HomeMy WebLinkAbouteliot-road_0010 AREA ( FORM NO.
FORM B - BUILDING
0 506
1Z_cSACr1USETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION
294 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MA 02108
a Lexington
cess 10 Eliot Road
SIM
_ toric Name C.W. xettell House
= J _ Present residential
Original residential
—_ b - ESCRIPTION: P p
e 1901
ource owner �IriU &U1
SKETCH MAP
Show property's location in relation Style Colonial Revival
to nearest cross streets and/or
geographical features. Indicate Architect Lois Lilky Howe
all buildings between inventoried
property and nearest intersection. Exterior- wall fabric shingles
1 Indicate north.
Outbuildings carriage house
OO Major alterations (with dates)
0 0
�o
�o
Moved Date
OApprox. acreage 26468 ft.2
Recorded by Anne Grady Setting on a rise above the street, with
retaining wall along the frontage; in
Organization Lexington Historical Commission neighborhood which is a mixture of houses
of similar size and date and mid-twentieth
Date March, 1984 century infill.
(Staple additional sheets here)
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE (Describe important architectural features and
evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community.)
This house combines features which derive from the Georgian and Federal
periods, but does not forego the shingled finish and bay windows of late
nineteenth century architecture. There is an entrance portico with elliptically-
arched opening below an open pediment with denticular cornice and paired slim
supporting columns. There are leaded glass side- and fanlights at the doorway.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE (Explain the role owners played in local or state
history and how the building relates to the development of the community.)
The house was built by Charles Willard Kettell , a mechanical engineer.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (name of publication, author, date and publisher)
Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington, revised and continued to
1912 by the Lexington Historical Society, Volume II, p. 340. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913.
Lois Lillay Howe papers, MIT archives.
10x4 - 7/82
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Town Property Address
LEXINGTON 10 ELIOT ROAD
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD 506
BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE:
Additional information found in the Lexington Minute-Man confirms that this house was constructed in 1902. A brief
mention notes that Mr. Kettell had just purchased land on Eliot Road from James S. Munroe and was to build a house.
The report states that Kettell was already living in the Mt. Vernon district. In August 1902 the paper reported that:
The frame is completed and the rooms ready for the plasterers at Mr. Chas. W. Kettell's new residence on
Warren street, on Munroe Hill. The house is to be a large one, containing some fifteen rooms, and commands a
beautiful outlook on all sides (Minute-man, August 16, 1902).
By 1928 Charles was apparently deceased and Mrs. Kettell (Fanny)was living here with her daughter Margaret.
Directories list the Kettell's son, Russell, as the occupant in 1932 and 1942.
Lois Lilley Howe(1864-1964)was born in Cambridge and studied at the Museum of Fine Arts School in Boston before
receiving a degree in architecture from M.I.T. in 1890. She received her first commission to build a house in 1894, and
worked alone and with various partners until 1900. She established her own firm in 1901 at 101 Tremont Street, Boston.
She was the second woman elected to the American Institute of Architects(A.LA.),the first woman Fellow of the A.I.A.
and the first woman elected to the Boston Society of Architects. Howe concentrated on domestic architecture. She was
noted for pioneering the use of stucco and also had a keen interest in the issues of public housing. Howe retired from
active practice in 1937.
The MACRIS data base has eight listings for residences in Brookline, Cambridge, and Lexington that were designed or
remodeled by architect Lois Lilley Howe in the early 20th century. Her other commission in Lexington is the home for
Francis J. Garrison at 13 Pelham Road(1900).
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Cambridge Women's Heritage Project Database http://www.cambridgema.gov/cwhp/bios_h.html#HoweLL
Lexington Directories,various dates.
Lexington Minute-Man,Feb. 1, 1902; Aug. 16, 1902.
Massachusetts Historical Commission, MACRIS database.
Middlesex County Register of Deeds, Cambridge, Mass.
Supplement prepared by:
Lisa Mausolf
January 2009