Claflin School

The Claflin School is a late Victorian masonry structure (1891, J. Merrill Brown) that faces north on a corner lot at the intersection of Washington Park and Walnut Street in Newtonville. It is located on a relatively flat plain bounded on the west by West Newton Hill and on the east by the Commonwealth Avenue Hills. It is about one mile north of Bullough's Pond, the geographical center of Newton. The school is set back approximately twenty-five feet from both of the streets on which it faces. Part of the village of Newtonville, it is situated on a large lot in an area which retains its 19th century suburban streetscape. The surrounding neighborhood consists of residential buildings on Washington Park and civic and low rise commercial buildings on Walnut Street.

The building, essentially rectangular in plan, rises three stories to a rather complex roof- line which is punctuated by two prominent chimneys on the east and west, and several trans- verse gables of different sizes that rise from all four elevations. Standing on a granite foundation, the school is sheathed in brick and capped by a steeply pitched hip roof covered in slate with copper ridges. Particularly rich in decorative detail, the school is encircled by a corbelled brick cornice and a rusticated brownstone watertable. Pressed yellow brick and brownstone are also often used as trimming elements surrounding window and entries. Throughout much of the building, fenestration is arranged in groups of three with rectangular and arched openings glazed by 1/1 sash.

Windows are generally headed by brownstone lintels and brick corbelling orby yellow brick, voussoirs. The north elevation is the facade of the building. Three symmetrically aligned gable pavillions are its most distinctive feature. The central or principal transverse gable is flanked by two secondary ones.

(in one paragraph) Builder/Architect J. Merrill Brown The Claflin School possesses integrity of design, location, setting materials, workman- ship and feeling.as well as associations with Newton's suburban development in the late 19th century. It is also significant as a fine example of late Victorian institutional architecture as designed by the locally prominent architect, J. Merrill Brown, who is known primarily for his school and residential designs in late 19th century suburban The Claflin School thus meets Criteria A & C of the National Register of Historic Places. The Claflin School is located in Newtonville, one of thirteen villages in the City of Newton.

Located on one of its major north/south thoroughfares, Walnut Street, it stands near the historic center of this community which developed in the second half of the 19th century as part of Boston's suburban movement. Newtonville particularly attracted residents because it combined a fine transportation system with an excellent public school program. Constructed in 1891, the Claflin School was built during a period of major growth in Newton which had begun in the 1880s and continued through the early 20th century. The school, in fact, is named for a successful Boston businessman and politician, William Claflin, who settled in Newtonville in the 1850s and was responsible for the subdivision of much of the area's farmland.

EG:.0:) The need for the construction of this school in 1891 came from an expansion in the school- age population which had increased by almost 1000 pupils from: 1831-1899: When new, the school was considered a model educational structure and reflected the city's commitment to the development of an excellent school system. The building contained six classrooms and was used by the upper grammar school grades.