welch-road_0019 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 19 WELCH ROAD MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2282 ❑ 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. 19 Welch Road occupies a small, nearly square lot that slopes up from the street. The house stands on a berm above street level, in the right front corner of the property. Front and right side setbacks are modest. Maintained chiefly in lawn, the yard also contains foundation plantings, scattered shrubs, and a mature larch tree to the left of the house. A paved driveway is located to the left of the house, and concrete steps and a partially paved walkway lead from the driveway to the side stairs of the front porch. The building consists of a rectangular main block with side and rear appendages. The main block rises 1 '/2 stories from a fieldstone foundation to a front gable roof with no returns and one chimney on the right slope, near the center and ridgeline. Walls are sheathed with artificial siding and trim. Windows typically have 1/1 double-hung replacement sash with no trim. The fagade consists of a full-length front porch with a fieldstone foundation having deeply recessed joints, four decoratively turned posts, a low hip roof, and square wood balusters at the railing. An off-set, single-leaf doorway under the left side of the porch comprises the main entrance, with a single window to the right. Two windows are centered in the half story, with a tiny vertical opening in the gable peak. The right side elevation is dominated by a two-story cross-gabled side ell at the back. The ell has one window on the first floor facing the street, two narrow windows on each floor of the gabled elevation, and a pedimented gable with no windows. The section of the main block forward of this ell contains two windows. The left side elevation of the main block, partially obscured by the large tree in the side yard, contains two windows at the first floor. The half-story contains a broad, cross-gabled dormer that is flush with the main wall and contains paired windows in its half story. A one-story, flat-roofed projection extends across part of the rear elevation, ending in an open porch at the back left corner, where a square corner post supports a flat roof. 19 Welch Road is a relatively early building in a neighborhood that was mostly developed much later. The house has lost historic integrity through the application of artificial siding and the consequent loss of original textures and trim. It remains notable, however, for its lively massing, decorative front porch, and rustic masonry foundation. 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. 19 Welch Road is located southeast of the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and School Street, in an historically agricultural section of Lexington. Massachusetts Avenue was established in the 17th century as part of an early highway from Cambridge to Concord. Development of the section of the road west of Lincoln Street and the town center was sparse, however, until the beginning of the 20th century. School Street was laid out and had its eponymous school building by 1830. The property represents Lexington's evolution from a farming community to a residential suburb in the 20th century. No road or building is shown here on the historic maps through 1906, although the style of the building suggests a late 19th century date. Changes in street address systems make it difficult to identify residents of this address with certainty. The road was laid out but not named in the 1910 census; by 1918, it was identified as Hill Avenue. Known as Hill Avenue until at least 1955, the street had only two households living on it by 1922, at unnumbered addresses. These included Amos Holman, a self-employed butcher(1873-1933), and his wife Catherine T., and Joseph Corselli, a laborer with the Lexington Water Department, and his wife Catherine. Amos and Catherine Holman, both born in Nova Scotia, appear Continuation sheet I