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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 81-83 Bow STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2194 ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form. Use as much space as necessary to complete the following entries, allowing text to flow onto additional continuation sheets. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION: Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. 81-83 Bow Street is two-family house occupying a wide, flat lot. The property has a small side yard of lawn on one side and pavement on the other, with few foundation plantings. The building has no front setback. A paved sidewalk leads to a broad front stairway with brick risers, bluestone treads, and iron railings. Another paved walkway leads to a side doorway. The building consists of a nearly square main block, a large rear addition, and a detached garage. The left side yard is paved between the street and the garage; the outer end is maintained in lawn. The two by two bay main block rises 2 '/2 stories in height from a concrete foundation to a high hip roof with a center chimney. The walls are clad and trimmed with vinyl. Windows typically have 1/1 double hung sash. The front fagade (west elevation) contains a two-story angled bay window on the left bay, which extends to a one-story projection with a shed roof and offset doorway. The bay window has one window in each exposed face; the entry projection has two narrow windows flanking the doorway and two windows above on the second story. Two tall, conjoined dormers with gable roofs and flat thin fascia boards are centered in the front slope of the main roof, each containing one window. The south (right side) elevation of the main block contains irregular, asymmetrical fenestration of varying sizes and head heights. A large gabled dormer on this elevation has no returns and one window. The north (left side) elevation of the main block contains two asymmetrical window bays and a gabled dormer with no returns, a narrow flat fascia and one window. A one-room deep, two-story addition with a shed roof extends across the full length of the back of the house. It has one window on each floor of the north (left side) elevation, and three varied windows on its south (right side)elevation. Its south elevation also contains a shallow entry vestibule with a shed roof, single-leaf door facing the street, and sliding glass door leading to a raised wood deck. A gabled dormer is just visible on the back slope of the main roof. Constructed of concrete block, the garage has two individual vehicle bays and a high hip roof. One 1/1 window is centered on each side wall. The architectural integrity of 81-83 Bow Street has suffered from the loss of original siding and trim, but remains an ambitious example of early 201h century suburban housing in Lexington. The house is notable for its large size and scale, ample roof, multiple dormers, two-story bay window and integral entry vestibule, and original or early garage. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE Discuss the history of the building. Explain its associations with local(or state)history. Include uses of the building, and the role(s) the owners/occupants played within the community. The neighborhood centered around Bow Street and Hillcrest, Cliffe, and Rindge avenues covers a steep hillside between Massachusetts Avenue and Lowell Street along the Arlington town line. The Great Meadows and Arlington Reservoir are located to the west and east, respectively. By 1898, a very short stub of road between Mass. Avenue and the B&M Railroad tracks is labeled Bow Street. North of the tracks, it continues as a pathway to a farmhouse identified as J. A. Wilson. The 1899 directory identifies a James Wilson, farmer and market gardener, with a house off Bow, and a James A. Wilson, market gardener, with a house on Bow. The land remained undeveloped as part of the Wilson Farm until at least 1906. Most of the streets here were laid out and platted for house lots by 1927; development most likely began after 1918. Development slowly crept up the hillside through the early and mid 201h century, most densely along the grid of streets closest to Massachusetts Avenue. The Wilson farm remained in existence east of Bow Street (in the area now traversed by South Rindge Continuation sheet 2