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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON I 1 LOWELL STREET
<br /> MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
<br /> 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
<br /> 2241
<br /> Well-maintained and well-preserved, 11 Lowell Street is an excellent and substantial example of Victorian country houses in
<br /> Lexington, with an unusually idiosyncratic design. It is notable for its hillside siting, landscape walls, complex massing, first floor
<br /> porch, decorative fascia and gable peaks, and variety of fenestration.
<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 /> Lowell Street appears to have followed a Native American trail and was developed as an important transportation corridor in the
<br /> Colonial period. A new regional turnpike system radiating from Boston was established in the early 19th century; Lowell Street
<br /> formed part of the Middlesex Turnpike (ca. 1806), which extended from Cambridge to Tyngsborough and the New Hampshire
<br /> border. This peripheral area of East Lexington remained mostly agricultural and sparsely developed through the early 20th
<br /> century. The Great Meadow marshlands occupy an extensive area bordered by Lowell Street to the east, the Arlington town line
<br /> to the south, the railroad to the west, and Maple Street to the north.
<br /> Although remotely situated in a corner of Lexington (there was no street railway service along Lowell Street), 11 Lowell Street is
<br /> positioned for a fine view of not only the Great Meadow but also the 28-acre Arlington Reservoir. Straddling the town line
<br /> between Arlington and Lexington, the Reservoir was created in 1871 to provide drinking water for the town of Arlington.
<br /> Farmland predominated in this area of eastern Lexington until well into the 20th century, including the 80-acre Reed Dairy Farm,
<br /> whose farmhouse is located at 72 Lowell Street. Established ca. 1860, Reed sold many of its products in Arlington.
<br /> 11 Lowell Street first appears on the historic maps in 1898, when it was owned by Thomas Stevens. The property then also
<br /> included the triangular parcel at the point of Westminster and Lowell streets, which contained a barn. In 1906, the owner was
<br /> identified only as Sanborn. No information is presently known of these owners/residents. Members of the Greenough family
<br /> occupied the property from at least 1918 through 1945. Henry M. Greenough (1854-1922)was associated with the Paine
<br /> Furniture Co. in Boston. His wife Mary A. Greenough lived here at least through 1922. By 1935, only the couple's daughter
<br /> Helen is identified at this address. A single woman, she had lived in the house with her parents since at least 1920 and
<br /> remained here through at least 1945. Subsequent occupants included Joseph Lee, retired, and his life Ida J. (1955), and
<br /> Victoria N. O'Connell, a bookkeeper, and John Vance, a tree surgeon (1965). According to building permits, the house had
<br /> been in unofficial two-family use since before 1924. The property was subdivided in 1972 for construction of a new house to the
<br /> north of the original residence, on the parcel at the point of the Lowell Street/Westminster Ave. intersection. The original barn
<br /> was likely demolished at that time.
<br /> Further research is recommended to establish the identities and historic context of the property owners who preceded the
<br /> Greenough family, and to expand knowledge of the Greenoughs themselves. Connections with the nearby Crescent Hill
<br /> development in Arlington should also be investigated. Historic photographs would be useful in assessing the architectural
<br /> integrity of the property.
<br /> BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
<br /> Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Death Index, 1901-1980 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.,
<br /> 2013. Original data: Department of Public Health, Registry of Vital Records and Statistics. Massachusetts Vital Records
<br /> Index to Deaths [1916-1970]. Volumes 66-145. Facsimile edition. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society,
<br /> Boston, Massachusetts.
<br /> Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Mason Membership Cards, 1733-1990 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com
<br /> Operations, Inc., 2013. Original data: Massachusetts Grand Lodge of Masons Membership Cards 1733-1990. New England
<br /> Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.
<br /> Historic maps and atlases: Walling 1853; Beers 1875; Walker 1889; Stadly 1898; Walker 1906; Sanborn 1908, 1918, 1927,
<br /> 1935, 1935/1950.
<br /> Kelley, Beverly Allison. Lexington;A Century of Photographs. Boston: Lexington Historical Society, 1980.
<br /> Lexington Comprehensive Cultural Resources Survey, "Area H —Meriam Hill" Summary.
<br /> http://historicsurveV.Iexingtonma.gov/index.htm Accessed Jul 23, 2015.
<br /> Continuation sheet 2
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