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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 7 SHIRLEY STREET <br /> MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. <br /> 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 <br /> 2262 <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 /> 7 Shirley Street occupies a small, flat lot near the intersection of the main thoroughfare of Bedford Street. Maintained chiefly in <br /> lawn, the building has narrow front and side setbacks with small shrubs and a paved driveway on the right side of the lot. The <br /> building consists of a 2 '/2 story main block with a rear extension and a detached garage. A concrete walkway leads from the <br /> sidewalk to the main entrance. <br /> The two by two bay main block rises from a fieldstone foundation to a front gabled roof with gable returns and a small brick <br /> chimney in the center, at the ridgeline. Walls are clad with wood clapboards at the first floor and wood shingles at the second <br /> story, which flares out slightly at its base over a plain flat belt course. Windows typically have 1/1 double hung sash with narrow <br /> band molding. On the street fagade, a one-bay wide, gabled pavilion is offset above a full-width, enclosed sun porch. The sun <br /> porch has a low hip roof and predominantly paired windows; its wooden stairway has modern wrought iron railings. <br /> The right side elevation has one window towards the front, and angled bay window with a pitched roof towards the back, and two <br /> symmetrically placed windows on the second floor. The left side elevation has a square Queen Anne-style window with gridded <br /> panes and colored glass towards the front and paired windows towards the back of the first floor. Above are two symmetrically <br /> set windows on the second floor and a shed-roofed dormer with paired windows. A low, one-story extension at the back <br /> appears to have a hip roof. <br /> The one-story garage at the back right corner of the lot has a high hip roof and one long garage door across its full width. Walls <br /> are constructed of small coursed paving blocks. A single-leaf door is located on the right side. <br /> Well maintained and well preserved, 7 Shirley Street is a good example of modest, early 20th century suburban housing in <br /> Lexington. It is notable for its fagade massing (full-length sun porch and gabled pavilion), mix of wall textures, Queen Anne <br /> window sash, and the uncommon stone construction of its original/early garage. <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 /> Shirley Street appears on the maps between 1898 and 1906; a handful of buildings, mostly along the south side, were standing <br /> along it in the latter year. All but one lot was developed by 1927, when the streetscape contained ten buildings (four of them <br /> side-by-side duplexes) and six garages. <br /> The house at 7 Shirley Street represents the early period of suburbanization in Lexington, in which development along Bedford <br /> Street was sparked by the re-building of the roadway and the arrival of street railway service here at the turn of the 20th century. <br /> George F. Tewksbury, a farmer who owned the land in this area in 1898 and 1906, is credited with developing the Hill <br /> Street/Tewksbury Street/Shirley Street neighborhood. <br /> 7 Shirley Street appears on the maps by 1927 and shared a lot with 92 Bedford Street until at least 1950. The earliest known <br /> occupants of the house were Charles M. Collins, who owned Charles M. Collins & Co., plumbers, at Depot Square, and his wife <br /> Helen R. (1920). In 1935, Margaret M. Callahan and Mary B. Griffin were identified as living here. Subsequent residents <br /> included Mr. and Mrs. John F. Estle (1936); Lester P. Dutka, a molder of bronze castings, his wife Mary(both were born in <br /> Hungary), and two children (1945, 1955); and Carl B. Ketchum, a student, and his wife Beverley(sic) (1965). <br /> Continuation sheet I <br />