HomeMy WebLinkAboutcharles-street_0019 FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
0 0 2203
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 13/272
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village):
Photo ra h
Address: 19 Charles Street
Historic Name:
1 '
Uses: Present: residential
Original: residential
Date of Construction: ca. 1910-27
Source: style, historic maps
Style/Form: Four-Square
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: fieldstone
South (left side)and facade (east) elevations
Wall/Trim: stucco with wood trim
Locus Map Roof- asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
None
Major Alterations(with dates):
{r� Rear addition (L 20th c)
d
- Condition: good
} f Moved: no ❑ yes ❑ Date:
Acreage: 0.15
f } 1. Setting: Located on a short residential side street near the
main thoroughfare of Massachusetts Avenue, close to the
x � Arlington line. Dense hillside neighborhood with buildings of
varying size and scale and 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 19 CHARLES STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
2203
❑ 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.
19 Charles Street occupies a small lot that slopes down steeply from left to right. The building is positioned near the left front
corner of its lot, with a modest front set back and a paved driveway to the left of the house. The yard is maintained mostly in
lawn, with a few foundation plantings. A low hedge lines the sidewalk edge at the right side of the property. A concrete walkway
leads to a stone stairway at the front entrance. The building consists of a two-story main block and a rear addition.
The simple rectangle of the main block rises from a fieldstone foundation to a hip roof with a center chimney. Walls are clad with
stucco. Windows typically have 1/1 double hung sash and wood casings with band molding. The front fagade (east elevation) is
spanned by a one-story porch with a high hip roof, paired square posts, and wood railings of various heights and slender square
balusters. The offset, single-leaf door is flanked on the right by a tripartite window. Single windows are entered above on the
second story.
The north (right side) elevation of the main block contains two widely-spaced window bays, containing three single windows and
one tripartite window unit at the back of the first floor. The south (left side) elevation of the main block contains irregular
fenestration: a small window near the front and a paired window towards the rear of the first floor, and three windows of varied
heights on the second floor. A one-story modern addition extends the length of the rear elevation, rising from a concrete
foundation to a shed roof. Its north (right side) elevation comprises a trio of contiguous square windows and an offset, single-
leaf door accessing an elevated wood deck.
Well preserved and well maintained, 19 Charles Street is a handsome example of the Four-Square style and of early 20th
century suburban housing in Lexington. The house is notable for its simple massing and fenestration, stucco cladding, and
vigorous front 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 small grid of streets bordered by Massachusetts Avenue, Hibbert Street, Taft Avenue, and Bowker Street represents an
early area of suburban infill in East Lexington, near the Arlington town line. Immediately south of Taft Avenue is Liberty Heights
(LEX.Q), a hilltop subdivision laid out by Brookline developer Jacob W. Wilbur in 1909 and developed in the teens and twenties.
The growth of both these neighborhoods followed the arrival of the electric street railway on Massachusetts Avenue in 1899 and
was directed at working class residents.
In the area adjacent to Massachusetts Avenue known as Dexter Hillside, Hibbert and Sylvia streets, which straddle the
Lexington/Arlington line, were laid out, platted, and partially developed by 1898. The only other evidence of development here at
that time is the L-shaped beginning of Charles and Cherry streets, where ten house lots were laid out but vacant. By 1927, both
Charles and Bowker streets extended from Massachusetts Avenue to Taft Avenue, and the western ends of Cherry Street,
Stevens (then Cary) Road, and Camden (then Smythe) Street pushed a few lots eastward from Charles. Development was
gradual through the 1920s and 30s and was virtually complete, with the present network of streets, by 1950.
The house at 19 Charles Street appears on the 1927 map, with a long accessory building, likely a garage, at the back of the lot.
The first known residents at this address, in 1928, are Patrick J. Heaney, a bricklayer/mason, and his wife Nancy, who lived here
with their four children through at least 1942. From at least 1945 through 1965, the house was occupied by Leslie J. Simon, a
Continuation sheet 2
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 19 CHARLES STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
2203
child of Hungarian immigrants whose occupations included telephone repairer, electrician's helper, and buyer, and his wife
Mildred L., who lived here with at least two children. Elizabeth Ann Simon, a telephone operator, lived with them in 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, 1922, 1928, 1934, 1936, 1938, 1942.
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, 1940.
SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES
r
i
L
Assessors' photo: South (left side) and fagade (east)
Facade (east) elevation elevations
Continuation sheet 3