Pondside

Between Jamaica Pond (JP6) and Monument Square Historic District (JP10) lies a residential area known as Pondside. Prior to the late-nineteenth-century subdivision of the area into small lots, one of the major architectural landmarks was the Charles W. Greene House (5 Dane Street, NRD). Greene, a successful merchant who had spent a number of years in Europe before deciding to become a teacher, moved to Jamaica Plain and opened a private preparatory school in Linden Hall (NRD), a 1755 Georgian mansion originally on Centre Street but now much altered and located at 28–30 Grovenor Road. Greene built for himself a monumental Greek Revival mansion, probably in the late 1830s. The main block of the T-shaped house has a cupola and three imposing facades, each with a gable roof framing an entablature and pediment. The east and west facades have tetrastyle Doric porticos, while pilasters ornament the principal facade facing north. Before subdivision of the property, Greene's house had an open lawn toward Eliot Street that allowed an unobstructed view of the three monumental facades.

More typical of the Pondside neighborhood are the late-nineteenth-century single-family homes on smaller lots. For example, the George V. Taylor House (50 Burroughs Street, NRD) remains an outstanding example of the Italianate style from around 1855, with flush-board siding and quoins in imitation of ashlar masonry. Although not a large house, it includes an unusual cupola, front portico, and side veranda. The architects of this house and the Greene mansion have not been identified. Two late-nineteenth-century Pondside houses for which the architects are known are the Downes House (58 Eliot Street, NRD), designed in 1880 by Bradlee and Winslow, and the C. S. Waldo House (54 Burroughs Street, NRD) of 1896 by Ball and Dabney.