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INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Town Property Address LEXINGTON 4 COTTAGE STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORSSEY BOULEVARD 351 RI BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The Lexington Minute-man on August 10, 1907 includes a reference to the construction of this house: A.C. Washburn,the carpenter and builder, is busy this summer as usual. He is building...a cottage for Mr. Dennis Collins, at a cost approximately thirty-five hundred dollars, located on Woburn Street. Abram C. Washburn was Lexington's most prolific late 19th century builder/contractor. Many of his houses were built speculatively in Lexington's best neighborhoods and included homes on Parker, Clarke,Forest, Oakland, Chandler, and Bloomfield Streets, Glen Road, Winthrop Road, Stratham Road and Percy Road. The documentation on this house is useful as it suggests that the total output and range of his work was probably even greater than had been thought. Commissions for smaller cottages such as this were rarely mentioned in the local newspaper. According to directories, Dennis H. Collins was a school janitor. The 1910 Census indicates that in that year he was 39 and his Irish born wife Agnes was 35. Also living with them were Rose and Mabel Cominskey, ages 15 and 13, and described as boarders. The 1920 Census lists two adopted children, a boy and a girl, as also living with them. In the 1932 directory Collins is described as a janitor at the Munroe School. By 1942 Dennis was deceased but his widow Agnes was still living at 4 Cottage Street. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Lexington Directories,various years. Lexington Minute-man,August 10, 1907. U.S. Census,various dates. Supplement prepared by: Lisa Mausolf March 2009