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Home My WebLink Aboutbow-street_0044 FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 0 0 2193 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 20/94 MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Lexington BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village): Photograph Address: 44 Bow Street Historic Name: Uses: Present: residential Original: residential Date of Construction: ca. 1918-27 � 7 Source: historic maps, town directories Style/Form: Four-Square Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: fieldstone South and east (fagade) elevations Wall/Trim: wood shingles and trim Locus Map Roof- asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: * Attached garage fl s .ri Major Alterations(with dates): Rear addition (L 20th c) +F Condition: good o, • Moved: no ❑ yes ❑ Date: Acreage: 0.14 R � Setting: At intersection of Bow Street and Fottler Ave., in a dense residential neighborhood. Hillside neighborhood contains heterogeneous buildings of similar scale and predominantly early to mid-20th century construction. 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 44 Bow STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2193 ❑ 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. 44 Bow Street occupies a small level lot that is lined by modest shrubs and medium to mature street trees. The yard is mostly lawn, with foundation plantings of varied size. The building has minimal setbacks and is positioned to the north of the parcel. An asphalt walkway leads to a concrete and brick entry stair with wrought iron railings. The building consists of a rectangular main block with a rear addition containing a two-car garage. A paved driveway extends from the street to the garage. The two by two bay main block rises two and one half stories in height from a fieldstone foundation to a hip roof with projecting eaves and a brick center chimney. A recent, one-story, one by two bay addition has been added to the rear, situated on a concrete slab with a gable roof. The walls are clad with wood shingles and trimmed with sill and corner boards and flat fascia at the roof eaves. Windows typically have 6/1 double hung sash with band molding. The front fagade (east elevation)features a square projecting bay with a tripartite window unit on the first floor. Its low hip roof spans the width of the building, covering an offset entrance with a single-leaf door on the right end of the facade. The second floor has two symmetrical 6/1 windows. The half story dormer has a hip roof and contains a single awning window. The north (right side) elevation of the main block contains a single picture window as well as four 6/1 windows. The north elevation of the rear addition contains a single-leaf door flanked on either side by 6/1 windows. The addition also presents a flush panel steel garage door with band molding. The south (left side)elevation of the main block has three 6/1 windows and an angled, one-story bay window at the first floor. The south elevation of the rear addition contains a sliding glass patio door and a single picture window. Well preserved and maintained, 44 Bow Street is typical of modest, early 20th century suburban housing in Lexington. Notable features include the characteristic four-square massing, with multiple small-scale projections, and the integral bay window and entry porch on the fagade. 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. The neighborhood centered around Bow Street and Hillcrest, Cliffe, and Rindge avenues covers a steep hillside between Massachusetts Avenue and Lowell Street along the Arlington town line. The Great Meadows and Arlington Reservoir are located to the west and east, respectively. By 1898, a very short stub of road between Mass. Avenue and the B&M Railroad tracks is labeled Bow Street. North of the tracks, it continues as a pathway to a farmhouse identified as J. A. Wilson. The 1899 directory identifies a James Wilson, farmer and market gardener, with a house off Bow, and a James A. Wilson, market gardener, with a house on Bow. The land remained undeveloped as part of the Wilson Farm until at least 1906. Most of the streets here were laid out and platted for house lots by 1927; development most likely began after 1918. Development slowly crept up the hillside through the early and mid 20th century, most densely along the grid of streets closest to Massachusetts Avenue. The Wilson farm remained in existence east of Bow Street (in the area now traversed by South Rindge Street) until at least 1950, at which time it encompassed a substantial farmhouse and greenhouse and two other large outbuildings. Continuation sheet 2 INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 44 Bow STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2193 The area was likely developed in response to the electric street railway, which began service on Mass. Avenue in 1899. Like Liberty Heights to the south of Massachusetts Avenue (which it resembles, architecturally; LEX.Q), this neighborhood—known as Massachusetts Avenue Terrace and Arlington Heights Terrace—was laid out by Jacob W.Wilbur, a prolific Brookline developer. Wilbur typically sited his subdivisions near streetcar lines and appealed to working class residents. Bow Street appears to have been laid out between 1918 and 1920, when five households are listed on this road. The first known occupants at 44 Bow Street are James A. Wiggins, a supervisor and later a salesman, and his wife, Katie (1935 and 1945). James Wiggins may have lived here as early as 1920 (the street numbering system may have changed), when he is identified as owning a house at 24 Bow Street and working as an inspector in a rubber company. Subsequent residents included James J. Burdick, a police officer, his wife Patricia, and Earl Anair, who was in the army (1955) and Bernard J. Doherty, a plumber, and his wife Eileen (1965). BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Historic maps and atlases: Walling 1853; Beers 1875; Walker 1889; Stadly 1898; Walker 1906; Sanborn 1908, 1918, 1927, 1935, 1935/1950. Lexington Comprehensive Cultural Resources Survey, Period and Area Summaries. http://historicsurvey.lexingtonma.gov/index.htm Accessed Jul 23, 2015. Lexington Directories: 1899, 1908-09, 1915, 1922, 1926, 1930, 1934, 1936 Lexington List of Persons: 1935, 1945, 1955, 1965. Massachusetts Historical Commission. "MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Lexington." 1980. . Form A– Liberty Heights, LEX.Q. Prepared by Anne Grady and Nancy Seasholes, 1984 and 2001. U.S. Census: 1920. SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES East (fagade) elevation Continuation sheet 3 INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 44 Bow STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2193 Continuation sheet 4