shirley-street_0015 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 15 SHIRLEY STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2263 ❑ 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. 15 Shirley Street occupies a small flat lot, maintained chiefly in lawn with one large street tree and foundation plantings. Building setbacks are modest. A straight paved driveway extends along the left side of the house, and a concrete walkway extends between the sidewalk and front entrance. The building consists of a 2 '/2 story main block with a small rear extension and a detached garage. The three by two bay main block rises from a fieldstone foundation to a front gabled roof with gable returns and a small chimney centered at the ridgeline. Walls are sheathed with artificial siding; the second floor flares out slightly at its base, and the half- story flares out slightly above the second story on the fagade. Windows typically have 1/1 double hung sash, without trim. The facade is three bays wide with an offset doorway and a full-width, one-story porch accessed by wood steps. Turned posts and decoratively sawn brackets support the porch's low hip roof; a modern railing with square wood balusters lines the edges. A single window is centered in the half-story, abutted by a small, modern awning window. The right side elevation has irregular fenestration, with two windows on each floor. The first floor has two widely spaced windows, including a casement or sliding unit towards the back. The second floor has a square, Queen Anne sash with gridded panes near the center. The left side elevation has a single window and an angled bay window on the first floor and two widely spaced windows aligned above. A narrow, one-story extension across the back elevation has a gabled roof and, facing the left side of the lot, an offset single-leaf door and two single windows. Located at the left back corner of the lot, the garage is one story high with a hip roof, exposed rafter ends, and two individual vehicle bays. Its walls are constructed of small coursed ashlar blocks, and feature an exterior stone chimney on the right side elevation. Well maintained, 15 Shirley Street is a good example of modest, late Victorian suburban housing in Lexington. It is notable for its decorative front porch, flared wall surfaces, Queen Anne window sash, and the uncommon stone construction of its original/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. Shirley Street appears on the maps between 1898 and 1906; a handful of buildings, mostly along the south side, were standing along it in the latter year. All but one lot was developed by 1927, when the streetscape contained ten buildings (four of them side-by-side duplexes) and six garages. The house at 15 Shirley Street represents the early period of suburbanization in Lexington, in which development along Bedford Street was sparked by the re-building of the roadway and the arrival of street railway service here at the turn of the 20th century. George F. Tewksbury, a farmer who owned the land in this area in 1898 and 1906, is credited with developing the Hill Street/Tewksbury Street/Shirley Street neighborhood. 15 Shirley Street may appear on the maps as early as 1906; it is clearly here by 1927, with the garage. The first known occupants of the house are Robert A. McAdoo, a farmer, and his wife Mary J. (1922). In 1935, two families appear to be living Continuation sheet I