HomeMy WebLinkAboutbedford-street_0089-0091 FORM B - BUILDING
Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
0064000161 Boston N. L 752, 753
Town Lexington
Place (neighborhood or village)
MIN
Address 89-91 Bedford St.
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`- Historic Name John Davis/Hosea Holt House
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-Uses: Present Multi-Family Residential
Original Residential
Date of Construction 1851
VMk\ =_- .' Source Lexington Valuation lists
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r Style/Form Italianate
Architect/Builder
Exterior Material:
Foundation Brick
Wall/Trim Wood Clapboard
Roof Asphalt Shingle
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures
Attached carriage house/garage
- c Major Alterations(with dates)
Second entry created(date unknown)
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230 e
' - I Condition Excellent
9A
' I a Moved Z no F1 yes Date
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Acreage 1.6.A.
06P STREET —— •tib —
Setting Set back from a street with constant traffic in an
rl area of early 20th-century houses
Recorded by Nancy S. Seasholes
Organization Lexington Historical Commission
Date(month/year) April 1998
Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.
BUILDING FORM
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION ❑ see continuation sheet
Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community.
89-91 Bedford St. (MHC#752) is one of the most intact Italianates in Lexington with similar finishes, i.e., dentils at the cornice,
paneled cornerboards, etc. The 2'/2-story, cross-gabled house is essentially cross-shaped, though the arms are neither directly
opposite nor the same length. Two chimneys are located on the ridge. The house is set on a brick foundation, clad with wood
clapboards, and roofed with asphalt shingles. There is a one-story addition on a brick foundation in the north rear reentrant angle
and, at the rear, an attached front-gabled carriage house (MHC#753)that is now a two-car garage but still has its large swinging
doors in the gable end. The west entry, probably the original one, is in the west front reentrant angle and has a roof supported by
square posts with paired brackets. The east entry, in the east front reentrant angle, is enclosed and has transom lights and a double
outer door. Windows are 6/6 double hung sash. Italianate finishes include a dentil course under the cornice, roundhead windows
in the gables,wide paneled cornerboards, and tabs under the window sills. A one-story three-sided bay on the front of the house
also has a dentil course under the cornice and paired brackets. A window above the east entry has been filled in and the
foundation to the left of this entry is fieldstone rather than brick.
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE ❑ see continuation sheet
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.
Lexington assessors' records indicate that this house was built in 1851 by John Davis, a merchant who had moved to Lexington
from Charlestown. Davis sold the house in 1854,however, and it then had a number of owners, many of them non-residents, until
it was finally acquired in 1878 by Hosea E. Holt, a music teacher who worked in Boston and in 1884 established a music school in
this house. A note on a 1941 photograph of the house indicates that the owner in the 1930s had a small riding school on the
property.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑ see continuation sheet
Lexington Valuation Lists. 1848-1853.
Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge, MA. 538: 300; 693: 67; 763: 272; 819: 27; 1056: 416; 1318: 520; 1477: 477.
Worthen, Edwin B. A Calendar History of Lexington, Massachusetts, 1620-1946.-Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Savings Bank,
1946.
"Photographs, Houses"file. Worthen Collection, Cary Library, Lexington, MA.
❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National
Register Criteria Statement form.
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Town Property Address
Lexington 89-91 Bedford St.
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD 752, 753
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
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Roll #17,Negative#2