Belmont 150th - Going, Going, Gone

Going, Going, Gone

If you looked to the left just past Shaws Market in Waverley Square you may have seen a small yellow house set at a slight angle to Trapelo Road. You won't see it again. 566 Trapelo Road was the gatehouse for the Thayer estate and it's being demolished. The last tangible reminder of a noteworthy estate outlasted the rest by a hundred years.

In 1908 a Belmont Tribune headline read "New Waverley Apartments-Old Landmark to be Removed." An association of Waverley and Cambridge investors planned to convert the Thayer mansion into 'modern' apartment houses. The plans called for a division of the mansion. One part was to become six apartments with six rooms each. The other part was to be three apartments for which the plans were incomplete.

Richard Betts, in his book "Streets of Belmont and How They Were Named", identifies the structure at 30 Moraine Street as part one of the remodeled mansion. Subsequent newspaper articles report the completion of part two, the three-apartment part, facing Agassiz Avenue. It was named "The Agassiz."

Abel Phelps was the original owner of the property, which included Waverley Oaks. He had come to Boston from Leominster with fifty cents in his pocket. He built up a substantial fortune with which he purchased the land, built the mansion and developed the estate. He died a few months after completing the project. The estate came to his daughter, Maria Phelps, Mrs. F. W. Thayer, who occupied it for many years. She died c.1882.

This fashionable pre-railroad era estate in Waverley, off Trapelo Road, was a showplace. Winding drives and beautifully landscaped grounds surrounded the mansion house. The house itself measured fifty feet by seventy-five feet and contained twenty-two rooms. It stood on the property where, today, Agassiz Avenue and Moraine Street intersect.

When Jean Louis Agassiz, the Swiss naturalist, visited Waverley Oaks the Thayer estate was in its prime.

Twenty-five acres of this property was subdivided into house lots in 1891 when Dr. Henry F. Campbell was the owner. The layout was revised in 1895. North of the tracks, the area of Agassiz Avenue and Moraine Street was intended for modest houses. South of the tracks, Waverley Park Company laid out a similar subdivision including Thayer Road, Kendall Street, Davis Street and Sycamore Street. This subdivision extended across the town line into Watertown.

In 1896, the house and 150, 000 square feet of land was sold for $15,000 to the Veteran Spiritualists Union of Boston for use as a home for the aged.

The gatehouse, last vestige of the Thayer estate, remodeled into the home at 566 Trapelo Road, will be demolished in 2008 and condos will take its place.



Going, Going, Gone If you looked to the left just past Shaws Market in Waverley Square you may have seen a small yellow house set at a slight angle to Trapelo Road. You won't see it again. 566 Trapelo Road was the gatehouse for the Thayer estate and it's being demolished. The last tangible reminder of a noteworthy estate outlasted the rest by a hundred years. In 1908 a Belmont Tribune headline read "New Waverley Apartments-Old Landmark to be Removed." An association of Waverley and Cambridge investors planned to convert the Thayer mansion into 'modern' apartment houses. The plans called for a division of the mansion. One part was to become six apartments with six rooms each. The other part was to be three apartments for which the plans were incomplete. Richard Betts, in his book "Streets of Belmont and How They Were Named", identifies the structure at 30 Moraine Street as part one of the remodeled mansion. Subsequent newspaper articles report the completion of part two, the three-apartment part, facing Agassiz Avenue. It was named "The Agassiz." Abel Phelps was the original owner of the property, which included Waverley Oaks. He had come to Boston from Leominster with fifty cents in his pocket. He built up a substantial fortune with which he purchased the land, built the mansion and developed the estate. He died a few months after completing the project. The estate came to his daughter, Maria Phelps, Mrs. F. W. Thayer, who occupied it for many years. She died c.1882. This fashionable pre-railroad era estate in Waverley, off Trapelo Road, was a showplace. Winding drives and beautifully landscaped grounds surrounded the mansion house. The house itself measured fifty feet by seventy-five feet and contained twenty-two rooms. It stood on the property where, today, Agassiz Avenue and Moraine Street intersect. When Jean Louis Agassiz, the Swiss naturalist, visited Waverley Oaks the Thayer estate was in its prime. Twenty-five acres of this property was subdivided into house lots in 1891 when Dr. Henry F. Campbell was the owner. The layout was revised in 1895. North of the tracks, the area of Agassiz Avenue and Moraine Street was intended for modest houses. South of the tracks, Waverley Park Company laid out a similar subdivision including Thayer Road, Kendall Street, Davis Street and Sycamore Street. This subdivision extended across the town line into Watertown. In 1896, the house and 150, 000 square feet of land was sold for $15,000 to the Veteran Spiritualists Union of Boston for use as a home for the aged. The gatehouse, last vestige of the Thayer estate, remodeled into the home at 566 Trapelo Road, will be demolished in 2008 and condos will take its place. Town of Belmont \| Belmont Historical Society