Charles Winship House

The Charles Winship House is a historic house located at 13 Mansion Road and 10 Mansion Road in Wakefield, Massachusetts. The 2.5 story mansion (for which the road is named) was built between 1901 and 1906 for Charles Winship, proprietor (along with Elizabeth Boit) of the Harvard Knitting Mills, a major business presence in Wakefield from the 1880s to the 1940s. It is the town's most elaborate Colonial Revival building, featuring a flared hip roof with a balustrade on top, and a two-story portico in front with composite capitals atop fluted columns.[2]

Charles Winship House
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Charles Winship House Wakefield, MA circa 1922
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Location	Wakefield, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°29′51″N 71°5′10″W
Built	1901
Architect	Hartwell & Richardson
Architectural style	Colonial Revival
MPS	Wakefield MRA
NRHP reference No.	89000717 [1]
Added to NRHP	July 6, 1989

The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.[1]

The architect of the house was the Boston-based firm Hartwell & Richardson. The ornate interior was designed by the firm Irving and Casson – A. H. Davenport Co.. Both firms were famous for their meticulous design as well as high quality of workmanship and materials. During The Winship House's construction in 1902, Irving and Casson – A. H. Davenport Co. was commissioned for work on the White House renovation.

Winship House, Interior (pre-vandalism)

Winship House Interior (Pre Vandalism)

Charles Winship House Staircase (Pre Vandalism)

In 1922, Charles Newell Winship purchased 12 acres of surrounding land which he developed. The development, comprising Newell Road, Walter Avenue and Fox Road, was known at the time as Winship Manor. After his death in 1946, his family sold the entire estate to the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth in early 1947. The estate was used as a convent which housed more than 40 Sisters of Nazareth. An academy was later built on the convent grounds. The convent and some of the land was sold in 1978 to a developer who built single family residences. The house became a private residence again, but was confined to just over an acre of land and surrounded by modern single family houses. The academy closed its doors in 2009 and the remaining 19 acres of the original estate became 47 single family houses.

Due to the 2008 bankruptcy and foreclosure of Theresa Whitaker, the house's final resident and owner, and subsequent inability of the bank to sell the property, the house fell victim to obscene vandalism. Both the house's exterior and interior are in states of significant but likely salvageable disrepair.

Interior, Charles Winship House Staircase (Post Vandalism)

Interior, Charles Winship House Staircase (Posy Vandalism) 2

Interior, Charles Winship House Dining Room (Post Vandalism)

There is a strong police presence, as well as locks and a fence at the house in an attempt to deter further damage to the property.