Shepherd Brooks Estate

Description

The Shepherd Brooks Estate is an historic property at 275 Grove Street in Medford, Massachusetts. The 82acre property is owned by the city of Medford, and managed by a trust established to preserve the property. Its principal feature is the manor house constructed in 1880 by Shepherd Brooks, a member of a prominent Medford family, and is the only major 19th-century estate to survive relatively undeveloped in the city. The grounds are open to the public daily from dawn to dusk, and tours of the house are available during the summer.The estate was developed by Brooks, a member of the locally prominent Brooks family that dominated West Medford for many years, as a summer estate and gentleman's farm. The manor house was designed by Peabody & Stearns, and is a large red brick house, with Queen Anne styling. It has a complex roofline with many gables, and there is a port cochere. A carriage barn stands near the main house. The estate originally included a second summer house called Point of Rocks, which had been built by Peter Chardon Brooks III in 1859, but this was demolished by the city in the 20th century. The city acquired the 82-acre remnant of the Brooks estate after the death of Shepherd Brooks' wife Clara in 1939. After the Second World War the city used the estate to provide housing for veterans, and in the 1960s and 70s it was used as a nursing home. From the 1970's through the late 1980's the Manor building was used as a group home for mentally-challenged adults. The pr