This building was spacious and had a particularly gracious atmosphere and despite the imperfections found in a any structure of such age, those who lived there developed a special fondness for it. During World War I when it was not occupied by Lasell's students, the school opened the building to the Newton Hospital to use for their overflow of flu patients. Woodland Park School, the Junior school which was in operation from 1918-1939 was located in the Casino, for the greater part of its lifetime. In more recent years this portion of the building was converted into classrooms for the secretarial department and the living quarters were used by seniors. (Lasell Leaves 1951)

Lasell Secretarial School 1918-1939 (demolished 1951 and land sold off to developers)

Studio Ave.

Rockwell Estate Child Development Center 1907 Bungalow on 6 acres, Lasell since 1964

Vista




9 Haskell 1888 for Philip Butler, a fresco painter. He painted the blue ceiling w/ stars in the Castle.  Lasell since 1945.

15 Vista Part of the Haskell estate 1874 Lasell since 1969.
Seminary Ave

49 Home of George Eager circa 1873, carriage house 1886.  Lasell since 1969.

Myrtle

40 Kirby House.  Vernacular cottage 1886 probably for gardener of Williams estate (site of Williams school across the street).  Lasell since 1945.

Grove

Carter Hall (Yamawaki Center)
Carter Hall is a Queen Anne style building that contained a swimming pool, gymnasium, and bowling alley when constructed for the Lasell Seminary in 1884. The polygonal corner tower, accented with patterned shingles, colored glass windows, and a tall cap is the focal point of the design. This section was the original president's house.  Originally linked by a covered bridge to Bradgon Hall, the Seminary's main building, Carter Hall housed Lasell Junior College's art studios. The building was completely renovated about 1993 and is now know as the Yamawaki Center. The tower, and the entrance stairway were retained intact.  The gymnasium was converted into a lecture hall which has been made available to the ACA for its annual meeting.

44 Sweet House, bought by Lasell in 1950, 3 tennis courts built behind, then house only sold.
 
 
Maple

54 Conn House 1880's Lasell since 1938, sold to by Bob & ML Smith in 1975
 
 

62 Clarke East

69 Keaver House (Betsy Winter)

70 The white cottage

71 Chandler 1898 Lasell since 1938

85 Ordway 1959 to replace original Bancroft House.

Maple Terrace

9

15 Briggs

 
23 Maple Terrace was created out of one large house lot in 1889. The original house, now located at 23 Maple Terrace, was sited near the shingled house at 150 Woodland Road. The 1889 sub-division laid out six houselots, three with frontage on Woodland Road, and three along the new dead-end street. William A. Alcott, author of scores of books of "counsel and instruction," was an early resident of the original house. Alcott's "avowed object in life was the prevention of vice, disease and poverty, but up to the time of his death, it remained unfulfilled."
Berkeley

19 Ruth Mott


Music Club

Seminary drawing from King's Handbook of Newton 1889.. Postcards from the collection of Sherwood Norton. Black & white photos from Lasell's First Century, Ruth Hopkins Spooner The Abbey Press, Boston 1951.  Color photos by Ralph Johnston, Nikon F 24mm lens.

Ref. Lasell A History of The First Junior College for Women, Donald J. Winslow, Nimrod Press, Boston 1987

Ref Barbara Thibault paper on Lasell Houses 1979

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AUBURNDALE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION copley@ultranet.com" Ralph Johnston, Webmaster

 

 
 
 
 
 

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