Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutbelfry-terrace_0015 FORM B - BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 0049000159 Boston N. 683 r Town Lexington Place (neighborhood or village) r = � Address 15 Belfry Terr. r` - _ ! Historic Name Ell of Charles Hudson House r a Uses: Present Residential Original Residential ®^ Date of Construction 1848 Source Deeds Style/Form Italianate Architect/Builder Exterior Material: Foundation Brick Wall/Trim Wood Clapboard Roof Asphalt Shingle ° Outbuildings/Secondary Structures Major Alterations(with dates) Rear addition (date unknown); sun porch (1929) a` Condition Good a-- 'I• ? Moved ❑ no ® yes Date 1921 Ir m Acreage 0.2 A. Fo Setting On a cul_-de-sac with 19th-and early 20th-century houses Recorded by Nancy S. Seasholes Organization Lexington Historical Commission Date(month/year) March 1998 Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form. BUILDING FORM ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION ❑ see continuation sheet Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. 15 Belfry Terr. is one of several ells of 18th-and 19th-century houses in Lexington that has been separated from its original house and moved to its present location; other examples of moved ells are at 29 Hayes Ln. (MHC#668), 40 Forest St. (MHC#681), and 9-11 Cedar St. (MHC#688). The main block of this house is rectangular,two stories, five(irregularly-spaced)-by-one bays, and side-gabled with a rear chimney. It is set on a fieldstone foundation, clad with wood clapboards, and roofed with asphalt shingles. There is a one-story oriel on the south elevation, a front-gabled two-story one-by-one bay rear addition, and a one-story flat-roofed sunporch with a very tall chimney in the reentrant angle. The off-center entry has a front porch with small Tuscan posts; windows are 6/6 double hung sash. - HISTORICAL NARRATIVE ® see continuation sheet 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. This house is the former rear ell of the house now at 6 Belfry Terr. (MHC 9682) once attached at the south end of this house. The entire house, known as the Hudson house,was originally located on Massachusetts Ave. opposite the Common approximately where the driveway of the Hancock Church is today. The house, and presumably the ell,were built in 1848 by Isaac C.Wright,a Lexington house painter, as evidenced by the fact that in May 1848 Wright bought the half-acre parcel on which the house originally stood for$600 and in April 1849 sold the lot"with the building"for$2500, indicating that the house had been built in the interim. The purchaser in 1849 was Charles Hudson (1795-1881),who moved to Lexington from Westminster, where he had been a Unitarian minister from 1819 to 1841, a state representative from 1828 to 1833, a state senator from 1833 to 1839, member of the Governor's Council from 1839 to 1841,and a U. S. Representative from 1839 to 1849. After moving to Lexington,he became a naval officer and served four year at the Custom House in Boston. He also served eight years on the state board of education, four years as a federal tax assessor, and reportedly was a personal friend of President Lincoln. Hudson was involved with many railroads, serving as president of the Lexington and West Cambridge Branch Railroad, a state director of the Boston and Albany, and a commissioner of the Hoosac Tunnel. He published histories of Marlborough,Westminster, and, in 1868, of BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑see continuation sheet DeSimone, Frank. "The Story of Charles Hudson." Hudson News-Enterprise, 8 June 1966. Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington. Revised and continued to 1912 by the Lexington Historical Society. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913. 2: 313. Lexington,Town of. Board of Selectmen. Letter to Sarah E. Robinson, 26 April 1915. In possession of S. Lawrence Whipple, Lexington, MA. . Board of Selectmen. Letter to Sydney R. Wrightington, 28 May 1828. In possession of S. Lawrence Whipple, Lexington, MA. Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge, MA. 528: 564; 554: 165. ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form. INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Town Property Address Lexington 15 Belfry Terr. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 683 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 HISTORICAL NARRATIVE (continued) Lexington;the town of Hudson, which was established in 1866,was named for him. In Lexington he was selectman from 1868 to 1875 and chairman of the Centennial committee in 1875. - After Hudson's death the house remained in his family into the 20th century. Then, in 1921 when the Hancock Church put on a rear addition, the Hudson house was moved back onto the extension of Forest St. that had been built in 1915 perhaps with the intention of continuing it through to Massachusetts Ave., although the selectmen denied it at the time. When the house was moved, the main block and ell were separated,the ell placed in its present location and the house at what is now 6 Belfry Terr. In 1927 Forest St. was extended to Massachusetts Ave., but as a continuation of the main part of Forest St. rather than of the arm built in 1915, and in 1928, in response to a petition from the residents of the former Forest St. extension,the name of that street was changed to Belfry Ten. In 1929 the former Hudson house ell was purchased by Paul Whipple and it seems particularly appropriate that his son, S. Lawrence Whipple, who is now the town historian, still lives ` in the house once occupied by Lexington's 19th-century historian.