Oak View, Norwood, Massachusetts
| Oak View | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Second Empire |
| Town or city | 289 Walpole Street Norwood, Massachusetts |
| Country | USA |
| Construction started | 1870 |
| Completed | 1873 |
| Client | Francis Olney Winslow |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Benjamin Franklin Dwight |
Oak View is an 1870 Second Empire style mansion in Norwood, Massachusetts.
The planning of the Winslow-Allen mansion, also known as Oak View, started in 1868. Construction began in 1870 for Francis Olney Winslow. F.O. Winslow was the scion of a local tanning family who expanded the family business interests on a large scale. Born in 1844, he constructed the mansion, which was finished in 1873.
F.O. Winslow died in 1926. Upon Winslow's death, Oak View passed into the hands of his daughter Clara Winslow and her husband, Frank G. Allen (married December 2, 1897) who was soon thereafter to become Governor of Massachusetts. Some of the most prominent figures hosted in Oak View during those years were President (and later a Supreme Court Justice) William Howard Taft, President Calvin Coolidge, Russian Composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, artist John Singer Sargent, Episcopal Bishop of Boston Phillips Brooks and philosopher William James, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Viscount Kentaro Kaneko of Japan, tenor John McCormack and others of similar stature.
In 1954, the Allens sold Oak View to the Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity. In 1978 it was sold to Barbara Rand and Robert Pegurri who own it still Oak View has been the site of Oak View Museum of Dollhouses since 1989.
OakView Preservation Incorporated formed as a non-profit corporation, organized in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to raise funds to purchase and preserve the home called “Oak View” located in Norwood, Massachusetts. Oak View was used as a Governor’s Mansion in 1929 and home to industrialist George Winslow from its beginning in 1872. OVPI will protect the building as a home and museum. As a museum, operated by OakView Preservation Incorporated, OakView will promote discovery, learning, education and an appreciation for the period of antiquity and our natural, cultural and artistic heritage. After purchase and preservation, OVPI’s core activities will be collecting, curating, exhibition and education.
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