In a rare opportunity for garden lovers and general snoops such as myself who always wondered what it would be like to tour the exterior of Wellesley’s most iconic property, the Hunnewell Estate on Rte. 16 in Wellesley was opened to the public this past weekend through the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days program. Horatio Hollis Hunnewell, who made his millions in railroads, mining, real estate, and other business ventures, built the house in the early 1850s as the country estate for his wife, Isabella Pratt Welles, for whom the town is named, and their nine children. Mr. Hunnewell was also an extraordinary horticulturist, credited with — among other things — popularizing rhododendrons in the United States.
I was salivating over the idea of finally getting close-up pictures of the expansive property, but when I emailed ahead to request permission, I was told politely but firmly that bloggers were not welcome to ply their trade, photographically speaking, on Garden Conservancy day. Devastated, I was left to envy the ocean tide-like pull and amazing connections that allowed blogger Patrice Todisco unfettered access earlier this summer.
Ah well, with ticket in hand and camera banished to my pocket, I toured the estate. The biggest impression as I wandered around was the sheer size of the property. It’s rare enough in Wellesley to visit a home that sits on a half-acre of land. Touring the over 32-acre lot made this cottage dweller practically agoraphobic. It was just so open and country estate-like and un-suburban, what with its multiple sheds, barns, garages, greenhouses, a tennis court, and a lakeside pavilion, some of which are in full use, some not. In one greenhouse grew a bumper crop of peaches and grapes, neatly espaliered and lovingly tended. Next to that was what once must have been an amazingly productive vegetable garden, now weed-choked and waiting for someone with the time and inclination to take it on as a project. The place isn’t manicured within an inch of its life — that would take five or more full-time gardeners. If I’ve learned anything from watching Downton Abbey, it’s that wars, inflation, and increased workers’ opportunity have conspired to force country houses everywhere to make do with a staff that is loyal, but bare-bones. Indeed, the place is a mixed metaphor of impressive scale and ragged beauty, of local gentry and rough edges, of romance and benign neglect.
Of course, the topiary garden was there in all its clipped glory, and it was interesting to view it looking down from the top of the 75-foot embankment rather than from the Lake Waban path looking up. And I always wanted to stand in that Italianate structure on the hill overlooking the lake. Well, now I have.
As I toured the pinery and the azalea garden, and strolled the crushed-stone paths appreciating the maturity and sheer variety of trees I thought, what a treat to walk around here. Then anxiety hit. What if it all gets sold and subdivided? What if all these beautiful, rare trees get chopped down to make way for “progress” of some sort? Nope, not happening. In keeping with its over 150-year history of philanthropy, the family has looked ahead, far ahead, and has placed the property under conservation restrictions, primarily with The Trustees of Reservations. This foresight protects the farmland, gardens, landscapes, vistas, and natural native landscapes from development. In fact, in 1988 the property was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Wandering through the pinery and the azalea garden, and gazing at Lake Waban, I sighed over the no pictures edict, but as a rules-follower at heart, I obeyed. However, when I described one of the many beautiful tableaux to Swellesley’s sketch artist, he came up with a pretty fair likeness of a statue in the conservatory:
As my car crunched down the gravel driveway and turned onto Washington Street, I looked back at my usual view of the place. Somehow, amid all the changes that are happening in every neighborhood in Wellesley, there old Horatio Hollace Hunnewell’s estate stands, same as ever. If he came back, he might hardly recognize the town. Until he got home, that is.
Bruce says
Who is living in the Hunnewell house on Lake Waban now? I find if VERY disaapointing and unfriendly that they have choson to lock public access to the path around the lake which has been there probably longer than the house itself. The other property owners have the grace to keep the path open. Freedom to ROAM and respect for the community is in order.
RBE says
I spent the first two years of my life, (1948-50), in the coachmen’s quarters of a magnificent barn on the Hunnewell Estates. I don’t know which estate it was but I remember the deep red shingle siding and dark green trim. My mom would tell us that she and my dad had to chase out the chickens to paint and wallpaper the apartment before moving in.
I remember the circular stairway leading up to the round tower of our living quarters, and the huge clock on the outside wall. By 1950 my folks bought their house in Needham but we would go back to swim in Lake Waban and visit the old neighborhood. One winter my dad took us on a skating trip up the frozen Charles to visit our former neighbors.
The barn is long gone but I still have a few photos of the building that has always been with me. Like the replies above, I too feel fortunate to have experienced life on the estates, if only for a short spell.
P.S.
ASH, I think you were one of those close neighbors. Not too many dads had D-7 dozers in that community.
ted siegan says
The Wellesley Historical Society has wonderful old photos of the property.
Local Designer says
Dear Deborah, I’m sorry you had to compare your visit to the Historical Hunnewell Estate to a TV show. This disappoints me on so many levels.
Hollywood is an illusion. Thousands of estates from the Gilded Age sit in ruin, run by the state, the towns or the small funds they are left with. I studied preservation architecture at the BAC and spent a semester in Hudson Valley NY. Dozens upon dozens of these glorious estate have been swooped up by the government or left abandoned with no money. Some sit as a museum much like Newport RI and MOST sit neglected, falling apart being run by the state. I worked on a famous house designed by Calvert Vaux (who designed Central Park) that we nicknamed “The Scooby Doo House”. It sits in a forest owned by the state of NY. My friend’s foot fell through the floor, we had to wear hard hats and we breathed in toxic lead paint etc. You get the idea. It still is not live able, has no plan for the future, and can’t even act as a wedding venue, like the lovely Elm Banks of your town. It’s sad and alone since the 1970s.
Mansions like these sit in ruin from Maine to Virginia. You should rethink how you viewed the HHH House through a television lens and in retrospect appreciate the pristine antique White House with with vast green lawns you drive by on your commute. It’s a true gem.
-A historical fanatic.
A. S. H. says
It was enjoyable to read the description of Ms. Brown’s visit to the Hunnewell estate in Wellesley, MA. I had the fortunate opportunity of being raised with my sister and brother on one of the “Wellesley” estate home properties, “The Oaks”. I resided there through my college years. “The Oaks” property was located between Washington Street and the Charles River. The main house and property of “The Oaks” still are owned and maintained by a Hunnewell family cousin.
As a family member, I had access to most of the estate properties. It was a special childhood to be raised in such a beautiful, rural setting just 16 miles west of downtown Boston. I attended a local public elementary school in Wellesley up through the 6th grade. Then it was off to 6 years at a local private boarding school that was located just outside of Boston in a southwestern suburb.
Following my high school graduation, I completed my college education in Cambridge, MA. Then I moved away from Wellesley and the Boston area to conduct my post-graduate studies in Florida. From that point on, I would only return to Wellesley for occasional family July 4th reunions.
So the “Wellesley” estate holds very special childhood memories for me. I had many acres of woodlands to wander and hike through as well as swimming, sailing and skating on Lake Waban. Although my father constructed a 100′ W x 400′ L skating pond for our family and my cousins on “The Oaks” property next to the Charles River so that we could learn to skate and play hockey there. My father purposely constructed the skating pond to be shallow so that it froze up by the late Fall or early Winter. Sometimes, we could skate as early as Thanksgiving weekend, but those days have passed with climate change. Now, one would be lucky to skate on it by early January.
I remember one winter blizzard in the late 1950’s where more than 30″ to 36″ of snow had fallen. The Wellesley Public Works Department asked my dad for assistance in clearing some of the local roads. Dad took me with him on his Catepillar D7 bulldozer. We cleared Dover Road from Washington Street to Grove Street and then down Grove Street to Charles River Road in Needham. However, there was an unfortunate side effect of using a tracked D7 bulldozer to plow snow. The metal tracks tore up the the asphalt pavement surface which became quite evident later that Spring when the snow was melted away. Dover road had became a very bumpy road surface to drive on that year which would require repaving. Needless to say, Public Works was not happy about that.
I experienced Hurricane Carol in the main house of “The Oaks” in 1954. A lot of trees were damaged and had to be cut down following that storm. It was followed by Hurricane Edna about 10 to 11 days later which did more tree damage and caused additional local flooding. That was a double whammy strike. but mother nature wasn’t finished with us. The next year, 1955, brought Hurricane Diane which created the worse flooding that I was to experience during my lifetime in Wellesley. The Charles River rose from its banks and flooded across Washington Street to Hunnewell Farm. The view from “The Oaks” was all a water-covered wetland west from Pond Road to well into South Natick. The flooding included the Stigmatine Fathers Seminary that was located on the property now belonging to the Massachusetts horticultural Society. It is located on the south side of the Charles River in Dover, MA.
i could go on forever, but I think that just would bore other readers. Needless to say, it was a wonderful place to have spent one’s childhood.
Cheers,
A. S. H.
Paul Miller says
Thank you so much for your story! It is so interesting to hear the history of estates. I didn’t even know about this estate and Mr. Hunnewell until today when someone posted on Facebook about parts of the movie Knives Out being filmed at some of the estate.
Has there been any books written about Hunnewell family history with the railroads and everything else?
Was there any interaction between H. H. And the Vanderbilts?
Thanks again for your comments!
Liana Principe says
Me and my 2 brothers grew up in the barn house. My step father worked on the farm for him. I was in wellesley high school. We had pigs and cows and chickens and goats. My brothers fed the cows for mr hunnewell and we bailed the hay every summer! It was hatd work. My step dads name was george bormet. Also i went to school with skippy whites daughter lisa leblanc back then . I think it was 1984 or 85. My name is liana and my brothers were vinny and gary. We also had a couple of pigs and 2 horses. I miss that place! Such great memories!
Peter Simpson says
I, too, grew up on University Drive. My mother was a (very) distant relation of the Hunnewells’, through her mother’s side of the family. I do remember going over to the Palmers’ in ’65 or so to introduce ourselves. We used to play in their woods and roam around the periphery of their estate. I think Magic Pond was originally a fresh water swimming pool. My brother still lives in our old house on University. I have a book of my grandmother’s, titled “The Welles Family and Wellesley”, privately printed in 1920 at Harvard University Press, which has photos from the golden years of the estate…women in voluminous white dresses with large white hats, sitting in the driveway in coaches.
My wife and I managed to get into a garden tour of Wellesley (as the big white house is called) last summer. It’s being well maintained, and Mrs Hunnewell still (as of last summer at least) lives there. She came out to say hello. It’s a beautiful estate, a relic of times long gone. I’m glad arrangements have been made to preserve it.
Charles Petry says
I grew up in Natick on University Drive and there were woods that bordered the neighbor hood. Strawberry hill rd there was a drive that led to the Skippers farm Gary skipper and his sister ( Sue?) went to school with them. We would Christmas Carole at the Palmer’s house the driveway was great to sled on with my Flexible Flyer Sled it would go all the way to pond street. A very long walk back but well worth the trip. We would play ball in the field behind the Barlow’s house and then in the winter we might ice skate on the tennis court from the runoff water would freeze. There was a little pond we called magic pond where we caught frogs. all man made with a brook trickling down but it went into disrepair even when I was child (now 63) hurricane Donna I think. there were formal gardens and rhododendrons everywhere. Wondrous memories had my first kiss there with Liz Getchell 6th grade. I have no idea whether the land has been developed or not Left there when I was 14/15.
Some dude says
Horatio, not Horace.
Deborah Brown says
Right you are! Thanks for pointing this out. I’ve made the edit. Deborah
Rob Skipper says
As the son of a caretaker on the estate I grew up in the Cedars region and what a grand privilege it was to have such a beautiful place to call home especially as a child. My father who became the caretaker after his return from Korea is still on the estate to this day more or less as a property manager and my brother has taken on the duties of the caretaker. Whenever my life gets stressful that is where I go and I walked the fields in the woods to find my peace as I did as a kid
Ed says
Nice to see your entry! Fantastic memories from a magic place.. long ago. I will never forget. Ed Powers.
Thomas Hodgson says
As a young boy growing up in Wellesley in the 1950s, I recall being quite free to roam and romp throughout a number of sections of the Hunnewell estate, particularly in the area around the topiary gardens. Unfortunately, not remembering the exact year, vandals wrecked havoc on the priceless statues and stone ornaments that graced the gardens, and public access to the grounds suddenly became restricted to the lake path. I regret learning of the decline of the Hunnewell property as cited in your interesting and meaningful article, but it remains a magnificent wonderland in my mind’s eye.