Photographs from the nomination case file, National Park Service records.
Jenison, Robert, House
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1978. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“The Historical and Natural History Society at South Natick was started in 1870. Its name indicates the intent of its founders, - scientific investigation and local historical research.”
History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : Containing Carefully Prepared Histories of Every City and Town in the County (1880). Machine-read text.
one of 1100 National Register listings in Middlesex County · listed in 1978 · category: Building · one of 3 National Historic Landmarks in Middlesex County.
National Register reference number.78000456- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
HE neighbor towns of Natick are, on the east Neediiam and Diiver in Norfolk County, Sher- Imrii to the south, Franiingham west, and Wayland north. Lake Cochituate, the Long Pond of our fathers, but resuming its Indian name when it became Boston's water-supply, is a noteworthy natural feature. Charles River crooks through South Natick; and on the edge of Dover Pcgan Hill rises four hundred feet. Natick has three villages : the compact, populous Centre, on the Boston and Albany Railroad, seventeen miles from the city ; Felchville, a mile north ; and two miles southeast tlie original settlement, South Natick. Population, by the census of 1875, 7,419.
History is silent as to the exact time of removal from Nonantum; but on coming to Natick they laid out three parallel streets, two on the north, and one on the south side of the water, and divided the land into fifty lots more or less. That would show a population of two hundred probably. A few houses were built, but Gookin says they liked wigwams better as being warmer and more portable. Then for the general good a fort was constructed, ditched, banked, and stockaded; round and capacious.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 106 fires within 5 miles of Jenison, Robert, House between
1995 and 2020, burning about 53 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 6 were recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
44
Debris and open burning
27
Recreation and ceremony
16
Arson/incendiarism
6
Smoking
4
Power generation/transmission/distribution
3
Railroad operations and maintenance
1
Misuse of fire by a minor
1
Fireworks
1
Equipment and vehicle use
1
Other causes
1
Natural
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 1,667 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Jenison, Robert, House between 1898 and
1975: 1,111 Animalia, 316 Plantae, 225 Fungi, 8 Chromista, 6 Protozoa, 1 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. B. Seymour & M. D. Feigley, A. E. Feldman and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
14 workings within 5 miles of Jenison, Robert, House: 11 past producers, 2 producers, 1 unknown.
2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Peat. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Natick, the town this property stands in, in 25 storm reports between 1998 and 2020: 15 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 3 flood, 2 lightning.
The reports record 4 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
Route 9 near the pumping station was flooded. The intersection of Speen and Timer Streets was closed due to flooding. A small car was stuck in the flood waters. The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority train tracks were flooded near downtown Natick. The first floor of Coolidge Gardens on Cottage Street was flooded. Four cars were stuck in flood waters at the intersection of Route 9 and Wethersfield Road. The area near the Natick Mall was flooded with six to twelve inches of water.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
1,814 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
The Robert Jenison House is located on the corner of Frost and Winter Streets in Natick. Situated due west of Nonesuch Pond, the house rests on a small knoll facing south. A line of tall fir trees and a picket fence border the house on the west. The five acres of property are primarily open rolling meadows maintained as open land. The surrounding area is sparsely developed and borders on Weston. The house was constructed c. 1738 by Robert Jenison. Some restoration work has been undertaken, but the building retains its original frame, chimney, gunstock and bevelled summer beams, and most interior woodworking. The four bay wide, two bay deep, ridge roof structure has a large off-center chimney.
The two and one half story house is sheathed in clapboards with plain cornerboards and a simply molded entablature. Fenestration is 6/6 with slightly projecting architraves and sills. The asymmetrical south facade is dominated by an off-center entrance. The doorway is in keeping with the simplicity of the entire structure but is adorned by a bull's eye light transom and fluted pilasters which support a dentiled cornice. The en- trance is headed by a narrow 9/9 window on the second story. The east elevation has a southern end entrance shielded by a segmentally arched hood supported by large brackets. There is a small 6/6 window in the gable overhead. The west elevation has two windows on each story and a small 6/6 in the gable.
The asymmetrical rear (north) elevation has an off center hooded doorway. Windows are standard 6/6, the smaller 6/6 identical to those in the gable ends and one double 4/4. The first floor interior retains feather edge panelling. The second floor has eighteen inch floorboards and some fine early panelling and woodwork.
Statement of significance
/ARCHITECT Robert Jenison The Robert Jenison House is significant for its early architecture, park-like site location and for the Jenison family association in Natick and the outlying areas- Peter Jenison and his father Robert were prominent figures in the civic and political life of the Watertown-Sudbury-Natick area during the late 1600's. Peter's son, Robert, built the house c.1738 on a 200 acre tract of land pur- chased from the Natick Indians in a controversial transaction during the last quarter of the 17th century. Robert Jenison was the leading housewright in the area at the time he built his own home. A half dozen of his buildings are still standing in the vicinity.
They are invariably the center chimney type similar to his own house with interior arrangement and dimensioning often identical. Jenison was an imposing figure in town affairs and served for many years as a selectman and captain of the militia company. Jenison was also active in the controversy that raged for a number of years over moving the meeting house from South Natick to Natick Center. Robert's son, Lot, and his grandson, Robert, followed his professional as house- wrights. His granddaughter, Sybilla, married Issac Fiske who became a prominent Methodist minister and the present Fiske Church on Walnut Street in Natick is named in his honor. Robert's grandson Issac Jenison graduated from Wesleyan College and was one of the founders of the Methodist Church in America.
The contributions of this family to the Natick-Wayland-Sudbury area can leave little doubt that they and their descendants have played an important part in leaving a tradition in craftsmanship and religion that lives to this day.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 78000456, 16 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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