Wellington Station – Belmont Citizens Forum

Who Built the Homer House?

Construction and Housing, Historic Preservation, History, November/December 2025 Comments Off

Oct 312025

By John Beaty The William Flagg Homer House is a Belmont story with two mysteries. The first mystery is who was the architect who designed and built the Homer House. The second mystery is who William Flagg Homer was and how he provided the resources to acquire the land, hire an architect, and build this magnificent home. The Homer House is listed in the National Register of Historic Places (1979) and has been a focal point in Belmont’s Pleasant Street Historic District. It is especially interesting because the artist Winslow Homer was Flagg Homer’s nephew and often visited during the [READ MORE]

20 Years of Historic Preservation

Construction and Housing, Historic Preservation, History, January 2020, Newsletter Comments Off

Jan 062020

By Sharon Vanderslice In the late summer of 1999, a dozen or so Belmont residents met in Town Meeting member Sue Bass’s dining room on Concord Avenue to discuss ways to increase transparency in our local government and protect the small-town atmosphere that had drawn us to Belmont in the first place. We had just lost a battle to keep out a massive development proposed by Partners Healthcare on the campus of McLean Hospital. This forward-thinking psychiatric institution was originally designed to offer patients a calm, nature-based space in which to heal. With the advent of pharmaceutical treatments, McLean’s board [READ MORE]

Belmont Highlights Natural, Historic Treasures

Environment, Historic Preservation, History, Lone Tree Hill, Newsletter, November 2019, Open Space, Plants Comments Off

Nov 042019

Belmont Highlights Natural, Historic Treasures

By Mary Bradley The Belmont Historical Society hosted two events in September and October celebrating Belmont’s rich cultural and environmental history. Tracking the Wellington Hill Station through Time The Belmont Historical Society hosted an open house on September 15, 2019, to celebrate the completion of a series of repairs and restorations to the many-purposed Wellington Hill Station building the previous month. The station received a new cedar shingle roof and repairs to the decking and gingerbread trim, the interior plaster walls, and the lower wood sections. The roof was funded with Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding and donations from the [READ MORE]