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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON I I FAIRVIEw AVENUE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2218 ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form. Use as much space as necessary to complete the following entries, allowing text to flow onto additional continuation sheets. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION: Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. 11 Fairview Avenue is set toward the street edges of a small corner lot. The land slopes up steeply from left to right across the lot, maintained mostly in lawn with some shrubs at the front foundation. A long paved driveway at the right side of the lot occupies what looks like a planned extension of Hayward Avenue. The small rectangular house rises 2 '/2 stories from a fieldstone foundation with deeply recessed joints to a hip roof with a single, shed-roofed dormer on the front slope. One chimney projects from the right slope of the roof, near the peak. Walls are clad with artificial siding and trim. Windows typically have 6/1 double hung wood sash or 1/1 replacement sash with aluminum trim. The first floor of the front (Fairview Street)facade is spanned by an enclosed sun porch with a hip roof, center door, modern picture window units, and a brick stairway with brick cheek walls. Two widely spaced 6/1 windows are symmetrically set on the second floor, and the dormer contains a horizontal, six-light window sash. The symmetrical right side elevation has two widely spaced window bays with one window on each floor(6/1 sash on the second floor, 1/1 on the first). The irregular left side elevation has a variety of window sizes and mostly 6/1 sash, with three smaller windows on the first floor and three taller windows at the second floor. On the rear elevation, the first floor has a modern wood deck with cross-braced railings and a small shed-roofed entry vestibule at the back left corner, with a single-leaf door facing the right side of the property. There are two window bays with one window on each floor, three of them having 6/1 sash. 11 Fairview Avenue is a very modest example of early 20th century housing in an outlying area of Lexington. The house is notable for its intact massing, rustic masonry foundation, and some original or early window sash. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE Discuss the history of the building. Explain its associations with local(or state)history. Include uses of the building, and the role(s) the owners/occupants played within the community. 11 Fairview Avenue represents Lexington's evolution from an agricultural economy to a suburban community in the early 20th century. The street appears in the town directories between 1906 and 1918. Earlier maps (1898 and 1906)show a large tract of undeveloped land between Wood Street and Massachusetts Avenue, with a large house and barn farther out on Wood Street belonging to Ernest K. Ballard, a farmer. By 1922, two households were present on Fairview, and there were still only two through at least 1945. The first occupant of 11 Fairview was James W. Denney, a teamster born in Nova Scotia, who moved here between 1911 and 1915 and stayed through at least 1945. The 1920 census shows his household including his wife Julia (born in Ireland); brother- in-law John J. Garten, also a teamster; and three young boys between the ages of 5 through 13 (all with different last names), who were boarding with them. Members of the Garten family continued to occupy the house through at least 1965. These included Henry J. Garten, a boilermaker, and his wife Helen from at least 1945 through 1965; their son Henry G., who was in the Army and later employed as a manager(1945 and 1955); and Constance B. Garten, a secretary, and Paul G. Garten, a manager(1955). Continuation sheet I