HomeMy WebLinkAboutarea-wFORM A AREA
Form numbers in this area
579, 581-582
Area letter
w
Town Lexington
Name of area (if any) Allen Street
General date or period seventeenth
century -present
ea indicating properties within it.
inventory forms have been completed.
any) and indicate north. (Attach a
septi rate sheet if space here is not sufficient)
Recorded by Nancy S. Seasholes
Organization Lexington Historical Commission
Date February, 1984
(Staple additional sheets here)
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE of area. (Describe physical setting, general character,
and architecturally significant structures).
Part of a main road during the seventeenth through earlv nineteenth
centuries, Allen Street is now a quiet back street. Although most of it has been
built up since World War II, the section near the Carroll barn and the Federal
brick -ended house at 56 Allen retains a sense of the historic streetscape: a
narrow, winding road bordered by stone walls and a row of maple trees with a vista
of a nearby farm (in this case the Carroll farm on the west side of the street;
see Carroll farm area form).
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE of area. (Explain development of area, what caused i
and how it affected community; be specific).
Allen Street was part of the main route from Lexington and Bedford to Boston
in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a period during which the best routes
to Boston from the west went through Watertown (now Waltham) rather than Cambridge.
The road from Bedford entered Lexigton on yhaA npw Goy
Strththen olamkfPg4 gA8siMeeRitatgt7egaeeknNep7finIe6cisewagtrMa2rROgalasiedman Roa5
Allen
itreet, Blossomcrest Street (west; formerly Blossom Street, which joined Waltham
treet approximately where Piper Road does now), Waltham Street, Ricci's Lane (now
not maintained; see Ricci's Lane area form), Bow Street (in Waltham) to Trapelo
Road. Although the Allen Street part of this route was not officially laid out
until 1703, there are references as early as 1648 to the "path . . . to Watertown"
(Worthen 1946:20, 23).
In the nineteenth century several changes in road patterns made Allen Street
less important. First, new bridges were built across the Charles directly to the
Boston peninsula, making the best routes to Boston from the west those through
Cambridge rather than through Watertown. As a result, the road system of which
Allen Street was a part was no longer the major route to Boston. It was, however,
the main route from Lexington Center to Waltham until the section of Waltham
Street south of Marrett Road was built sometime between 1830 and 1852. After the
latter date, most of the traffic bypassed Allen Street and it became the back road
it now is.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Worthen, Edwin B. 1946. A Calendar History of Lexington, Massachusetts, 1620-1946,
pp. 20, 23, 43-45. Lexington, Massachusetts: Lexington Savings Bank.
1830 map
1852 map
1961 map **
1964 map
School,
2M-6/80
579, 581-82
INVENTORY FORM A CONTINUATION SHEET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
LEXINGTON ALLEN STREET
Area Letter Form Nos.
W
Allen Street District Data Sheet of Inventoried Properties
Assessor's
Map
Resource
Address
Style
Date
MHC #
32-69B
Allen -Swenson Farmhouse
29 Allen Street
(moved to 50 Kendall
Road)
Georgian
c. 1850
579
16-48A
Tuttle -Carroll Farmhouse
31 Allen Street
Federal
1806
580
16-54
Munroe Roberts -Frost
Farmhouse
56 Allen Street
Federal
c. 1811
581
16-68A
Smith -Slocum House
92 Blossomcrest
Road
Georgian
Late
18th
century
582
Continuation sheet 1