Stevens Estate at Osgood Hill

In late September, I took a daytrip to Andover, MA. After a relaxing morning at Addison Gallery of American Art, I took a walk at Osgood Hill, a North Andover trail and a partner of Mass Audubon. While there, I saw Stevens Estate, a 1886 building on 143 acres listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1999.

The back of a red brick mansion with an ADA compliant ramp leading to the door of the sunroom. A red brick building with an eclectic roofline and a covered parking space near the entrance A three-story red brick building in the Romanesque Revival style wit large rectangular windows

The design of the red brick building reflects the Aesthetic Movement or Aestheticism popularized in the late 19th century after the American Civil War. The idea behind the movement was that beauty was more important than function, and practitioners used the slogan 'art pour l'art or “art for art’s sake”. Followers of the movement flocked to hear famous lecturers like Oscar Wilde, who toured North American in 1882, talk about their views on what was beautiful. The house was constructed four years later for the family of Moses Tyler Stevens. His family had made their money through Stevens Mill, a flannel mill founded by father Nathaniel Stevens in 1818. Nathaniel had died in 1865, while his wife Harriet Hale Stevens died in 1882, no apparent connection to hearing Oscar Wilde, leaving the property to Moses. Boston-based architect William Cummings Richardson designed the house in the Richardson Romanesque Revival style, which might seem logical on the service, except he was not related to the style’s founder, prolific Henry Hobson Richardson. I happen to know William from an unlikely source: he designed Rockdale Congregational Church in Rockdale, Northbridge, MA, down the road from where I live. He also altered Lyman Estate in Waltham, MA, now owned by Historic New England.

A three-story, red brick building with two chimneys on a roundabout driveway with tall evergreen trees in the middle of the roundabout A three-story red brick mansion viewed from across a grassy field lined with cultivated trees A two-story building with a red brick first story and shingled second story with a red roof.

Moses’ oldest son Nathaniel Stevens, named for his grandfather, inherited the house upon the death of his father in 1907. He died in 1946, the building and 165 acers were donated to Boston University by the family in 1951. Ownership transferred to the Stevens Estate Board of Trustees in 1994. This organization works with the Community Preservation Coalition to increase the area of the preserved land around the estate. Today, the total is 237 acres with 3.5 miles of trails. The property is free to visit and open from dawn to dusk. My favorite part of the estate, besides the beautifully preserved buildings, was the landscape from the top of Half Mile Hill. A row of Adirondack chairs allow visitors to relax and enjoy the sunny weather.

A trailside kiosk containing a sign with text and a map for Osgood Hill Tall and straight young trees about a hundred years old reaching towards the sky their leaves starting to yellow A row of four wooden Adirondack chairs on a grassy hill rimmed by trees. In the distance is a view of the lake and other hills.
Location: 723 Osgood St, North Andover, MA 01845, USA