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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 11 STEVENS ROAD MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2266 ❑ 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. 11 Stevens Road occupies a modest, level lot on the north side of Stevens Road, between Charles Street and Sutherland Road. The building is set near the center of the parcel, with a narrow front setback and a paved driveway on the left side of the property. The flat yard is maintained chiefly in lawn on the east(right) side, with foundation plantings on all three visible elevations. The building consists of a 1 'h story main block with a couple of rear additions and an attached garage on the side. The small and narrow main block rises from a stone foundation to a front-gambrel roof that flares slightly at the base. Walls are clad with vinyl siding and trim. Windows typically have 1/1 double hung sash and narrow band molding, arrayed singly and paired. The front fagade consists of a one-story enclosed sun porch with a hip roof spanning the full width of he building, surmounted by paired windows that are centered in the half story. The sun porch is composed of square corner posts, banded windows on the front fagade and east (right) side, and a single leaf door flanked by narrow 1/1 windows on the west (left) side, accessed by wood steps with vinyl railings on each side. The east (right side) elevation has one single window and one set of paired windows in the southern half. A cross-gambrel addition at the rear is slightly higher than the main block, with a side gambrel roof, large polygonal bay on the first floor, and paired windows in the half story. The corner of a 1 story addition with a pitched roof is visible at the back of the 1 '/2 story addition, reached by a wooden stairway and wood deck. The west (left side) elevation contains three regularly spaced windows on the first floor and two symmetrical shed-roofed dormers with set of paired windows in each. The gambrel-roofed ell extends west of the main block as a one-car garage, with a non-contiguous multi-light transom above the modern garage door and a shed-roofed dormer with paired windows in the half story. Between the garage door and main block is a side entrance with a single leaf door, sheltered by a low hip roof supported by a slender corner post. Well preserved and well maintained, 11 Stevens Road is a good example of modest, early 20th century suburban infill housing in Lexington. The house is notable for its petite volume and balanced proportions, flared front-gambrel roof, front sun porch, and intact fenestration. 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. The small grid of streets bordered by Massachusetts Avenue, Hibbert Street, Taft Avenue, and Bowker Street represents an early area of suburban infill in Lexington center, near the Arlington town line. Immediately south of Taft Avenue is Liberty Heights (LEX.Q), a hilltop subdivision laid out by Brookline developer Jacob W.Wilbur in 1909 and developed in the teens and twenties. The growth of both these neighborhoods followed the arrival of the electric street railway on Massachusetts Avenue in 1899 and was directed at working class residents. In the area adjacent to Massachusetts Avenue known as Dexter Hillside, Hibbert and Sylvia streets, which straddle the Lexington/Arlington line, were laid out, platted, and partially developed by 1898. The only other evidence of development here at that time is the L-shaped beginning of Charles and Cherry streets, where ten house lots were laid out but vacant. By 1927, both Charles and Bowker streets extended from Massachusetts Avenue to Taft Avenue, and the western ends of Cherry Street, Stevens (then Cary) Road, and Camden (then Smythe) Street pushed a few lots eastward from Charles. Development was gradual through the 1920s and 30s and was virtually complete, with the present network of streets, by 1950. Continuation sheet I