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INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Town Property Address LEXINGTON 44 WOBURN STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD 305 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: The house at 44 Woburn Street is one of four small Greek Revival houses in the Woburn Street area(the others are 66, 76, and 147 Woburn Street). They are all small cottages and are characterized by granite or brick foundations and some Greek Revival elements. The house at 44 Woburn Street has a brick foundation and is set with its gable end perpendicular to the street. It was originally three bays wide and one deep with a full entablature on the side and a center side entrance with full sidelights. The others are more typical Greek Revival cottages with a gablefront and sidehall plan. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: A road from Lexington Center to Woburn has existed since the 17t"century. In the early 19th century Woburn Street began to develop as a locus of small cottages however the major development of the area seems to have occurred after 1855. By 1875 Woburn Street and the south side of Cottage Street were lined by small houses. Beginning about 1855 but certainly by 1875,the vast majority of the residents in the Woburn Street area were Irish. Irish immigrants had begun moving to Lexington in the 1850s to work as laborers on farms and in other occupations. Those who could afford to rent or own their own houses soon became concentrated in the Woburn Street area,a section known as"Skunk Hollow". More research is needed to determine why the Irish settled along Woburn Street; perhaps it was because this was already a working-class neighborhood and was also near the railway line. In the early 20th century 44 Woburn Street was numbered as#36. The house was occupied from about 1908 into the 1980s by Bermuda-born Andrew Pewtherer and his family. For more detail see: Seasholes,Nancy S. Area form(F)for Woburn Street, 1984.