Historic Sites

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General Information

Wakefield has hundreds of sites of historic or architectural interest, including public buildings, private homes, schools, churches, and historical monuments. Many of them are on the National Register of Historic Places, and others were researched as part of an architectural survey project done in the mid 1980s, which resulted in "The cultural resources of Wakefield".

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects worthy of preservation. The passing of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) in 1966 established the National Register and the process for adding properties to it. Of the more than one million properties on the National Register, 80,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing members within historic districts. Each year approximately 30,000 properties are added to the National Register as part of districts or through individual listings.

Wakefield currently has over 150 properties listed on the National Register, the majority of which are private homes. There are also four historic districts, which encompass multiple buildings: The Common District, the Yale Avenue Historic District, the Church Street-Lafayette Street Historic District, and the Wakefield Park District, which includes Park Avenue between Summit Avenue and Chestnut Street.

Most of the National Register properties are included in the building survey "The cultural resources of Wakefield", prepared in 1986 by Architectural Preservation Associates, for the Wakefield Historical Commission and assisted by the Wakefield Historical Society and the Wakefield Center Neighborhood Association. The Lucius Beebe Memorial Library has copies of the survey, and also has cataloged a number of the listed properties, with photos, in its online catalog (see links below). In addition, the survey also includes about 250 additional "significant sites" which are not on the National Register, but merit special attention because of their age, architecture, or connection to Wakefield's history. They are listed separately below. The Lucius Beebe Memorial Library is currently photographing and cataloging these sites in an ongoing project. Properties already completed will have a live link to the catalog information in the lists below. The same information is also viewable in map form via "Visual Wakefield" using Google Maps or Google Earth.

Further information about historic properties can be obtained by contacting the Wakefield Historical Commission and the Wakefield Historical Society directly.

External Reference Links

List of Wakefield National Register properties cataloged by Beebe Library

  • 317 Main Street (Part of Common Historic District) - YMCA Building (currently being renovated) - (Find on Map)

List of Additional Significant sites from "The Cultural Resources of Wakefield" cataloged by Beebe Library

  • Forest Street [ (Find on Map)] and Main Street - Boston & Main Guard Shack (Find on Map)
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