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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 2361 MASS. AVENUE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 1606 Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION: Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. 2361 Massachusetts Avenue is a simple 2 %2-story, 3 x 1-bay dwelling which dates to the late 19`h century. It is set on a brick foundation and clad in wood clapboards. The asphalt shingled roof has projecting eaves that end in returns on the gable ends and a brick chimney rises from the center of the ridge. The fagade is fronted by a single-story,three-bay porch supported by turned posts with jigsawn brackets and a stick balustrade. The center entrance is set into a projecting vestibule and the door is flanked by sidelights. The house originally had double-hung 2/2 windows as evidenced by the remaining attic window. Most of the windows have been replaced by modern 1/1 vinyl sash. There is a decorative bay window on the east elevation. A two-story ell projects to the rear of the main house. Behind the house is a clapboarded outbuilding resting on a mortared fieldstone foundation with 2/2 windows. 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. Inspection of historic maps and Census data indicates that this house was constructed between 1875 and 1880. The original owner was apparently B. McCaffrey who is shown as the owner on the 1898 and 1906 maps and was living here at the time of the 1880 Census. Barnard(aka Barney)McCaffrey(d.1905)was born in Ireland about 1835. He was living in a house nearby in 1870. The 1880 Census lists his occupation as farm laborer and indicates that he was then living here with his wife Mary, four daughters, and a boarder. At the time of Barnard's death in 1905,he was one of Lexington's oldest citizens. A member of St. Brigid's Church,he was buried in Calvary Cemetery in Woburn. Ownership of the house later passed to Barney's daughter Catherine who married John Ready in 1891. John and Catherine Ready were living here(then 663 Mass. Ave.) in 1906. John Ready was employed as an ice wagon driver. By 1913 Catherine was a widow; she continued to live here into the early 1920s. In 1932 the house was occupied by William Minear and in 1942 by Gerald Robinson. The house was owned from 1940 to 1983 by Albert and Janet Pitt. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES 1853, 1876, 1889, 1898, 1906 maps Lexington Minute-man, Oct. 12, 1905 Middlesex South Registry of Deeds, Cambridge,Mass. Town Directories U.S. Census,various years. Continuation sheet 1