wachusett-drive_0035 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 35 WACHUSETT DRIVE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2280 ❑ 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. 35 Wachusett Drive occupies a large lot at the end of a narrow, paved extension of the main road. Surrounded by woodland, the front yard has a paved circular driveway with shrubs and a small lawn area in the center. The house consists of two main sections: a three-story, flat-roofed volume on the left and a two-story, side gabled volume on the right. The front fagade is the only portion of the building visible from the public way. Windows typically have 2/2 double-hung sash and flat casings without molding. Two chimneys are visible: an interior end wall chimney on the left side of the three-story section of the house, and an interior chimney on the back slope of the gabled right wing, near the center and the ridge line. The three-story section of the house is sheathed with wood clapboards and trimmed with flat corner boards and a fascia board with bed molding. Its fagade contains two widely spaced window bays at the outer ends with a single window on each floor and a pair of square windows centered at the first floor. The two-story volume on the right has a side gable roof with a shallow, cross-gabled pavilion on the left end of its facade. This wing of the building is sheathed with clapboards on the first floor and wood shingles above. The second floor wall flares slightly at the base. Flat corner boards trim the first floor and a wide flat belt course runs between the first and second floors and along the eave line. The fagade pavilion contains a single leaf doorway centered on its first floor, flanked by small, square Queen Anne windows. One window is centered above at the second floor and the gable peak is decorated with patterned shingles and a flat belt course near the peak. On the bay to the right of the pavilion, a pair of windows is centered on the first floor and a single window is positioned slightly off-center on the second floor, topped by a small cross-gable with patterned wood shingles. The scale, size, massing, and utilitarian character of the three-story volume of this house detract from the picturesque qualities of the right side of the building, which presumably is original. The right wing is notable for its lively roofline, textured wall surfaces, informal fenestration, and Queen Anne sash. Although well-maintained, the historical integrity of the original house—the two-story wing—is compromised by the overwhelming scale and massing of the three-story addition. The building is architecturally significant as the remnant of a Victorian country house in the setting of an early 201h century subdivision. Notable features of the original house include the picturesque roofline and massing, combination of wall textures, and variety of informal fenestration. The addition is remarkable for its size, scale, and flat roof. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE Discuss the history of the building. Explain its associations with local(or state)history. Include uses of the building, and the roles) the owners/occupants played within the community. 35 Wachusett Drive occupies a prominent site on Loring Hill, southwest of the town center, off Waltham Street. The early part of the present building may have been constructed by 1875, when an L-shaped building and an outbuilding are illustrated in this location, owned by Joseph Richardson. Depiction of the same L-shaped house persisted in 1898. According to Worthen, this property was part of the John Bridge farm in the early 19th century, passing through several subsequent owners until acquired by Joseph Richardson of Boston in 1869. Richardson was a merchant and evidently a gentleman farmer. In the 1880 census, he was living in Lexington (at an unspecified address)with his wife Amelia, three young Continuation sheet I