HomeMy WebLinkAboutbloomfield-street_0023 AREA FORM N0.
FORM B - BUILDING N 479
i
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION
294 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MA 02108
wn Lexington
dress 23 Bloomfield Street
z -
storic Name Josiah H. Ingalls House
1 _ -
- F-
_ .e: Present residential
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- Original residential
DESCRIPTION:
_ — --= i ite 1884
twin of house c. that date
Source inscribed
SKETCH MAP
Show property's location in relation Style oueen Anne
to nearest cross streets and/or
geographical features. Indicate Architect
all buildings between inventoried
property and nearest intersection. Exterior wall fabric clapboards, shingles
Indicate north.
AAA ILI Outbuildings
Major alterations (with dates)
C,
kP
s Moved Date
a� s�
Approx. acreage 47196 ft.2
Recorded by Anne Grady Setting Residential street developed
Organization Lexington Historical Commission primarily in the 1870s and 1880s; there
Date March, 1984 is some later infill.
(Staple additional sheets here)
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE (Describe important architectural features and
evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community.)
This -f-&u-r-� structure is embellished with Queen Anne features
including polygonal entrance porch with turned posts, small panes of colored
glass surrounding a large pane in the windows, bay window, and entrance claced
on the diagonal of front right corner. The patterned shingle treatment of the
gable is characteristic of Bloomfield Street houses of the 1880s. This house
is a mirror image of 56 Bloomfield Street, on which the date 1884 was found
inscribed under a clapboard.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE (Explain the role owners played in local or state
history and how the building relates to the development of the community.)
The house was owned and occupied by 1887 by Josiah H. Ingalls, a piano
tuner in Cambridge.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (name of publication, author, date and publisher)
1887 Directory
1894 Directory
1889 atlas
10M - 7/82
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Town Property Address
LEXINGTON 23 BLOOMFIELD ST.
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD 479
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE:
This house was bought by Josiah Ingalls of Cambridge, a piano tuner, in October 1884. It is described as"one of Mr.
Norris' new houses on Bloomfield Street". According to the brief article, Ingalls negotiated for Mr. Prosser's House(16
Bloomfield?)but did not buy it as had been previously reported(Lexington Minute-Man, October 17, 1884).
John L.Norris developed much of the Bloomfield Street area(Area N) in the 1880s. He became a resident of Lexington
in March 1872 and initially lived at 1430 Mass. Ave.before constructing a new house in the neighborhood(1404 Mass.
Ave?) in 1885. He was a contractor and builder and a trustee of the Lexington Savings Bank. In August 1886 alone he
had sold four lots near Bloomfield Street.
In 1907 the Ingalls House was sold to Ellis W. Tower, who worked in Boston. Winslow and Dorothy Tower owned it
from 1955 to 1983.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington. Cambridge: The Riverside Press Co., 1913, vol. 2, p. 496.
Lexington Directories,various dates.
Lexington Minute-Man, October 17, 1884; July 27, 1907.
Middlesex County Register of Deeds, Cambridge, Mass.
1898 Atlas.
Supplement prepared by:
Lisa Mausolf
January 2009