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HomeMy WebLinkAboutmassachusetts-avenue_1303 Enhanced Building Form Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form. 4/11 FORM B − BUILDING MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Photograph View from SW. Locus Map (north at top) Source: Mass GIS Oliver Parcel Viewer. Recorded by: Walter R. Wheeler, Kathryn Grover & Neil Larson Neil Larson & Associates Organization: Lexington Historical Commission Date: July / 2021 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 39-76A Lexington A, D AB LEX.129 LHD 6/11/1966, NTTRA 3/9/1990, NR IND 3/9/1990 Town/City: Lexington Place: (neighborhood or village): Lexington Center Address: 1303 Massachusetts Avenue Historic Name: Mason – Munroe House Uses: Present: single family residential Original: single family residential Date of Construction: 1731-37, ca. 1820, ca. 1860 Source: archival sources, deeds, visual assessment Style/Form: Federal / 2-sty gable saltbox block Architect/Builder: unknown Exterior Material: Foundation: brick, stone Wall/Trim: wood clapboard/wood Roof: asphalt shingle Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Garage (attached) In-ground swimming pool (1960) Major Alterations (with dates): Garage/family room wing added, 1965 Interior renovations, 1985 Condition: good Moved: no yes Date: Acreage: approx. 3.0 Setting: The property is located on a major thoroughfare built out with closely-spaced houses from a broad period of development. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 1303 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 A, D, AB LEX.129 Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION: Based on fieldwork by Walter R. Wheeler & Neil Larson The Mason – Munroe House, with portions believed to have been built as early as 1731, is a two-story wood frame single dwelling with a gable roof, a rear lean-to and a story-and-a-half kitchen wing. It has a three-bay front façade with a center entrance flanked by sidelights and contained in a gable-roof porch. Tall windows with 12-over-16 sash are positioned on either side of the entrance; smaller windows with 8-over-12 sash occupy the second story. A spare, molded cornice distinguishes the roof line. The gable ends have single windows centered on all three levels. Additional windows are located on the first and second stories of the lean-to on the north end. The broken slope of the original roof was bridged by the addition of a higher roof originating at the ridge leaving the old eave line intact. The south end of the saltbox section is overlaid by the kitchen ell. The front façade of the ell has a central entrance flanked by two windows on each side and a gabled dormer above. The rear elevation has been altered by additions and changes in fenestration. A large one-story wing with a garage in front and a family room in the rear has been added to the south end of the kitchen wing. Examination of this house revealed indications of alteration episodes that occurred in ca. 1820, ca. 1860, ca. 1885, ca. 1922, 1932-1936 and 1936, in addition to more recent minor alterations and additions. Observable framing components suggest an initial construction date for the house predating the middle of the 18th century, and the asymmetrical arrangement of the framing supports this identification. There is insufficient available evidence to secure its reported construction date to the second decade of the 18th century; however, no evidence precludes this possibility. A study of the house made for the existing MHC Building Form in 1985 identified the house as one of four early 18th-century houses in Lexington with quirk-beaded frames, a First Period characteristic. One-inch quirk beads are extant on an end girt in the southwest parlor and on plates, girts and summer beans in front chambers on the second story. The house also has a roof framed only with rafters, a late First Period method of construction found elsewhere in Middlesex County. Numerous renovations, alterations and restorations of this house have obscured most physical evidence of its 18th century history, which may date back to ca. 1739. The only aspect of the house that can be securely dated to the 18th century is the framing of the main block of the house, which included the use of splayed (or “gunstock”) posts, a common feature to early construction and seen at 26 Blossom Street, and at 50 Kendall Road in Lexington, and at the Whittemore and Captain William Smith houses in nearby Concord. Unlike the earliest examples of this type, however, the framing of 1303 Massachusetts Ave. lacks decorative chamfering of the principal structural elements (although, it must be noted that Anne Grady observed chamfering on one of the corner posts, located in a closet, in 1985. That feature was not visible during this survey and all visible posts lacked chamfering.) The framing consists of a braced box frame of four bents spaced from north to south approximately 14’-3”, 8’-0” and 10’-2” apart. It may be that this frame was constructed in two phases, but it is presently impossible to determine given the limited available access to its components. It has been presumed that the house was constructed with a central chimney; although likely, little direct evidence of this can be found in the house at present. No indication of the location of the support for such a chimney survives in the basement or the attic, although the first-floor framing arrangement—what portions of it that survive from the 18th century—does not preclude it. Similarly, it remains unclear whether a version of the lean-to was constructed contemporaneously with the south range of rooms or not. No corner posts are presently visible in that part of the house, perhaps suggesting that the lean-to was a later addition, but it may be that these components are buried within later partitioning. The current cellar extends under the lean-to. The present locations of the two chimneys on the north side of the two-story portion of the house do not appear to predate the 19th century and reflect a reconfiguration of the plan which occurred early in that century. This work may have introduced a central passage into the house, with the staircase having been relocated to the lean-to at a later date, perhaps ca. 1885 when a screen wall was introduced in the front of the house. The present roof framing consists of 13 pairs of sawn principal rafters without purlins or ridge pole. They are pegged at their apex. There is no indication of framing that would have accommodated a central INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 1303 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 A, D, AB LEX.129 chimney; this and the fact that they are all sawn rather than hewn, suggests the roof was rebuilt when the two chimneys were constructed or perhaps later when the pitch of the rear roof was raised. Early and mid-19th century alterations and additions The one-and-one-half story wing attached to the east side of the main block of the house appears to have been constructed in the 19th century; framing visible in this part of the house, seen in the basement and in the ceiling of what is today the kitchen, suggests a construction date in the first half of that century. The arrangement of the second-floor framing in particular indicates that the wing was once a stand-alone structure that was later attached to the main block of the house. The door to the basement in the wing, and some of the door hardware found in the house, suggest a ca. 1820 date for the construction of the wing or its conversion into living space. The wing was expanded in two or more campaigns, by which process it was extended to the east. It was probably at this time (ca. 1820) that the central chimney was removed and replaced with two interior chimneys with back- to-back fireplaces. A central hall would have been introduced at that time. Evidence for a shallow vestibule, 3’-3” in depth, was identified during the site visit. Although this feature may have been an artifact from the original entrance lobby, it is more likely that it was created when the central passage was introduced. Alterations dating to ca. 1860 included work done on the fireplaces and chimneys; some of which appear to have been altered at that time to facilitate the installation of coal burners. In addition, portions of an early forced air heating system, perhaps dating to this same period or to ca. 1870 or so, were identified. Door hardware on the pantry in the dining room, the main staircase, baseboards in the principal parlor, glass knobs with silverplated bases found in several locations in the house, all appear to date to the mid-19th century. The entrance with sidelights which is documented in one of the earliest available photographs of the house (1930) was introduced about this time; its large glazed panels were replaced with the present configuration between 1932 and 1936. A front porch, consisting of a raised platform accessed from the side and having a flattened hipped roof supported on two Tuscan columns flanked by square pillars and pilasters at the corners, may have been constructed as part of the ca. 1860 work. It is documented by the earliest known photograph of the house, dating to ca. 1890-1910, and had a Greek Revival cornice with dentils and full entablature. It was removed in the early 20th century and replaced by the porch that exists today. ca. 1885 alterations Embossed hardware, located on a pocket door between the parlor and the dining room, and other doors (as noted on plan) date to ca. 1885. The partition separating the central passage and/or lobby from the east parlor and the north wall of the entrance vestibule were removed at that time, and a screen wall consisting of three compressed arches supported on two columns resting on paneled plinths was introduced for structural support. This feature was removed at an unknown date after 1966. Windows were replaced throughout the house at about this time, introducing two-over-two sash, and the windows lighting the two parlors were enlarged to extend nearly to the floor. ca. 1922 alterations Colonial Revival-era alterations are represented by conjoined sash in the dining room and the replacement front door; also a door and hardware for one of the closets in the first floor of the wing. A photograph dating to 1930 and taken by Leon H. Abdalian (Digital Commonwealth), shows the present front porch already on the house. It may have been constructed in 1922, or if of earlier date, it was modified to incorporate Colonial Revival elements. A photograph of the north side of the house, supposed to have been taken in 1936, shows a three-bay wide gabled addition had been made to the second floor of the leanto by that time. A porch with Colonial Revival detailing, probably dating to the early 20th century, appears to have been contemporaneously constructed, and the alteration that introduced conjoined windows into the north wall of the dining room had also been accomplished by the time the photograph was taken. This work was probably all contemporary with the 1922 campaign to modernize the house. Alterations between 1932 and 1936 Photographs document the replacement of the two-over-two sash at some point between 1930 and 1936. The side lights, and perhaps the front door, were also remodeled to their present configuration at that time. Contemporary with this work, the simple shed roof supported on brackets that sheltered the door to the wing was replaced with an arch-topped lattice entrance, which INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 1303 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 3 A, D, AB LEX.129 remains today. Second floor windows in the wing were closed up at this time. The full extent of work undertaken during this period is not presently known, but may have been significant, given these exterior alterations. Alterations, 1936 A photograph dated to 1936 depicts the results of the raising of the rear wall of the lean-to to create full-height in the rear range of upper-story rooms, while retaining the edge of the original leanto roof on the west elevation. The north porch (1922?) was retained at that time. Another photograph shows the north elevation of the wing in scaffolding; the raising of the north slope of the roof of the wing was probably accomplished at this same time (1936). Additional work that was accomplished between the late-19th century and mid-20th century included structural reinforcements, replacements of first floor joists and other framing components, and similar work undertaken on the attic floor structure. Late 20th century additions The present garage, attached to the east end of the house, is documented by photographs to have been constructed after 1976. Interior alterations, including the removal of the parlor screen wall, and changes to the kitchen, were made during this period as well. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE Researched & written by Kathryn Grover In August 1706, Joseph Estabrook of Hingham, who had acquired 200 acres of the original Edward Pelham land grant in Lexington in 1693, sold two parcels from this large holding to John Mason (1676/77-1738/39) of Cambridge. The first, fourteen acres, was on the west side of the main highway; the second, 6.5 acres, was on the east side. Mason already owned land in the town: in 1703 he acquired 20 acres “in the farms” (meaning Cambridge Farms, later Lexington) that was either adjacent or near this tract, and either he or his father, also John Mason (1644/45-1730), was an abutter to this parcel even though no recorded deed documents a sale before 1703. Both the 1703 and 1706 deeds were recorded in early December 1714, when Mason is believed to have built the original part of the house now numbered 1303 Massachusetts Avenue.1 However, it seems that the 14 acres John Mason purchased on the west side of the highway is, in fact, the land on which the so-called Sanderson House (1314 Massachusetts Ave., LEX.127) is located. It is more likely that a portion of the house 1314 Massachusetts Avenue house was built ca. 1714 than of the one at 1303 Massachusetts Avenue. This being the case, it is possible that a house was built on the east side of the road for the next John Mason (1701-87). A closer analysis of the land history and more precise dating of the two buildings is needed to resolve this matter. John Mason was a tanner by trade, Lexington assessor seven times between 1702 and 1731, town clerk four times between 1729 and 1736, and a selectman. In 1699 Mason had married Elizabeth Spring, and the couple had eleven children. In June 1737 Mason deeded “one certain messuage or Tenement, lying and being situate in Lexington . . . containing about fourty and three acres of land with all my building upon it” to his son John (1701-87), who had paid “sundry sums of money” to his father in advance of the transaction.2 If John Mason Jr. had not built his house here at the time he married Lydia Loring in 1731, he would have after the transaction with his father six years later. Loring was a daughter of Joseph and Lydia Fiske Loring, who had left Hingham for Lexington in 1706 and owned 90 acres of land in the town. John Mason Jr. served as a selectman in Lexington in 1755. He sold a little more than an acre with a house on it on the west side of the highway to Joshua Bond in 1767, which would have been 1314 Massachusetts Avenue, and in 1770 he mortgaged his own house, barn, buildings, and 40 acres to his uncle Thaddeus Mason (1706-1802) of Charlestown.3 Thaddeus Mason had 1 Joseph Estabrooke, Hingham, to John Mason, Cambridge, 1 August 1706, MSD 17:114; Edward Emerson, Chelmsford, to John Mason, Cambridge, 5 November 1703, MSD 17:115. Joseph Estabrook (1669-1733) moved from Hingham to Lexington in 1710; he was the son of the immigrant Rev. Joseph Estabrook, who married in Watertown in 1668, resettled at Concord in 1667, and died there in 1711. See Charles Hudson, History of the Town of Lexington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from Its Frist Settlement to 1868 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913), 2: 189. On the Mason family see Hudson, Lexington, 2:411-13. 2 John Mason, Lexington, to John Mason Jr., Lexington, 6 June 1737, MSD 40:318. 3 John Mason, Lexington, to Joshua Bond, Lexington, 12 February 1767, MSD 57:455; John Mason, Lexington, to Thaddeus Mason, Charlestown, 3 September 1770, MSD 70:443. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 1303 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 4 A, D, AB LEX.129 graduated Harvard College in 1728 and was secretary to Provincial Governor Jonathan Belcher (served 1730-41), Deputy Provincial Secretary (1734), Middlesex County Register of Deeds (1781-84), and the county Clerk of Courts for decades. By 1787 John Mason had died but had left substantial excise tax debt that Thaddeus paid, and in August and September 1791 Thaddeus, his son John Alford Mason, and the collector of excise sold the Mason estate to James Winthrop of Cambridge.4 James Winthrop (1752-1821) was a fifth-generation descendant of Governor John Winthrop. Like his father John (1714-79), Harvard professor of mathematics and natural philosophy, and grandfather Adam (1672-1743), he graduated from Harvard College, with a bachelor’s degree in 1769 and a master’s in 1772. James Winthrop became the Harvard College librarian (1772-87), was wounded at the Battle of Bunker Hill, briefly served as the postmaster of Cambridge in 1775, and then served as register of probate for Middlesex County from 1775 to 1817 and judge of the county court of common pleas from 1791 to 1805. He was among the founders of Massachusetts Historical Society and a charter member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was also a dedicated naturalist and was interested in the silk industry; Winthrop is said to have grown mulberry trees on his Lexington farm.5 In 1822, the year after Winthrop died, his brother William as executor of his estate sold 40 acres on the north (east) side of Massachusetts Avenue and another parcel on the south (west) side to Jonas Munroe of Lexington for $2500. Winthrop’s probate record includes a description of the sale of his real estate, including “the farm, at Lexington, containing about 40 acres with a dwelling house and barn thereon, sold to Jonas Munroe (1778-1860) of Lexington” and stated the same purchase price. 6 Jonas Munroe was the proprietor of Munroe Tavern, diagonally across Massachusetts Avenue from this house, and he apparently rented the dwelling. It is possible that the house was occupied by the rail depot master at Munroe’s Station, just south of this house, but censuses cannot confirm it; numerous renters lived in and around Jonas Munroe in 1850 and 1860. Jonas Munroe owned the so-called “Winthrop Estate” until he died. The inventory of his real estate lists his 42-acre homestead property, the Winthrop property at 15 acres, valued at $1800, and its buildings valued at $3060. In June 1862 Jonas’s son William H. Munroe (1815-1902), then living in Philadelphia, and his unmarried daughter Harriet (1816-69) deeded their interests in the 15.5-acre “Winthrop Farm” and its buildings to their brother James Smith Munroe (1824-1910) for $3,000. At the same time James deeded to his siblings that part of the Winthrop farm and homestead farm on the west side of Massachusetts Avenue, some forty acres with buildings.7 In 1874, five years after Harriet Munroe’s death, William H. Munroe deeded a sixth part of the 15.5-acre Winthrop farm to Henry L. Simonds (1826-90) of Lexington, though Harriet had deeded her share to her brother James in 1862.8 Why this transaction occurred is unclear: Simonds was a machinist and does not appear to have lived in the house; when he died in 1890 he lived on Waltham Street. James Smith Munroe began his working life in a Boston shoe store and then entered the hardware business in that city until about 1850, when he began making paper at a mill in Bedford. Munroe Pulp and Paper Company had mills in Bedford and Lawrence. Munroe married Alice B. Phinney in 1854 and, according to several historical accounts lived first on Elm Street, and then, after a year or two, moved to the “Winthrop house,” where he and his family remained until 1873. The 1855 census lists him in this neighborhood with his wife, their young son William, his wife’s mother and two sisters, and four boarders, two of them farm laborers. In 1860 the census described James Munroe has a farmer with $4,000 in real property and an equal amount of personal property, and he lived with his wife, sons William and John, and two Irish immigrant domestic servants. In 1865 the state census described him as a manufacturer, and he appears till to have lived at 1303 Massachusetts Avenue. The 1870 census lists the family in Lexington, though possibly not in this neighborhood, and by 1880 he had moved to what is now 1375 4 Thaddeus Mason, Cambridge, to Samuel Henley, Charlestown, county collector of excise, 28 January 1789, MSD 81:746; Thaddeus Mason, Cambridge, to James Winthrop, Cambridge, 5 September 1791, MSD 105:44, conveyed for £150 his interest in the 40-acre Mason estate. Samuel Henley, Charlestown, to James Winthrop, Cambridge, 31 August 1791, MSD 105:442, conveyed for £262.17.12 the house, barn, and outbuildings on a quarter-acre parcel and 40 acres with buildings that did not front on the highway that Thaddeus Mason had conveyed to Henley by deed and mortgage in January 1789 (MSD 81:746). John Alford Mason of Cambridge, to whom his father had transferred these two parcels in June 1789 (MSD 100L468), sold his interest in them to James Winthrop, 5 September 1791, MSD 105:443, for £150. 5 Winthrop’s interest in growing mulberry trees for silk is mentioned in New York Farmer and American Gardener’s Magazine (1836), 325, and he submitted two charts of the first leaves, blossoms, and flowers of various vegetables and trees “near Boston” to Papers on Agriculture; Consisting of Communications Made to the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture (Boston: Young and Minns, 1804), 15-21. 6 William Winthrop, executor estate James Winthrop, Cambridge, to Jonas Munroe, Lexington, 1 April 1822, MSD 241:515. for $2500. The sales of all Winthrop’s real property in Cambridge, Brighton, and the farm in Lexington totaled $20,359.69. 7 William H. Munroe, Philadelphia, and Harrriet Munroe, Lexington, to James S. Munroe, 30 June 1862, MSD 1295:126; James S. Munroe to William H. Munroe, Philadelphia, and Harrriet Munroe, Lexington, 30 June 1862, MSD 1295:127. 8 William H. Munroe, Lexington, to Henry L. Simonds, 10 February 1874, MSD 1295:128. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 1303 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 5 A, D, AB LEX.129 Massachusetts Avenue (ca. 1853, LEX.130). He was then described as a paper manufacturer and lived with his wife, children William R., John O. and James P., James’s 65-year-old brother William H., then treasurer of New England Glass Company, and two domestic servants.9 When he and his family left 1303 Massachusetts Avenue, Munroe might have rented the property to farmer Madison Treat Batchelder (1834-97). The 1875 map of this part of Lexington appears to attach the name “Batchelder” to the 1303 Massachusetts Avenue house, and in 1880 the census lists Batchelder’s household just before the household of James S. Munroe with his children Evelyn, Alexander, and Henry, his late wife’s parents William and Harriet Wiley, a niece, and five boarding farm laborers. Born in Prospect, Maine, Batchelder was a wholesale boot and shoe dealer in Watertown in 1870 but was bankrupt in 1872. Though he did not own the Lexington farm, the 1880 agricultural census schedules credit him with 50 improved and 58 unimproved acres and a farm value of $18,000, which indicates that he must have rented lands in addition to the Winthrop farm. Batchelder had more than forty sheep, 35 pigs, and 75 chickens. By 1886, however, he was living in Chelsea and working as a traveling salesman. The 1889 map of this section of Lexington shows James S. Munroe as owner of 1303 Massachusetts Avenue (by the 1920s numbered 283), the Sanderson house and lot at 1314 Massachusetts Avenue (LEX.127, then numbered 290), the house, barn, and lot just north of 1303 Massachusetts Avenue (then numbered 293), a house and lot on the east side of the Boston and Maine rail corridor south of 1303, and a large undeveloped lot north of Munroe Tavern (1332 Massachusetts Avenue, then numbered 296), which his brother William owned. The 1890 and 1894 directories state the he lived on Main Street (Massachusetts Avenue) opposite Percy Road, probably at 1357 Massachusetts Avenue. Who occupied 1303 Massachusetts Avenue after Batchelder is unknown. After Munroe’s death in 1910 the former Mason/Winthrop house and its land passed to the trustees of his estate, his son James Phinney Munroe (1862-1929) of Boston and Samuel Robinson of Newton. In 1920 they sold 1303 Massachusetts Avenue to Henry H. and Eleanore B. Fish of Lexington.10 The Fishes owned it for two years and conveyed it in November 1922 to Jennie R. Bean of Boston. The Boston Herald, in a report of the sale, described the dwelling as “one of the oldest in Lexington” and as “a large 10-room colonial house, which has been partially remodeled.” The Herald stated that its new owner planned to remodel the house “so as to restore the property to its original architecture.”11 Born in Windham, New Hampshire, in 1879, Jennie R. Bean was the daughter of farmer Frank W. Bean, and by 1900 she and her older sister Edith were living in Whitman with their great-uncle George Hosmer. By 1920 Jennie Bean had become an antique dealer in Boston, and Lexington directories indicate that she ran an antique shop at 1303 Massachusetts Avenue from at least 1924 to at least 1926. By 1930 she, her sister, and her father were living in Andover, where Jennie Bean was described as a “collector of antiques”; her sister ran an overnight camp. She apparently rented 1303 Massachusetts Avenue until July 1936, when she sold it to Edgar Adolf Welti of Newton Highlands.12 Born in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1896, Edgar A. Welti came to United States by 1921, when he married Swiss immigrant Erna G. Wassali in Chicago. A Christian Science practitioner, Welti worked as a translator, for a time self-employed, but by 1947 he worked at the Institute of Scientific Economics, about which nothing had been learned. In 1948 he and his family left Lexington for Cambridge and sold 1303 Massachusetts Avenue to Austin Wellington Fisher Jr. (1916-2001) and his wife Ann Grant Fisher.13 Austin W. Fisher was born in Newton, earned his doctorate in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1941, and worked during the war on developing synthetic niacin at Allied Chemical and Dye in Philadelphia. In 1946 Fisher became manager of the process engineering department at Arthur D. Little Company in Cambridge, where he worked on cultivating algae for fuel and food. He 1959 he moved to Ludlow Corporation in Needham and became vice president of its paper and plastics division. He began teaching industrial engineering at Northeastern University in Boston in 1965. Fisher and his wife owned 1303 Massachusetts Avenue until August 1970, when they sold the property to James B. and Joan W. 9 See “James S. Munroe,” Boston Herald, 11 December 1910, 9, and “James Smith Munroe,” Proceedings of the Lexington Historical Society 4 (1910): 173-35. 10 James P. Munroe, Boston, and Sumner Robinson, Newton, trustees will James S. Munroe, Lexington, to Henry H. and Eleanore B. Fish, Lexington, 5 August 1920, MSD 4376:226. The name of his paper company is given as Munroe Felt and Paper Company in “James Phinney Munroe is Dead,” Boston Herald, 3 February 1929, 46. 11 Henry H. and Eleanore B. Fish to Jennie R. Bean, Boston, 13 November 1922, MSD 4569:156; Boston Herald, 19 November 1922, 28. 12 Jennie R. Bean to Edgar A. Welti, Newton, 7 July 1936, MSD 6042:218. 13 Edgar A. Welti to Austin W. Fisher Jr. and Anne G. Fisher, 9 September 1948, MSD 7334:587. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 1303 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 6 A, D, AB LEX.129 Webber, who owned and occupied it until 1985. The Webbers sold 1303 Massachusetts Avenue to Moore Homes Inc., which turned the dwelling into part of Mason Hollow Condominium in 1987. Norbert S. Unger Jr. and his wife Donna owned Unit A, in the Mason House, and Unit B from 1987 until 2005 and sold both to William L. Blout and Stephanie Monaghan-Blout, the owners of record in 2021.14 BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Ancestry.com Boston, MA. Massachusetts Historical Commission. MACRIS historic resource inventory. Cambridge, MA. Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Lexington, MA. Cary Library. Archives & Collections. Lexington, MA. Lexington Historical Society. Archives & Collections Lexington, MA. Town of Lexington. Assessors' Office. Valuation Lists. Lexington, MA. Town of Lexington. Town Reports. 1849-present. Bliss, Edward P. “The Old Taverns of Lexington,” Proceedings of the Lexington Historical Society. 1 (1889). Hurd, D. Hamilton, ed. History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Prominent Men. Philadelphia: J. W. Lewis & Co., 1890. Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from Its First Settlement to 1868. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1913. Kelley, Beverly A. Lexington, A Century of Photographs. Lexington Historical Society, 1980. Lexington Directory. various years. Lexington Minute-man. 1871-present. Lexington Historical Society, M. J. Canavan Papers. Maps and Atlases Hales, John G. Plan of the Town of Lexington in the County of Middlesex. Boston: Pendleton's Lithography, 1830. Walling, Henry F. Map of Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Boston: Smith & Bumstead, 1856. Beers, F. W. County Atlas of Middlesex Massachusetts. New York: J.B. Beers & Co., 1875. Walker, George H. & Co. Atlas of Middlesex County. Boston: George H. Walker & Co., 1889. Stadley, George W. & Co. Atlas of the Towns of Watertown, Belmont, Arlington and Lexington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Boston: George W. Stadley & Co., 1898. Walker, George H. & Co. Atlas of Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Boston: George H. Walker & Co., 1906. 14 Austin W. Fisher Jr. and Anne E. Fisher to James B. and Joan W. Webber, 1303 Massachusetts Avenue, 25 August 1970, MSD 11880:214; James B. and Joan W. Webber to Moore Homes Inc., 18 October 1985, MSD 16519:420; Moore Homes Inc. to Norbert S. Unger Jr. and Donna V. Unger, 15 June 1987, MSD 18224:138 and 18224:142; : Norbert S. Unger Jr. to William L. Blout and Stephanie Monaghan-Blout, 79 Robbins Road, 8 August 2005, MSD 45823:437 (Unit A); Norbert S. Unger Jr. to William L. Blout and Stephanie Monaghan-Blout, 79 Robbins Road, 8 August 2005, MSD 45823:384 (Unit B). See “Plan of Land in Lexington Owned by James P. Monroe et al, Trustees,” 14 July 1920, Book of Plans 286, Plan 41; Lot A on “Plan of Land in Lexington, Mass,” 18 January 1949; and “As Built Site Plan of Mason Hollow Condominium in Lexington, Mass.,” 30 January 1987, 798:1 (Plan 798 of 1987). INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 1303 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 7 A, D, AB LEX.129 FIGURES First floor plan with field notes, Walter R. Wheeler, 2021. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 1303 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 8 A, D, AB LEX.129 Historic view from NW, ca. 1930. Photo by Leon H. Abdalian. Digital Commonwealth. Snapshot view from NW, 1936. Owners’ collection. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 1303 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 9 A, D, AB LEX.129 Historic view from west, ca. 1960. Owners’ collection. Drawing of front rooms with arcade on south side of passage space. Owners’ collection. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 1303 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 10 A, D, AB LEX.129 Snapshot of rear of house, n.d., showing porch and dormer since removed. Owners’ collection. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 1303 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 11 A, D, AB LEX.129 PHOTOGRAPHS (Credit Walter R. Wheeler, 2021) View from west. View from NW. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 1303 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 12 A, D, AB LEX.129 View from SW. View from south. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 1303 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 13 A, D, AB LEX.129 View of additions from SE View of house and wing from SE. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 1303 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 14 A, D, AB LEX.129 SW parlor looking south. Detail of quirk bead on girt in east wall of southeast parlor. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 1303 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 15 A, D, AB LEX.129 Front entrance looking west. NW parlor looking north. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 1303 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 16 A, D, AB LEX.129 Detail of chimneybreast NW parlor. SE dining room looking west. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 1303 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 17 A, D, AB LEX.129 SE dining room looking south. Staircase in rear saltbox looking north. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 1303 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 18 A, D, AB LEX.129 NE sitting room looking NW. Kitchen looking north into dining room. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 1303 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 19 A, D, AB LEX.129 Second floor, NW chamber looking NW. Second floor, NW chamber looking east. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 1303 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 20 A, D, AB LEX.129 Attic, roof structure, common rafters looking SW. Basement, first-floor floor structure under SW parlor. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 1303 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 21 A, D, AB LEX.129 Basement, chimney base & hearth support for fireplace in SW parlor. Basement, ceiling in SW corner showing plaster infill. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 1303 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 22 A, D, AB LEX.129 Basement, brick cap to foundation. Basement, chimney base for kitchen hearth looking south.