HomeMy WebLinkAboutbedford-street_0110 FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
0 0 2187
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 64/118
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village):
Photograph
Address: 110 Bedford Street
-� Historic Name:
Uses: Present: residential
Original: residential
Date of Construction: ca. 1906-10
Source: maps and U.S. census
fP r
Style/Form: Colonial Revival
1
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
aim Foundation: fieldstone
North (facade)and west elevations Wall/Trim: wood shingles and trim
Locus Map Roof- asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
\ none
7,5
Major Alterations(with dates):
Replacement windows; porch columns, railing, and stairs;
basement entrance and fenestration at back elevation; side
'�• vestibule (late 20th-early 21St c)
4o v Condition: very good
•
Moved: no ❑ yes ❑ Date:
57
8 4 0 Acreage: 0.17
Setting: Located at corner of major arterial thoroughfare
and minor residential side street. Immediate vicinity
` characterized by a variety of early to late 20th century
73 residential development.
Recorded by: Wendy Frontiero
Organization: Lexington Historical Commission
Date(month/year): September 2015
12/12 Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 110 BEDFORD STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
2187
❑ 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.
110 Bedford Street occupies a small flat lot at the corner of Bedford and Shirley streets. Maintained chiefly in lawn, the property
also contains scattered small shrubs and tree, a paved driveway off Bedford Street to the right of the house and a paved parking
area on the Shirley Street side of the house. The 2 '/2 story building consists of a rectangular main block with a small appendage
on the right side.
The two by two bay main block rises from a fieldstone foundation with deeply recessed joints and granite block quoins at the
corners to a front gable roof with gable returns. Walls are clad with wood shingles and trimmed with a sill board with a plain cap
and a narrow plain fascia with rectangular trim. Windows typically have 2/1 double-hung replacement sash with narrow band
molding. The Bedford Street fagade has a hip roofed porch across its full length, and an off-center, single-leaf door with paired
windows to the left and a single window to its right. Two windows are symmetrically arranged on the second floor. Slightly
flared at its base, the half-story has a plain flat base course at its base, patterned shingles, and a single window set high in the
peak.
The right side elevation has irregular fenestration and a large entry vestibule. Located near the midpoint of the elevation, this
one-story vestibule has a shed roof and an offset entrance and small window facing the street. Barely visible from the street,
near the back corner, is a shallow, one-story shed-roofed projection (perhaps a bay window).
The left side elevation has an angled bay window towards the back of the first floor and three single windows.
The asymmetrical rear elevation has irregular modern windows and one blocked in window on the first floor, two symmetrical
windows on the second floor, and a very small awning window in the half story. A below-grade ramp with poured concrete
retaining walls leads to a flush basement door.
Well maintained, 110 Bedford Street is a good example of modest early 20th century suburban housing. The house is notable for
its full-width front porch, the rustic stonework and quoined foundation, and the subtle but attentive detailing of its wall surfaces.
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE
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.
Bedford Street is an early street in Lexington, on the axis of a Native American trail system that was upgraded in the Federal
period along with other radial highways through the town. The house at 110 Bedford Street represents the early period of
suburbanization in Lexington, in which development along Bedford Street was sparked by the re-building of the roadway and the
arrival of street railway service here at the turn of the 20th century.
No building is shown on this site in the 1906 atlas, but by 1910 the address was occupied by Thomas F. Griffin, an inspector with
the electric railway, his wife Mary, her mother(all three born in Ireland), a boarder, I. Marie MacDonald, who worked as a
restaurant keeper at the electric railway station, and William J. Leary, a lodger who was a motorman with the electric railway.
The Griffins continued living here at least through 1922. By 1935, the house was occupied by Warren E. Hartwell, a manager,
and his wife Virginia. The property was subsequently occupied by Joseph A. Connolly, a salesman, his wife Sarah, and two to
four of their adult children (1945 and 1955). The Connolly's daughter Sarah was employed as a stenographer and estimator
Continuation sheet 2
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 110 BEDFORD STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
2187
while she resided in the house; her three brothers served in the Army and Coast Guard in 1945, and the one remaining here in
1955 was in the Air Force. The house was vacant in 1965.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913.
Historic maps and atlases: Walling 1853; Beers 1875; Walker 1889; Stadly 1898; Walker 1906; Sanborn 1908, 1918, 1927,
1935, 1935/1950.
Lexington Directories: 1899, 1906, 1908-09, 1922, 1934, 1936
Lexington List of Persons: 1935, 1945, 1955, 1965.
Massachusetts Historical Commission. "MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Lexington." 1980.
U.S. Census: 1910.
SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES
f e
South and east elevations
Continuation sheet 3