Anderson, Larz, Park Historic District

About this property

Larz Anderson Auto Museum, the oldest automobile collection in the United States Putterham School, a one-room schoolhouse from colonial times As Larz Anderson Park is about a half-mile away from Jamaica Pond it might also be considered a de facto extension of Boston's Emerald Necklace into the town of Brookline. The park is set amidst a landscape of ponds and trees are athletic fields, historic buildings and Jack Kirrane ice skating rink. The Boston skyline can be seen from atop the main ridge and the open, rolling hills make the park one of the best kite-flying spots in the area. Brookline requires permits for the use of any of the park's 12 picnic tables, which offer access to barbecue grills, with a fee for non-residents. The cavernous Carriage House houses the Larz Anderson Auto Museum. A self-guided walking tour brings visitors past museum, the Putterham School, the water garden, Chinese garden, Japanese garden, Italian garden and bowling green. The Jack Kirrane Ice Skating Rink added in 1955, located on the site of the Andersons' Italian Garden, is named for Jack Kirrane, a Brookline native and captain of the 1960 gold medal-winning United States Olympic Ice Hockey team. The project Public Art Comes to Larz Anderson Park sponsored by the Friends of Larz Anderson Park (FLAP) include the art sculptures 18-month installation, such as: June 2018 - December 2019 "Seeking Higher Ground An Avian Avatar" by the Myth Makers artists Donna Dodson and Andy Moerlein and Clown by Joseph Wheelwright (1948-2016); Cleared and developed as a farm in the 17th century by the Welds, in 1899 the estate was purchased from a fellow Weld Family member by socialite heiress Isabel Weld Perkins and her Paris-born diplomat husband Larz Anderson. Crowning this Brookline property was a twenty-five room mansion overlooking the Boston skyline which the Andersons named "Weld" to honor Isabel's grandfather. They remodeled it to resemble Lulworth Castle, an ancestral home associated with the Welds. This became the Andersons' home for summers and Christmas holidays. Their gardens, designed by Charles A. Platt, were featured in a 1904 issue of Town & Country. The accompanying photographs show lavishly ornate terraces laid out in Europe style. After Larz served as Ambassador to Japan, the Andersons improved the beautiful property still further and added the Chinese and Japanese gardens, a water garden with koi, sculpture, a polo field, topiary and an outdoor theater. The climbing rose trellis from the gardens is now located in the Minot Rose Garden in Winthrop Square, Brookline. When Isabel Anderson died in 1948, she bequeathed this entire estate to the Town of Brookline, including mansion, land, and a collection of vehicles. Although the mansion became damaged beyond affordable repair and was torn down in 1955, the immense Carriage House and the elegant "Temple of Love" on the shore of the water garden still reflect the charm and magnificence of Weld when the Andersons were alive. Many architectural features of the estate were modeled after historical edifices: monopteros probably modeled after Temple de l'Amour in Versailles, the bridge with broken balustrade, interrupted by flower pots resembles Boboli gardens at Florence. Follie tempietto dome has a central opening oculus like in the Pantheon dome and a rainwater pool impluvium as sundial with vertical brass pole in the center as gnomon and decorated with wall mascaron with water spout as open mouth resembling "Bocca della Verita" from Temple of Hercules Victor.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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