Thirteen Villages & One Goal... Auburndale
Auburndale lies at the western end of Newton and, like Newtonville, West Newton and Newton Corner, is split by the Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90). It is the home of Williams and Burr elementary schools and Lasell College. Auburndale village is the home of a few restaurants, small businesses, an art gallery and a large supermarket. Auburndale Square is the location of the Plummer Memorial Library, which is run by the Auburndale Community Library, and the Turtle Lane Playhouse.
Although some parts of the village lack parks and open space, the western end of Auburndale is well known for two historic parks, Norumbega and Auburndale Cove. Norumbega Park, which opened in June 1897, was a recreation area and amusement park located in “Auburndale-on-the-Charles” offering canoeing and pedal boating, a theater, gardens, restaurants, an arcade and ballroom and was built in an attempt to increase patronage on the trolley line running between Boston and Auburndale. The popularity of Norumbega Park and the Totem Pole Ballroom declined after WWII as the automobile and new and better roads signaled the end of many local amusement parks and closed in 1963.
Today the area is the site of the Marriott hotel. East of the hotel parking lot is an area about 10 acres in size known as the Norumbega Park Conservation Land. The Auburndale Cove Park and Playground (The “Cove”) is a popular jogging and dog walking site, offers ice skating in the winter, and a large sand pile for kids to enjoy as part of the playground. |
The village of Auburndale is home to a historic district which includes approximately 275 properties. Auburndale, which was first settled in the 1670’s has numerous homes and buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, the oldest of which stands at 473 Auburn St and was built in 1730.
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Like so much of Newton, Auburndale is being subjected to unwanted increased density and loss of the existing character of our neighborhoods, in particular in the Auburn Street – Crescent Street neighborhood. In the past few years, developers have bought mostly modestly sized single family and two family homes, and replaced them with monstrous luxury townhomes which dominate the lots they are built on, as well as the street façade itself. On top of this, Auburndale faces a major project in the immediate future: The Riverside project on the MBTA site on Grove Street
Demolitions & Loss of Tree Canopy in Auburndale
There has been a significant increase in the number of homes being torn down across Newton over the past three years. In Auburndale, the Auburn Street- Crescent Street neighborhood, zoned MR1, has been particularly hard hit. Many modest single and multi-family homes are being torn down and replaced with massive luxury townhouses which dominate the street scape, completely changing the character of the existing neighborhood. Read about other concerns on Crescent Street here.
Oftentimes, many mature trees are lost as part of the demolition process as developers clear cut a lot of all mature trees in order to make way for construction equipment and the new development. People want to live in Newton in part because of the canopy of trees, and open and green space. Newton's Tree Preservation Ordinance requires developers to replace trees over 8 inches in diameter with an equivalent number of caliper inches, or else pay money into the Tree Preservation Fund allowing for trees to be planted elsewhere in the city. However, until the recent tightening of Newton's Tree Preservation Ordinance, developers were increasingly asking sellers to let trees be cut before closing, to circumvent tree replacement requirements. One Auburndale house with such a tree-cutting contingency attached to its sale saw six 80 year-old trees cut down in one day. Read more about demolitions and associated tree loss here. |