Built in 1830 (Romanesque Revival architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. 19 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1886.
From the record
“Wellesley Farms station is an MBTA Commuter Rail station in Wellesley, Massachusetts. It serves the Framingham/Worcester Line.”
Wikipedia article Wellesley Farms station, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 342 National Register listings published here for Norfolk County · listed in 1986 · category: Building · built in 1830, Romanesque Revival architecture, by Henry Hobson Richardson.
National Register reference number.86000259- 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.
THE history of the town of Wellesley is necessarily brief, as the town was incorporated so late as April 6, 1881. It was until that time, from 1711, a part of the town of Needham, and previous to that time its territory was included within the limits of the town of Dedham.
Freedom in religious matters did not, however, entirely satisfy the inhabitants of the westerly part of the town, as very early efforts were made to obtain separate political rights. A strenuous effort was made in 1801, another in 1820, and other later and well-remembered attempts have been made at short intervals. In 1880 an appeal was made, with almost absolute unanimity, by the inhabitants of the west side, now grown to be a large and wealthy community, to the Legislature, and with so great force of reason and argument that the petition was granted, and the town was incorporated and named Wellesley.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 110 fires within 5 miles of Wellesley Farms Railroad Station
between 2015 and 2020, burning about 56 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 2 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
Recreation and ceremony
55
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
34
Debris and open burning
11
Power generation/transmission/distribution
3
Smoking
3
Arson/incendiarism
2
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 13,211 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Wellesley Farms Railroad Station between 1805 and 1975: 5,485 Animalia, 3,776 Fungi, 3,512 Plantae, 192 Protozoa, 168 Chromista, 46 Unrecorded, 32 Bacteria.
12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by ?, ? ex Herb. W.G. Farlow, A C Gibson 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
11 workings within 5 miles of Wellesley Farms Railroad Station: 8 past producers, 2 producers, 1 plant.
3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Stone, Tantalum. 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
Wellesley, the town this property stands in, in 17 storm reports between 1998 and 2023: 10 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 1 heavy rain, 1 flood.
No death or injury is recorded in these reports. 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.
Trees and branches on Dewing Path, Route 16, Brooke Street, Leighton Road, and Weston Road were downed by thunderstorm winds. One of the trees fell onto a house and another broke a utility pole.
A tree on Route 135 East near Wellesley College was downed by thunderstorm winds. Another tree on Chatham Circle and power lines on Howe Street also were downed by thunderstorm winds.
United States Geological Survey topographic
sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then
testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.
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 Wellesley Farms Railroad Station is a small granite building set on a two-acre lot with hardwood plantings and a small pond. The property is located in a residential neighborhood approximately two and a half miles northeast of Wellesley Center. Wellesley is a densely developed residential suburb some 11 miles west of Boston. The property is bounded by Glen Road on the north, Croton Street Extension on the east, by a line of convenience on the south and by the Boston and Albany (now Conrail) right of way on the west. In addition to the station, the property also contains a one-acre pond, which the Town of Wellesley has designated as a park. South of the property is a large paved parking lot for commuter traffic.
The station is basically rectangular in plan with a small projection, containing the Ticket Office, in the northwest corner. One story in height, the station is dominated by its deep hipped roof, enclosing the waiting room and an inset porch on the track side. An open porte cochere with a smaller hipped roof intersects the building at its northeast corner. The building on a full basement which has been filled in. In 1969, a fire gutted the None of the interior finish was replaced and the building is now maintained as an open shell. The station is constructed of tan Milford granite with red Longmeadow sandstone trim. It rests on a low foundation of smooth-faced granite. Large blocks of rock-faced granite laid in coursed ashlar form the walls of the structure.
Windows and doors are framed with rusticated sandstone surrounds. The hipped roof of the station rises to a short ridge, which is capped with copper coping. The roof is sheathed with rectangular dark grey slates laid in a regular pattern.
(in one paragraph) X landscape architecture law literature military musIc philosophy politics government religion science sculpture social/ humanitarian theater X transportation - other (specity) community development Builder ArchitectH.H. Richardson (commissioned);Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge (designed); 0. W. Norcross (builders); F. L. O1msted (landscaping) The Wellesley Farms Station and its grounds meet Criteria A and C of the National Register of Historic Places and retain integrity of location, design, setting, materials, feeling and association. The Station is an excellent example of the Richardsonian Romanesque style of architecture, commissioned to Henry Hobson Richardson and Frederick Law 01msted.
Though gutted on the interior by fire in 1969, the station still conveys the critical elements of the Richardsonian style in its simplicity of detailing and form, extensive use of polychromatic, rock-faced masonry, broad roof planes and massiveness of construction. Constructed in 1894, under the supervision of the firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge and built by the Norcross Brothers Construction Company, the station was commissioned in 1884 by the Boston and Albany Railroad Company to H.H. Richardson. While the extent of Richardson's direct involvement in the station's design was probably quite small, the Station nonetheless embodies the characteristics which made Richardson's railroad stations for the Boston and Albany models of their day.
Frederick Law 01msted was responsible for the1andscaping of ,the station, much of which remains intact. A curvilinear approach to the station takes advantage of a pond located on the site, while surviving stands of the original hardwoods and evergreens planted on the site provide a naturalistic setting for the suburban station. The Wellesley Farms Station is one of only two examples of the collaboration of H.H. Richardson and F.L. 01msted in railroad stations that remain substantially intact and is the only such example remaining of the Boston and Albany Railroad Stations.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 86000259, 32 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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