HomeMy WebLinkAboutbelfry-terrace_0009 FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
0 0 2190
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 49/160
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village):
Photograph
Address: 9 Belfry Terrace
Historic Name:
Uses: Present: residential
e Original: residential
- 3 r
Date of Construction: ca. 1922-1930
Source: directories and U.S. census
Style/Form: Colonial Revival
-` Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Front(facade)and right side elevations Foundation: granite rubble
Wall/Trim: wood clapboards, shingles, and trim
Locus Map Roof- asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
_ None
•mss
Major Alterations(with dates):
Replacement windows (L 20th— E 21"c), new porch railing
(L 20th C)
��- Condition: good
f Moved: no ❑ yes ❑ Date:
9 Acreage: 0.37
Setting: Small residential enclave off the busy cross street
of Forest Street, behind Massachusetts Avenue.
Heterogeneous residential development of mid-19th through
mid 20 century houses, mostly single-family homes set
close to Belfry Terrace.
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 9 BELFRY TERRACE
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
2190
❑ 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.
9 Belfry Terrace is set on an angle towards the back of a relatively large, deep lot. Maintained chiefly in lawn, the property
slopes up considerably from the street. A long paved driveway extends diagonally from the street to the back of the house,
marked by a pair of trees at the entrance from the street. Other street trees punctuate the Belfry Terrace frontage, and mature
trees are also scattered along the side and back of the property. The 2'/2 story building consists of a simple rectangular block
with a small rear ell centered on the back elevation (and not visible from the public way).
The substantial, three by two bay main block rises from a granite rubble foundation to a high hip roof with a single, gabled
dormer visible on its right slope. Walls are sheathed with wood clapboards on the first floor and wood shingles on the second
floor, with a plain flat belt course between them and flat corner boards at the first floor. The fagade comprises a full-length, one-
story verandah, above which is centered a large gabled pavilion. The porch has square Tuscan posts, a modern wood railing
with widely spaced square balusters, a narrow entablature, hip roof, and exposed beams on the interior ceiling. It is accessed
by a broad front stairway with wood steps and parged stone cheek walls. The outer bays of the facade each contain one
window on each floor. A single leaf door is centered on the first floor. A deep gabled pavilion (without gable returns) projects
above the porch roof at the second story. It has one window centered on the front and side elevations at the second floor and a
small narrow window centered at the attic level.
The asymmetrical right side elevation contains two widely spaced, vertically aligned windows on each floor. A small gabled
dormer(no gable returns) is centered on the roof. The left side elevation and rear elevation are not visible from the public way.
Generally well preserved and well maintained, 9 Belfry Terrace is a good example of turn of the 20th century suburban housing
on an unusually secluded in-town site. Although relatively spare in its detailing, the building is notable for its full-length veranda,
stately front steps, cross-gabled fagade pavilion, substantial massing, and commanding siting.
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.
Belfry Terrace represents the early expansion of modest, affordable suburban housing in Lexington's town center. Assessors'
records for this house show a construction date of 1897, although historic records suggest it was built between 1922 and 1930.
The undeveloped land now occupied by the residential enclave of Belfry Terrace is labeled "Belfry Hill" in the 1898 atlas and was
owned by the Rindge Estate. (No Rindges are named at adjacent parcels.)
The street first appears in the records between 1922 and 1930. In the latter year, the house was owned and occupied by the
family of Julius Seltzer, a tailor born in Austria who had a shop nearby at 1853 Massachusetts Avenue. (In 1924, the family was
living just around the corner, at 49 Forest Street.) Seltzer's household in 1930 included his wife Rebecca, born in Russia, and
three grown children: Max (a chemical engineer), Edith (an assistant buyer for a department store) and Pauline (a salesperson).
The Seltzer family remained here at least through 1945. The house was later occupied by William N. Herbert, a teacher, and his
wife Isabel (1955) and by David F. Hawkins, a professor, and his wife Patricia (1965)
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Continuation sheet 2
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 9 BELFRY TERRACE
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
2190
Historic maps and atlases: Walling 1853; Beers 1875; Walker 1889; Stadly 1898; Walker 1906; Sanborn 1908, 1918, 1927,
1935, 1935/1950.
Lexington Directories: 1899, 1908-09, 1922, 1924, 1930, 1934, 1936
Lexington List of Persons: 1935, 1945, 1955, 1965.
Massachusetts Historical Commission. "MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Lexington." 1980.
U.S. Census: 1920, 1930, 1940.
Continuation sheet 3