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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 84 CLIFFS AVENUE <br /> MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. <br /> 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 <br /> 2208 <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 /> 84 Cliffe Avenue occupies a large, steep, wooded lot. Set well back from the street, the house is barely visible from a public <br /> way. A gravel driveway leads diagonally up from the street, through the center of the property and up to the house, which <br /> stands near the side property line. Fieldstone retaining walls are positioned at the front of the lot. A small garage is positioned <br /> between Cliffe Avenue and the house. The house consists of a 1 '/2 -story gambrel block with a substantial side extension. For <br /> purposes of this description, the front of the house is assumed to be the gambrel end facing the right side of the lot. <br /> The rectangular main block rises 1 '/z stories under a large gambrel roof. A two-story extension with a low-pitched shed roof <br /> runs the full length of the right side of the main block. (On the 1935 map, this extension was only one-story high.) Assessors <br /> records show that the walls are clad with wood shingles; wood trim is apparent. A narrow interior chimney rises near the center <br /> of the interface between the gambrel and shed roofs. Only one window of the house is visible from the street: a 1/1 double <br /> hung sash in a shed-roofed dormer on the left side of the main block, facing the Cliffe Avenue. <br /> Assessors' records and views of the building available from Bing maps were consulted for further information on the building's <br /> appearance. One window appears to be centered in the half story of the front gambrel end, and a large one-story porch with a <br /> flat roof wraps around the left front corner of the house. Assessors' records show a small appendage on the rightmost bay of the <br /> front facade that may be an entrance vestibule. Four individual windows seem to be regularly arrayed across the right side <br /> elevation, on the shed-roofed extension of the main block. Two windows appear to be centered in the half-story of the back <br /> gambrel end, and assessors' records show a narrow porch along a portion of the back elevation. <br /> The garage is set downhill of the house, near the side property line. This structure has a shallow-pitched, front gable roof and <br /> two pairs of hinged, double-leaf doors, each with vertical wood panels and eight lights above. Wood clapboards, plain flat trim, <br /> and flush veneer plywood are visible in the tympanum of the gable. Side elevations are not visible from the street; assessors' <br /> records identify the garage as a metal shed. <br /> Although its architectural integrity could not be assessed from the streetside view, 84 Cliffe Avenue appears to be a <br /> representative example of modest, early 20th century suburban housing in Lexington. It is distinctive for its gambrel roof, <br /> secluded setting on a comparatively large lot, and original/early garage, which appears largely intact. <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 /> Continuation sheet 2 <br />