HomeMy WebLinkAboutbedford-street_0116 FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
0 0 2188
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 64/6
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village):
Photograph
Address: 116 Bedford Street
Historic Name:
Uses: Present: residential
Original: residential
Date of Construction: 1898
i■� ]� Source: assessors; visual observation
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Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: fieldstone
Front (facade) and right side elevations Wall/Trim: wood shingles and trim
Locus Map Roof- asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Detached garage
Major Alterations(with dates):
Siding (late 20tH ck fenestration on entry vestibule and side
elevation (late 20t c), removal of original front porch (201h c)
1 ;
Condition: good
s g� Moved: no ❑ yes ❑ Date:
z
® Acreage: 0.17
.
7,5 Setting: Located on major arterial thoroughfare. Immediate
vicinity characterized by a variety of early to late 20tH
18 ` century residential development
5,840 7
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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 116 BEDFORD STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
2188
❑ 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.
116 Bedford Street occupies a small rectangular lot on the main thoroughfare of Bedford Street. The building has modest front
and side setbacks, with a straight paved driveway on the left side of the house. Maintained chiefly in lawn, the flat lot has a
concrete walk between the front entrance and the sidewalk and three mature street trees across the front. The building consists
of a 2 '/2 story L-shaped house and a detached garage.
The house rises from a fieldstone foundation with deeply recessed joints and granite block quoins at the front corners to a front
gabled roof; both the front and side gables have gable returns. Walls are sheathed with wood shingles and trimmed with a
modest bed molding. Windows typically have 1/1 replacement sash with band molding. The facade of the front gable has a
cantilevered pediment supported by a solid curved bracket on the right corner and a two-story rectangular bay window, flush with
the plane of the pediment with a single window on each face. To the right of the bay window, the recessed wall plane has a
single window on each floor, including a roughly square window with stained and leaded glass on the first floor.
Occupying the corner between the front and side wings on the right side of the house is a hip roofed entrance vestibule, one
story high with paired modern windows facing the street. Facing the side of the lot, the single leaf door has a bracketed gabled
hood and poured concrete steps. On the second story is a large horizontal window with stained and leaded glass. The left side
elevation is asymmetrically composed, with a one-story rectangular bay towards the back, surmounted by a steep hip roof and a
modern sliding window unit, and a bay of double-hung windows towards the front. Located in the back left corner of the lot, a
two bay garage has a front gable roof, wood shingle cladding, and plywood sheathing in the gable peak.
Well maintained, 116 Bedford Street is a good example of turn-of-the-20th century suburban housing in Lexington. The house is
notable for its L-shaped massing, pedimented front gable, two story bay window, and stained glass windows. Its original front
porch has been removed.
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 roadway 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 62 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.
Assessors' records for this house show a construction date of 1898; historical records confirm its existence by 1910. Several
buildings are located in the general vicinity of this house on the 1898 map, but#116 is not clearly identifiable. The existence of
this particular house is more certain on the 1906 map, where it is labeled "C.K. Willey." Willey was proprietor of"The Leslie" in
the town center, opposite Depot Square, where he also lived in 1899 and 1902. The first known resident of this address was
Richard A. Clarke in 1910. A salesman in a grocery store, Clarke lived here in 1910 with his wife Hattie, son Kenneth, and
lodgers Theodore and Howard Custance, both carpenters. (The Custance family were major builders in Lexington and other
western suburbs for many years.)
The house was subsequently occupied by Fred K. Moore (occupation unknown) and his wife Leona A. (1922) and was vacant in
1935. By 1945, the house was occupied by the D'Angelo family, who continued here through at least 1965. Family members
Continuation sheet 2
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 116 BEDFORD STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
2188
residing here included Vincent, a janitor, his wife Frances (a defense worker in 1945), and their son Domenic (serving in the
army in 1945). Louis Esposito (trucking)and his wife Angelina also lived at this address at least from 1945 through 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, 1902, 1906, 1908-09, 1913, 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
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Left side and front (facade) elevations Garage: Front(facade) elevation
Continuation sheet 3