vine-street_0132 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 132 VINE STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2278 ❑ 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. 132 Vine Street occupies a long narrow lot near the intersection of Vine and Woburn streets. The land slopes down gently beyond the front wall of the building, and the yard is maintained mostly in lawn with foundation plantings. Front and side setbacks are moderate, with a deep back yard. A gravel driveway extends along the left side of the house, and a straight stepping stone path leads from the street to the front entrance. The two by four bay rectangular block rises 2 '/2 stories from a fieldstone foundation with deeply recessed joints to a hip roof. Two chimneys are set along the ridge of the roof. Walls are clad mostly with wood clapboards and trimmed with flat corner boards. Windows typically have 6/1 double hung sash with plain flat casings. Sheathed completely with clapboards, the facade has a shallow, two-story angled bay window on its right end and a slightly off-center entrance. The entrance consists of an original or early single-leaf door(with wood and glass panels)framed by flat pilasters and a plain entablature; it is accessed by wood steps and railings with square balusters. A low shed-roofed dormer on the front roof slope contains paired, six-light awning windows. On each of the side elevations, the second story flares out slightly at its base and is clad with wood shingles below the second story window sills. The right side elevation features three asymmetrically placed windows towards the front end of the wall and grouped casement windows towards the back. The left side elevation has four asymmetrically set double-hung windows on each floor. The exposed basement at the back of the left side of the building contains awning windows towards the front of the building and a short, flush panel door towards the back. Well-preserved and well-maintained, 132 Vine Street is a good example of relatively modest, early 20th century middle-class housing in Lexington, and represents an uncommon use of a two-family building type outside of the village center. Notable features include the single-family appearance of the composition, the rustic stonework of its foundation, two-story bay window on the fagade, and the simply but classically framed main entrance. 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. One of the earliest roads in Lexington, Vine Street was established as part of the route between Lexington and Woburn in the 17th century. It formed the southwesterly end of this road until 1833, when the old highway was widened and straightened to meet Massachusetts Avenue. Vine Street was sparsely settled through the 19th century; suburban infill developed gradually through the 20th century. 132 Vine Street appears to have been built as a two-family house, perhaps anticipating denser suburban development that did not materialize in this area. At the turn of the 20th century, the property on which this building stands was owned by Daniel Buckley, most likely a farmer, but the present house is not indicated on the maps of that period. The first known occupants at the present house, in 1920, included John E. Kelley, who worked as a mason and as a janitor at town hall, and his wife Mary J. (who were here by 1918), and also Fred W. Given, who was described as a weigher for a grain company and as a laborer, and his wife Charlotte E. In 1936, the house was occupied by Samuel T.Watson, a carpenter, and his wife Eva G., along with Clifton R. Price, a manager, and his wife Evelyn M. Continuation sheet I