Housing

The Warren Avenue Area is located in the center of Weston just off Boston Post Road, the main east-west route through the town. The area developed at the turn of the 20th century as a neighborhood of modest working class houses along Warren Avenue, Warren Lane and Warren Place, three dead-end streets just south of the train tracks of the now-abandoned Central Massachuetts (later Boston & Maine) Railroad. Cherry Brook, a tributary of the Charles River, flows through the low-lying area, which is partly located in the Flood Plain Protection Zone. The small pond known as Foote’s Pond was created by damming the stream to raise the water level. The Warren Avenue Area is largely residential. The 30 houses were built between 1898 and 1986, with 25 of these dating before 1945. Also within the area is the 1896 brick pumping/generating station built by the fledgling Weston Water Company and Weston Electric Light Company, as well as commercial buildings of varying types and ages owned by B. L. Ogilvie & Sons, a large local hardware and building supply company headquartered on Warren Avenue.

Houses are of frame construction, with shingle or clapboard exteriors, in simple versions of the late Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles along with an occasional Tudor or Bungalow. A few houses are two-family residences. Houses are generally in good condition but many have lost original architectural features. Several have asbestos shingle or aluminum/vinyl siding. There is little uniformity in the size of lots or in the size, massing and siting of houses. Lot sizes range from one-fifth of an acre to more than four acres, with most under one acre. Many mature trees are scattered throughout the area but in general the lots are cleared rather than wooded, with minimal landscape treatment. In recent years, the quiet, convenient location and availability of relatively inexpensive houses has attracted new residents who have remodeled and occasionally restored the area’s early 20th century housing stock.