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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 19 CHARLES STREET <br /> MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. <br /> 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 <br /> 2203 <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 /> 19 Charles Street occupies a small lot that slopes down steeply from left to right. The building is positioned near the left front <br /> corner of its lot, with a modest front set back and a paved driveway to the left of the house. The yard is maintained mostly in <br /> lawn, with a few foundation plantings. A low hedge lines the sidewalk edge at the right side of the property. A concrete walkway <br /> leads to a stone stairway at the front entrance. The building consists of a two-story main block and a rear addition. <br /> The simple rectangle of the main block rises from a fieldstone foundation to a hip roof with a center chimney. Walls are clad with <br /> stucco. Windows typically have 1/1 double hung sash and wood casings with band molding. The front fagade (east elevation) is <br /> spanned by a one-story porch with a high hip roof, paired square posts, and wood railings of various heights and slender square <br /> balusters. The offset, single-leaf door is flanked on the right by a tripartite window. Single windows are entered above on the <br /> second story. <br /> The north (right side) elevation of the main block contains two widely-spaced window bays, containing three single windows and <br /> one tripartite window unit at the back of the first floor. The south (left side) elevation of the main block contains irregular <br /> fenestration: a small window near the front and a paired window towards the rear of the first floor, and three windows of varied <br /> heights on the second floor. A one-story modern addition extends the length of the rear elevation, rising from a concrete <br /> foundation to a shed roof. Its north (right side) elevation comprises a trio of contiguous square windows and an offset, single- <br /> leaf door accessing an elevated wood deck. <br /> Well preserved and well maintained, 19 Charles Street is a handsome example of the Four-Square style and of early 20th <br /> century suburban housing in Lexington. The house is notable for its simple massing and fenestration, stucco cladding, and <br /> vigorous front porch. <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 small grid of streets bordered by Massachusetts Avenue, Hibbert Street, Taft Avenue, and Bowker Street represents an <br /> early area of suburban infill in East Lexington, near the Arlington town line. Immediately south of Taft Avenue is Liberty Heights <br /> (LEX.Q), a hilltop subdivision laid out by Brookline developer Jacob W. Wilbur in 1909 and developed in the teens and twenties. <br /> The growth of both these neighborhoods followed the arrival of the electric street railway on Massachusetts Avenue in 1899 and <br /> was directed at working class residents. <br /> In the area adjacent to Massachusetts Avenue known as Dexter Hillside, Hibbert and Sylvia streets, which straddle the <br /> Lexington/Arlington line, were laid out, platted, and partially developed by 1898. The only other evidence of development here at <br /> that time is the L-shaped beginning of Charles and Cherry streets, where ten house lots were laid out but vacant. By 1927, both <br /> Charles and Bowker streets extended from Massachusetts Avenue to Taft Avenue, and the western ends of Cherry Street, <br /> Stevens (then Cary) Road, and Camden (then Smythe) Street pushed a few lots eastward from Charles. Development was <br /> gradual through the 1920s and 30s and was virtually complete, with the present network of streets, by 1950. <br /> The house at 19 Charles Street appears on the 1927 map, with a long accessory building, likely a garage, at the back of the lot. <br /> The first known residents at this address, in 1928, are Patrick J. Heaney, a bricklayer/mason, and his wife Nancy, who lived here <br /> with their four children through at least 1942. From at least 1945 through 1965, the house was occupied by Leslie J. Simon, a <br /> Continuation sheet 2 <br />