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Edmund Dwight House

Houses in Arlington, MassachusettsHouses in Winchester, MassachusettsHouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Winchester, Massachusetts
WinchesterMA EdmundDwightHouse
WinchesterMA EdmundDwightHouse

The Edmund Dwight House is a historic house at 5 Cambridge Street in Winchester, Massachusetts, straddling the town line with Arlington. It was built in 1858 in an Italianate style. It was one of the first and grandest country houses built in Winchester at a time when Boston businessmen were seeking to build such houses. Edmund Dwight, the wealthy businessman who was its first owner, was married to a great-granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson. The house's design is believed to be based loosely on that of Jefferson's Monticello. The house is sited for an expansive view of the Upper Mystic Lake. This residence was also home to Claude Shannon, the father of Information theory, and his wife Betty Shannon. While living there, they installed a chair lift that took the rider from the home down to the lake.The house is a 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure, originally finished in clapboard siding. It is basically rectangular, with a rounded central bay on the eastern facade, facing the lake. A single-story porch wraps around three sides of the building. Significant alterations were made to the house in the 1890s, including the stuccoing of the exterior, and the addition of a two-story ell to the northeast corner. These changes were made under the auspices of local architect Robert Coit. A second, single-story, addition was made to the northwest corner in 1985. The original 12-acre (4.9 ha) property purchased by the Dwights was subdivided c. 1940, leaving the house on just 2 acres (0.81 ha). The house's stable was then converted to a residence, and stands on an adjacent lot in Arlington.The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Edmund Dwight House (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Edmund Dwight House
Cambridge Street,

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N 42.436111111111 ° E -71.154166666667 °
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Cambridge Street 11
01890
Massachusetts, United States
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WinchesterMA EdmundDwightHouse
WinchesterMA EdmundDwightHouse
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Mystic Dam
Mystic Dam

The Mystic Dam (and its gatehouse) are a historic dam and gatehouse between Lower and Upper Mystic Lakes in the suburbs north of Boston, Massachusetts. The dam was built in 1864–65 by the Charlestown Water Commission (Charlestown then being separate from Boston) as part of a water supply system. It was located at a narrow point between the Lower and Upper Mystic Lakes, with its west end in Arlington and its east end in Medford. The water system it was a part of eventually merged into the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC), predecessor to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR).As built, the dam was over 1,500 feet (460 m) long and 16 feet (4.9 m) high, with most of that length (about 1,000 feet (300 m)) consisting of earthen embankments lined with riprap and puddle clay. Near its center is a spillway area consisting of a series of square columns constructed of granite blocks and a masonry apron. These columns are grooved on their inner faces to facilitate the installation of stop logs. A wooden walkway with a plank railing ran across the top of the dam. A wooden fish ladder was built, but removed at a later date. A gatehouse on the Medford side was used to connect the upper lake to a brick-lined aqueduct that delivered the water to Charlestown. The lake area impounded by the dam is 186 acres (75 ha).The dam and gatehouse were each listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. By the early 2000s, the dam was known to not be in very good condition, with failing spillway masonry, erosion, and other damage to the dam's stonework. A major storm in 2006 flooded portions of the surrounding area, and highlighted the potential inability of the dam to handle a significant high-water event, leading to catastrophic flooding of downstream areas. Between 2010 and 2012 major work was undertaken to improve the dam's condition. A new spillway was constructed to the east of the old spillway, which received a new spillway apron. Work was done on the embankments and the shores near the upper areas of the dam, and a new fish ladder and bridge were built. The historic gatehouse was also rehabilitated, and modern controls were added, enabling improved control over the water levels behind the dam.

Everett Avenue–Sheffield Road Historic District
Everett Avenue–Sheffield Road Historic District

The Everett Avenue–Sheffield Road Historic District is a historic district encompassing one of the finest residential districts from the turn of the 20th century in Winchester, Massachusetts. The district is roughly triangular in shape, bounded in the north by Bacon Street, on the west by Church Street, Sheffield West, and Sheffield Road, and on the south and heast by the Upper Mystic Lake and Mystic Valley Parkway. It is characterized by winding roads, with relatively large houses on well-proportioned lots. Most of the houses were built between 1890 and 1916, and all exhibit some architectural sophistication. A significant number of properties were designed by either F. Patterson Smith or Dexter Blaikie, two local architects. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.This residential area was not formally laid out as a subdivision. It was in this area that Massachusetts politician and orator Edward Everett had an estate in the 1850s; it is for him that Everett Avenue is named. The earliest house is at 8 Everett Avenue, built in 1880, in the Colonial Revival style, which predominated in construction until the advent of the 20th century. One of the finest examples of this style is the Smith-designed Chadwick House at 24 Everett Avenue, combining stucco walls with brick trim on the corners and window trim.Houses built in the 20th century tended by be either Neo-Rationalist, Tudor Revival, or Craftsman in their styling. Many houses in this time were designed either by Dexter Blaikie, Phineas Nickerson, or both in partnership. A house Blaikie designed for himself, at 45 Everett Avenue, is a relatively simple example of Tudor Revival styling. A more elaborate example of that style, designed by Blaikie and Nickerson is the Martin House at 23 Sheffield Road. The district includes a total of 129 properties, of which only 20 do not contribute to its significance. These are mostly excluded because they do not meet the normal 50-year cutoff period for historical significance, although a few buildings have been compromised by unsympathetic alterations.