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Home My WebLink Aboutcarol-lane_0004 FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 0 0 2198 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 64/163 MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Lexington BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village): Photograph Address: 4 Carol Lane Historic Name: i� Uses: Present: residential l _ry 1F V Original: residential Date of Construction: ca. 1870 Source: maps; style Style/Form: Italianate Architect/Builder: �,- Exterior Material: Foundation: not visible Right side (Carol Lane) elevations Wall/Trim: wood clapboards and trim Locus Map Roof: asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Two utility sheds Major Alterations(with dates): Rear addition (L 20th— E 21St c) �r 4 - Condition: excellent Moved: no ❑ yes ❑ Date: c* Acreage: 0.47 } ,� 4 Setting: Located near corner of Carol Lane, a M - L 20th c subdivision, and major arterial thoroughfare of Bedford ` • �/k,, Street, which it faces. Heterogeneous L 201h century residential infill along Bedford Street in front of this property. Near intersection of Revere Street. 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 4 CAROL LANE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2198 ❑ 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. 4 Carol Lane occupies a large lot now set behind modern development along Bedford Street, at the beginning of a cul-de-sac subdivision of mid to late 20 century houses. Maintained chiefly in lawn, the ground slopes up from Carol Lane, with mature trees at the perimeter of the lot and a low fieldstone retaining wall at the end of the gravel driveway along the left side of the property. The roughly L-shaped building consists of a 2 '/2 story main block and a series of rear ells and additions. The two by two bay, rectangular main block rises to a front gable roof(facing Bedford Street, at the left side of the lot)with gable returns and one chimney in the center of its right slope. Walls are clad with wood clapboards, narrow flat corner boards, and a plain fascia with bed molding. Windows typically have 1/1 and 2/2 double-hung sash with plain flat casings and a narrow projecting cap. The fagade (facing Bedford Street) is not easily visible from a public way. It contains an offset entrance with a gabled portico supported on square posts. The second floor has two widely spaced windows that align with the doorway and window below, and a smaller window is centered in the half-story. The right side elevation (facing Carol Lane) has two widely spaced windows on each floor on the main block. The gable end of a 1 '/2 story rear ell, facing the right side of the lot, has gable returns, an offset door with classical enframement, and one window centered in the half-story. Facing Carole Lane is a one-story side addition that contains a pedimented gable end, a recessed entrance porch supported by large square posts, two windows on the gable end facade, and two windows on its right side elevation. Although it has lost its original frontage on Bedford Street, 4 Carol Lane is an important survivor of Lexington's mid-19th century agricultural history. Relatively large in scale, the house is notable for its relatively large scale, its large lot, largely original massing and fenestration, and molded window caps. 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. 4 Carol Lane demonstrates the evolution of Lexington from an agricultural community to a suburban residential community in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 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 street was sparsely developed throughout the 19th century, when Lexington's economy was principally devoted to farming. Little is known of the history of 4 Carol Lane. A building is first depicted in the location of today's 4 Carol Lane between 1853 and 1875. The house is identified as "F. Wyman" in 1875 and just"Wyman" in 1898. The Wyman family was established and respected in Lexington in the late 18th century, with members serving in the Revolutionary War, as town assessor, and as selectman. The specific individual associated with this property, however, is not presently known, nor is the use. Two men named Francis Wyman, uncle and nephew, were in Lexington in the mid 19th century, one living from 1789-1886, the other born in 1827. In 1850, a Francis Wyman who was farming in Lexington owned 40 acres of land valued at$3,000, owned a small number of horses, milk cows, and swine, and was growing rye and Indian corn. In 1906, this property appears to belong to E. H. Bowman, of whom no information is presently known. By 1935, the property was occupied by Axel Sorensen, a florist, and his wife Katrine. Both Sorensens were born in Denmark and immigrated to the United States in the 1910s. The couple lived here with their four children at least through 1945. The 1935 Sanborn map shows Continuation sheet 2 INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 4 CAROL LANE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2198 the house in its present location, a 1 '/2 story accessory building directly behind it, and six large greenhouses to the east, near the center of the very large lot. The property appears nearly the same in the 1950 Sanborn map, although edges of the property began to be subdivided for new construction: four houses extend along Revere Street from its intersection with Bedford Street, and two more have been built at 101 and 105 Bedford Street. The property was subsequently occupied (1955 and 1965) by Erlind Fog, another Dane, who is identified as a gardener(1955) and florist (1965). Erlind had a wife Elsa living here with him by 1965; previously, he was accompanied at the property by Ole Nielsen and Ole Nissen, two young Danish gardeners (1955), and Vincence Orifice, a fireman (1955), who was also here with the Sorensens in 1945 as a watchman. 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. Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington; Volume 11— Genealogies. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913. Lexington Directories: 1899, 1908-09, 1915, 1922, 1926, 1930, 1932, 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. Ancestry.com. 1850: Selected U.S. Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Continuation sheet 3 INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 4 CAROL LANE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2198 SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES SR a .fes•..•. Y^4y Right side (Carol Lane) and back elevations Right side (Carol Lane) elevations - `-''- itl{{,i�,nnnn'':�ii��►:cil'_`•ijit, " m West and north elevations West elevations Continuation sheet 4