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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 23 CHARLES STREET <br /> MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. <br /> 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 <br /> 2206 <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 /> 23 Charles Street occupies a small lot that slopes down from left to right through the site. A concrete block retaining wall lines <br /> the sidewalk edge of the property. The building has modest front and side setbacks, which include a paved driveway on the left <br /> side of the house. A brick walkway leads from the sidewalk to the front entrance. The yard is maintained chiefly in lawn, with <br /> foundation plantings and scattered mature trees. <br /> The rectangular building rises 2 '/z stories from a fieldstone foundation to a front gable roof with no returns and a center chimney. <br /> Walls are sheathed in vinyl with vinyl trim. Windows typically have 6/1 or 1/1 double hung replacement sash with vinyl trim. The <br /> front fagade (east elevation) is spanned by a one-story porch with concrete steps framed by fieldstone cheek walls, half-height <br /> fieldstone walls surmounted by Tuscan columns, and a low hip roof. An offset entry door is located in a shallow projecting bay <br /> on the left, with paired 6/1 windows to the right. A large cross-gabled pavilion is centered over the entrance bay. It contains an <br /> angled bay window on its front face and single windows on its sides. A single 1/1 window is set in the right-hand bay of the <br /> second floor, and a 1/1 window is centered in the half story of the facade. <br /> The asymmetrical north (right side) elevation has two large windows and an offset doorway in its partially exposed basement, <br /> three windows on the first floor, and two on the second. The more irregular south (left side) elevation has one window visible on <br /> the first floor, three of varied size on the second floor, and one intermediate level window near the center, suggesting an interior <br /> stairway. A small shed-roofed entry vestibule projects from the center of this elevation, with a single-leaf doorway facing the <br /> driveway and a 1/1 window facing the street. <br /> Well maintained, 23 Charles Street has lost architectural integrity through the application of artificial siding and trim. <br /> Representative of early 20th century, middle-class suburban development in Lexington, the ambitious house is notable for its <br /> comparatively large size and scale in a neighborhood of mostly modest housing. It is also distinguished by its striking fagade <br /> composition, including the bold, rustic masonry base of the front porch and the articulated fagade pavilion. <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 /> Continuation sheet 2 <br />