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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 4 STEVENS ROAD <br /> MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. <br /> 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 <br /> 2265 <br /> ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. <br /> If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form. <br /> Use as much space as necessary to complete the following entries, allowing text to flow onto additional continuation sheets. <br /> ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION: <br /> Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. <br /> 4 Stevens Road occupies a small lot near the intersection of Stevens Road and Taft Avenue. The land is level and maintained <br /> chiefly in lawn, with foundation plantings and a mature street tree. The building is positioned near the western property line, with <br /> a modest front setback. A paved driveway extends along the eastern side of the property, and a straight brick walkway leads <br /> from the sidewalk to the front door. The building consists of a 1 '/2 story main block with a one-story rear extension. <br /> The main block rises from a concrete foundation to a side gable roof with no gable returns. An exterior brick chimney is located <br /> on the east (left side)gable end. The front wall is clad in brick veneer with brick trim, while wood shingles cover the side <br /> elevations. Windows typically have 6/6 double hung sash with band molding on the wood-clad walls and soldier course trim on <br /> the brick walls. Window and door openings on the brick walls have segmentally arched openings. The fagade contains a <br /> shallow cross-gabled pavilion on its western half, with a steeply pitched roof, a narrow offset doorway with stone steps, a single <br /> 8/1 window to its right, and a 6/6 window centered in the half story. The eastern half of the fagade contains a single 8/1 window <br /> and a gabled dormer with one 6/6 window. A small screened-in porch with a side gable roof projects from the eastern end of the <br /> facade. Clad with wood shingles, its fagade elevation and front roof plane are flush with those of the main block. <br /> The west(right side)elevation of the main block contains three awning windows on the first floor and a 6/6 window centered in <br /> the half story. A narrow entry vestibule towards the back of this elevation has a shed roof, a single-leaf door facing the street, <br /> and two double-hung windows of varied sizes on its west(side) elevation. The east (left side) elevation contains one 6/6 window <br /> on the main block, and one on the continuous plane of the rear addition. The 1 '/2 story rear addition spans the full length of the <br /> main block, with a large cross-gable roof whose ridge is just below the ridgeline of the main block. <br /> Well preserved and well maintained, 4 Stevens Road is a particularly good and particularly intact example of mid-201h century <br /> suburban infill housing in Lexington. Employing an uncommon, English cottage style, the house's notable features include its <br /> picturesque massing, combination of siding materials and textures, cross-gabled entry pavilion, segmentally arched brick <br /> openings, and integral side porch. The overwhelming scale of the rear addition is fortunately not visible from the street. <br /> HISTORICAL NARRATIVE <br /> Discuss the history of the building. Explain its associations with local(or state)history. Include uses of the building, and the role(s) the <br /> owners/occupants played within the community. <br /> The small grid of streets bordered by Massachusetts Avenue, Hibbert Street, Taft Avenue, and Bowker Street represents an <br /> early area of suburban infill in Lexington center, near the Arlington town line. Immediately south of Taft Avenue is Liberty <br /> Heights (LEX.Q), a hilltop subdivision laid out by Brookline developer Jacob W.Wilbur in 1909 and developed in the teens and <br /> twenties. The growth of both these neighborhoods followed the arrival of the electric street railway on Massachusetts Avenue in <br /> 1899 and was directed at working class residents. <br /> In the area adjacent to Massachusetts Avenue known as Dexter Hillside, Hibbert and Sylvia streets, which straddle the <br /> Lexington/Arlington line, were laid out, platted, and partially developed by 1898. The only other evidence of development here at <br /> that time is the L-shaped beginning of Charles and Cherry streets, where ten house lots were laid out but vacant. By 1927, both <br /> Charles and Bowker streets extended from Massachusetts Avenue to Taft Avenue, and the western ends of Cherry Street, <br /> Stevens (then Cary) Road, and Camden (then Smythe) Street pushed a few lots eastward from Charles. Development was <br /> gradual through the 1920s and 30s and was virtually complete, with the present network of streets, by 1950. <br /> Continuation sheet I <br />