As the City of Newton acknowledges and recognizes, our living and learning takes place on land of this country’s native people, particularly the Massachusetts tribe, who lived, worked and played here for over 12,000 years.

The Jackson Homestead

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In 1809, Timothy Jackson (1756–1814) built the Jackson Homestead which sits adjacent to the Jackson Walnut Park School campus. His son William Jackson (1783–1855) lived in the home from 1820 until his death. William was an abolitionist and served in the United States Congress from 1833 to 1837. The homestead was occupied by the Jackson family until 1932. In 1949, it was given to the City of Newton and in 1950 the Newton History Museum was established.

Today, the Jackson Homestead is a museum known as the Jackson Homestead and Museum, operated by Historic Newton. It displays rotating and permanent exhibits about the history of Newton, Massachusetts, and the Underground Railroad. It is also home to the archives of Historic Newton. [Source]

The Jackson Homestead was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 4, 1973. [Source]

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The Potter Estate

In 1867 John C. Potter, Jr., a shoe and leather businessman, constructed the large Second Empire Victorian mansion house located on the Jackson Walnut Park campus. This home has been referenced as the Potter Estate. [Source] The property included a caretaker’s cottage and barn, which are still present today, as well as a carriage house which is the current location of Walnut Park Montessori.

Walnut Park Montessori

The Potter Estate was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.  The property is also sometimes referenced as the Joseph Flanagan Estate, for Joseph Flanagan who resided there between 1893 and 1921.

Sisters of St. Joseph Boston

In 1921, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston acquired the Potter/Flanagan Estate. In 1922, the Sisters opened Walnut Park Country Day School of Boys, an educational endeavor that started in the spacious Victorian mansion before moving to the estate’s renovated carriage house. The school for boys was closed in 1961 to make room for Aquinas Junior College.

In 1963 the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph built a school on the Jackson Road side of the property to house the St. Joseph Educational Clinic that had outgrown its Medford, MA site, with additional rooms for Aquinas Junior College and the Boston School for the Deaf. This building is the current location of Jackson Elementary.

Jackson Elementary

In 1966, Sister Josephina Concannon, then director of the Montessori School at Boston College, opened a Montessori school for children ages 3-5, establishing it first in the St. Joseph Educational Clinic building on campus.

Alert to changes in the educational field, particularly where public schools were instituting remedial classes for students, the Sisters opened an ungraded Catholic elementary school where students would find joy in learning and acquire mastery of skill sets that would make them life-long learners. In 1967, thirteen first graders became the foundation of a strong and viable Jackson School. Under the leadership of the School’s first principal, Sister Francis Marilyn DeCoste, the school grew, accepting one new class of students each year. As Jackson School enrollment increased, the Boston School for the Deaf moved out of the building, Aquinas Junior College constructed its own building, currently owned by the City of Newton, the Sisters of St. Joseph led Montessori school moved into the Walnut Park carriage house, and in 1974, the St. Joseph Educational Clinic was closed.

Jackson Walnut Park School

Today, Jackson Walnut Park School (JWP), led by Head of School Stephen Duffy and the School’s Board of Trustees, continues to be a proud sponsored ministry of the Sister’s of St. Joseph of Boston.

JWP proudly offers Walnut Park Montessori — for early learners age 18-months through six years old — led by Director, Bridget Barrett-Parker, and Jackson Elementary — for kindergarten through sixth grade students — led by Steve Duffy.

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