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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 44 Bow STREET <br /> MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. <br /> 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 <br /> 2193 <br /> ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. <br /> If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form. <br /> Use as much space as necessary to complete the following entries, allowing text to flow onto additional continuation sheets. <br /> ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION: <br /> Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. <br /> 44 Bow Street occupies a small level lot that is lined by modest shrubs and medium to mature street trees. The yard is mostly <br /> lawn, with foundation plantings of varied size. The building has minimal setbacks and is positioned to the north of the parcel. An <br /> asphalt walkway leads to a concrete and brick entry stair with wrought iron railings. The building consists of a rectangular main <br /> block with a rear addition containing a two-car garage. A paved driveway extends from the street to the garage. <br /> The two by two bay main block rises two and one half stories in height from a fieldstone foundation to a hip roof with projecting <br /> eaves and a brick center chimney. A recent, one-story, one by two bay addition has been added to the rear, situated on a <br /> concrete slab with a gable roof. The walls are clad with wood shingles and trimmed with sill and corner boards and flat fascia at <br /> the roof eaves. Windows typically have 6/1 double hung sash with band molding. The front fagade (east elevation)features a <br /> square projecting bay with a tripartite window unit on the first floor. Its low hip roof spans the width of the building, covering an <br /> offset entrance with a single-leaf door on the right end of the facade. The second floor has two symmetrical 6/1 windows. The <br /> half story dormer has a hip roof and contains a single awning window. <br /> The north (right side) elevation of the main block contains a single picture window as well as four 6/1 windows. The north <br /> elevation of the rear addition contains a single-leaf door flanked on either side by 6/1 windows. The addition also presents a <br /> flush panel steel garage door with band molding. <br /> The south (left side)elevation of the main block has three 6/1 windows and an angled, one-story bay window at the first floor. <br /> The south elevation of the rear addition contains a sliding glass patio door and a single picture window. <br /> Well preserved and maintained, 44 Bow Street is typical of modest, early 20th century suburban housing in Lexington. Notable <br /> features include the characteristic four-square massing, with multiple small-scale projections, and the integral bay window and <br /> entry porch on the fagade. <br /> HISTORICAL NARRATIVE <br /> Discuss the history of the building. Explain its associations with local(or state)history. Include uses of the building, and the role(s) the <br /> owners/occupants played within the community. <br /> The neighborhood centered around Bow Street and Hillcrest, Cliffe, and Rindge avenues covers a steep hillside between <br /> Massachusetts Avenue and Lowell Street along the Arlington town line. The Great Meadows and Arlington Reservoir are <br /> located to the west and east, respectively. By 1898, a very short stub of road between Mass. Avenue and the B&M Railroad <br /> tracks is labeled Bow Street. North of the tracks, it continues as a pathway to a farmhouse identified as J. A. Wilson. The 1899 <br /> directory identifies a James Wilson, farmer and market gardener, with a house off Bow, and a James A. Wilson, market <br /> gardener, with a house on Bow. The land remained undeveloped as part of the Wilson Farm until at least 1906. <br /> Most of the streets here were laid out and platted for house lots by 1927; development most likely began after 1918. <br /> Development slowly crept up the hillside through the early and mid 20th century, most densely along the grid of streets closest to <br /> Massachusetts Avenue. The Wilson farm remained in existence east of Bow Street (in the area now traversed by South Rindge <br /> Street) until at least 1950, at which time it encompassed a substantial farmhouse and greenhouse and two other large <br /> outbuildings. <br /> Continuation sheet 2 <br />