woburn-street_0076 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

ARCHITECTURU SIGNIFICANCE (Describe important architectural features and evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community.) — This side-hall-plan Greek Revival cottage set with its gable end to the street in a neighborhood of many nineteenth-century workers cottages, still has many of its original finishes. On the exterior are the original clapboards, corner boards, frieze board, and doorway with sidelights; on the interior are many long-short four-panel Greek Revival doors, some with applied moldings; corner blocks in the door casings; wide floorboards; and a typical Greek Revival staircase with plain round balusters and a simple newel post with a turned shank and knob on either side of a square block. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE (Explain the role owners played in local or state history and how the building relates to the development of the community.) TYtishouse is unusual in that its date of construction can be determined exactly: during a renovation in the 1960s a floorboard was discovered in the front bedroom on the underside of which was the date 1827, "Fox" (the name of the builder) , and 2042, the price of the contract, in Roman numerals. The board has been replaced face down nearest the south wall. This date makes this house the earliest of the Greek Revival workers cottages in the Woburn Street area, a fact confirmed by its appearance on the 1830 map. By 1852 this house was owned by Darius Fillebrown and in 1876 by a Mrs. Canfield whose husband died in 1872 and who lived in the house with her son William, a farmer. William Canfield died in 1903 and in the 1906 Directory Mrs. Canfield is no longer listed as living in the house although she is shown on the maps as the owner, so presumably the house was occupied by tenants. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (name of publication, author, date and publisher) Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington, revised and continued to 1912 by the Lexington Historical Society, Volume II, pp. 91-92. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913. Notes by Rebecca Shankland, former resident at 76 Woburn Street, in possession of the present owner of 76 Woburn Street. 1830 map 1852 map 1876 map 1889 map 1898 map 1906 map 1887 Directory 1899 Directory 1894 Directory 1906 Directory 10T1 - 7/82