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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 15 THERESA AVENUE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2270 ❑ 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. 15 Theresa Avenue occupies a small, level lot that is lined with a low hedge and occupied by shrubs, scattered trees, and street trees. The two-family building is offset towards the west side of its parcel, with a paved driveway on either side of the front yard. A concrete walkway leads from the street to the front entrance. The long, rectangular building rises 2 '/2 stories from a fieldstone foundation to a high front-gambrel roof with a center chimney. Walls are clad with wood clapboard and trimmed with narrow corner boards and a wide flat fascia. Windows typically have 6/1 double hung sash with band molding. The two-bay wide front facade (south elevation) contains a two-story high, angled bay window on the eastern half, with a single 6/1 window on each face of each floor. The western half of the elevation is spanned by a two-story porch supported by slim square posts and ringed by a wood balustrade on the first and second floor decks. A wood stairway accesses this porch. Vertical board siding clads the walls of the entry bay on both floors; the second story deck is uncovered. Behind the porch, the first story contains a single leaf door; above is a sliding patio door with a square Queen Anne window on the left. A pedimented gambrel end is formed by a narrow, flared roof skirt connecting the front corners of the roof. Within the half story is a pair of closely spaced 6/1 windows. The east (right side) elevation contains a two-story high, angled bay window in the center, with three 6/1 windows at each story. The rear bay of this elevation has, on both floors, a tripartite window with a center picture window flanked by a 1/1 window on each side. A hip roofed dormer, centered on the roof, contains a single casement window. A two-story wood staircase on the rear elevation is visible from the east side of the building. The west(left side) elevation has three bays, each floor featuring paired 6/1 windows towards the front of the building, a small awning window in the center bay, and a single casement window towards the back. Well preserved and well maintained, 15 Theresa Avenue is a simple but handsome example of early 20th century suburban housing in Lexington. Notable features of the house include its straightforward massing, two-story high bay windows, and voluminous, pedimented front-gambrel roof. 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. The neighborhood centered around Bow Street and Hillcrest, Cliffe, and Rindge avenues covers a steep hillside between Massachusetts Avenue and Lowell Street along the Arlington town line. The Great Meadows and Arlington Reservoir are located to the west and east, respectively. By 1898, a very short stub of road between Mass. Avenue and the B&M Railroad tracks is labeled Bow Street. North of the tracks, it continues as a pathway to a farmhouse identified as J. A. Wilson. The 1899 directory identifies a James Wilson, farmer and market gardener, with a house off Bow, and a James A. Wilson, market gardener, with a house on Bow. The land remained undeveloped as part of the Wilson Farm until at least 1906. Most of the streets here were laid out and platted for house lots by 1927; development most likely began after 1918. Development slowly crept up the hillside through the early and mid 20th century, most densely along the grid of streets closest to Massachusetts Avenue. The Wilson farm remained in existence east of Bow Street(in the area now traversed by South Rindge Street) until at least 1950, at which time it encompassed a substantial farmhouse and greenhouse and two other large outbuildings. Continuation sheet I