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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 25 THERESA AVENUE <br /> MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. <br /> 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 <br /> 0 2272 <br /> The area was likely developed in response to the electric street railway, which began service on Mass. Avenue in 1899. Like <br /> Liberty Heights to the south of Massachusetts Avenue (which it resembles, architecturally; LEX.Q), this neighborhood—known <br /> as Massachusetts Avenue Terrace and Arlington Heights Terrace—was laid out by Jacob W.Wilbur, a prolific Brookline <br /> developer. Wilbur typically sited his subdivisions near streetcar lines and appealed to working class residents. <br /> Theresa Avenue was laid out by 1922, when there were only three houses on the street, all unnumbered. Based on its style, 25 <br /> Theresa Avenue might have been one of these. The households on the street in 1922 included John A. Murray, a traveling <br /> salesman, and his wife Rose M.; Wensley Barker, a manager, and his wife Christine; and James Irwin, Jr., a carpenter, and his <br /> wife Mary. 24 Theresa Avenue is first depicted on the Sanborn maps in 1927, with an open porch depicted across the fagade. <br /> A one-story accessory building (likely a garage) also appears in 1927, in the approximate location of the present garage. <br /> The first known residents of 25 Theresa Avenue, in 1924, are George W. Porter, a chauffeur and later truck driver for Standard <br /> Oil Co., and his wife Ethel M. (a.k.a. Maud E.). Their son David A. Porter lived with them in 1930 and 1945 (in the latter year he <br /> was serving in the Army). Their nephew George E. Porter, a waiter at a "road house", accompanied them in 1940. In 1965, <br /> George and Ethel Porter were accompanied by Frank Hillis, a carpenter. <br /> BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES <br /> Historic maps and atlases: Walling 1853; Beers 1875; Walker 1889; Stadly 1898; Walker 1906; Sanborn 1908, 1918, 1927, <br /> 1935, 1935/1950. <br /> Lexington Comprehensive Cultural Resources Survey, Period and Area Summaries. <br /> http://historicsurvey.lexingtonma.gov/index.htm Accessed Jul 23, 2015. <br /> Lexington Directories: 1899, 1908-09, 1922, 1924, 1934, 1936. <br /> Lexington List of Persons: 1935, 1945, 1955, 1965. <br /> Massachusetts Historical Commission. "MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Lexington." 1980. <br /> . Form A– Liberty Heights, LEX.Q. Prepared by Anne Grady and Nancy Seasholes, 1984 and 2001. <br /> U.S. Census: 1930, 1940. <br /> SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES <br /> West(left side)elevation and garage <br /> Continuation sheet 2 <br />