Hunnewell Estates Historic District

The Hunnewell Estates Historic District is an historic district between the Charles River and Lake Waban in Wellesley and Natick, Massachusetts, about 17 miles west of Boston. It consists of the large group of 18th to 21st century agricultural and estate properties with farmland, gardens, residences, and landscapes of the Hunnewell and Welles families. The properties in the Historic District are still largely owned and occupied by members of the Hunnewell family. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.HistoryThe origin of the Hunnewell estates dates to 1763 when Samuel Welles made his first purchase of Indian lands in Natick and West Needham . Welles was a descendant of Thomas Welles, 1st Treasurer and then Governor of the Colony of Connecticut. The properties descended to Samuel's granddaughter Isabella Pratt Welles and her husband, successful railroad financier and businessman, landscape designer, and horticulturalist H. Hollis Hunnewell, and continued with their adult children and the following generations. Mr. Hunnewell and his family gave much to the town of Wellesley, which was named after his wife's family - the Welles, and to Boston, with civic philanthropy in numerous fields.