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Home My WebLink Aboutbow-street_0107 FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 0 0 2195 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 20/83 MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Lexington BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village): Photograph Address: 107 Bow Street Historic Name: Uses: Present: residential Original: residential Date of Construction: ca. 1918-30 Source: historic maps, U.S. census Style/Form: Bungalow Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: concrete West (facade) and south elevations Wall/Trim: wood shingles and trim Locus Map Roof- asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: i o _ None r Major Alterations(with dates): Removal of floor deck at back porch (L 201h c?) m Condition: fair Moved: no ❑ yes ❑ Date: Acreage: 0.14 Setting: Located near the intersection of Bow Street and I Winn Ave., in a dense residential neighborhood. Buildings 3 _ are of varying size and scale, predominantly early to mid 20th c 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 107 Bow STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2195 ❑ 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. 107 Bow Street occupies a small, flat lot. The building is positioned toward the front and left side of the property, which is maintained mostly in lawn. A paved driveway extends along the right side of the house. A low stone retaining wall lines the yard in front of the house. A concrete and flagstone walkway extends diagonally across the front yard to a concrete entry stair with wrought iron railings on one side. The building consists of a one and one half story story main block with varied appendages on the front and a back porch. The nearly square main block rises from a concrete foundation to a high hip roof with a center chimney at the ridgeline. Walls are clad with wood shingles and trimmed with a flat fascia board. Windows typically have 6/1 double hung sash with band molding. The front fagade (west elevation) presents a left entry vestibule with a low hip roof, single window facing the street, and single-leaf door facing the right side of the property. Centered in the front fagade are two 6/1 windows and to the right is an angled bay window containing three 6/1 windows and one awning window in the basement level. A hip roofed dormer is centered on the fagade and wrapped in vinyl siding; it contains a single 6/1 window and plain flat fascia board. The south (right side) elevation of the main block contains two 6/1 windows on the main floor and an offset, single-leaf door and two small awning windows at the partially exposed basement level. The north (left side) elevation of the main block contains two large 6/1 windows and a single small 6/1 window. A hip-roofed dormer is wrapped in vinyl siding; it displays a single 6/1 window and plain flat fascia board. An open porch is just visible at the rear of the building, recessed beneath the main roof and supported at the back right corner by a square post. Well preserved, 107 Bow Street is a good example of modest, early 20th century suburban housing in Lexington. It is notable for its highly intact form, fenestration, and details; characteristic hip roof; front entry vestibule and bay window; and recessed back porch. 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. 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 Continuation sheet 2 INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 107 Bow STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2195 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 this address are Raffaele Tribuna, a laborer at Mt. Auburn Cemetery, and his wife Pasqualina (Lina) (both born in Italy), who were living here by 1934. They may have occupied the house as early as 1920, when the census identifies them at 173 Rindge Avenue (the numbering system may have changed)with two teenage children: Jennie (Giovannina), who worked as a packer in a candy shop, and Antony(Domenico Antonio), who made mops in a mop factory. Lina Tribuna lived in this house at least through 1945. Subsequent residents included Gordon V. Hatfield, an artist, and his wife Leona F. (1955 and 1965) and their son, Gordon Jr., who was in the air force (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, 1924, 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, 1930. SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES 1 North and west(fagade)elevations Continuation sheet 3