sanderson-road_0003 (formerly 194 Lowell St)

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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 194 LOWELL ST. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2242 ❑ 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. 194 Lowell Street occupies an ample lot on the corner of Lowell Street, a main thoroughfare through East Lexington, and Sanderson Road, a late 20th century subdivision street. The building is set well back from both streets, which are lined with mature street trees on both frontages. Maintained chiefly in lawn, the large lot slopes down to the north behind the house; it is otherwise generally flat. An asphalt sidewalk extends along both street frontages of the property. A brick-paved walkway leads to the front door. The square-shaped main block rises two stories from a fieldstone foundation to a generous, side-gambrel roof with one interior chimney. Walls are sheathed with wood clapboards and trimmed with flat sill boards, corner boards, and fascia, the latter with a simple crown molding. Windows typically have 6/1 sash with band moldings. Centered on the south fagade is a large, 2 '/z story cross-gabled pavilion, which has an offset entrance with a small shed roof, a single-leaf paneled door, flat casing, and a brick stoop. A small awning window has been inserted in the second story above the entrance. Paired windows occupy the east bay of this pavilion, and a narrow 6-light window is set in the gable peak. The asymmetrical west elevation contains a slightly off-center entrance with prominent molded cornice, paired windows at the back of the first floor, and irregular single windows at various levels, including a 6-light window in the gambrel peak. A small back porch with a square corner post and a railing with square balusters projects from the northwest corner of the house. The east elevation is symmetrical, with paired windows on the first floor, two single windows on the second floor, and a single 6- light window in the peak. On the rear(north) elevation, a shed-roofed dormer is centered on the building and contains one pair of windows and one single window. A small first floor projection that also appears centered on this wall is capped by a hip roof that extends to the back porch at the southwest corner. A variety of shrubs is planted close to the front and sides of the house, and a line of trees parallel to the back wall is set about 25 feet behind the building. Other medium-sized to mature trees are set irregularly throughout the site. An L-shaped planting of mature evergreen and deciduous shrubs defines the corner of Lowell Street and Sanderson Road. A small shed is located near the northwest corner of the property. Constructed of vertical wood boards with a saltbox roof, it is detailed with flat wood trim, a pair of solid wood doors on its fagade (south elevation), and a small, rectangular 4-light window on its east elevation. Well-preserved and well-maintained, 194 Lowell Street is a good example of relatively modest early 20th century housing in Lexington. Its is notable for its prominent corner lot, its survival on a busy road within much later suburban development, its distinctive roofline and massing, and its simple but careful detailing. 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. Lowell Street appears to have followed a Native American trail and was developed as an important transportation corridor in the Colonial period. A new regional turnpike system radiating from Boston was established in the early 19th century; Lowell Street formed part of the Middlesex Turnpike (ca. 1806), which extended from Cambridge to Tyngsborough and the New Hampshire border. This peripheral area of East Lexington remained mostly agricultural and sparsely developed through the early 20th century, however. The Great Meadow marshlands occupy an extensive area bordered by Lowell Street to the east, the Arlington Continuation sheet I