HomeMy WebLinkAboutconcord-avenue_0353 FORM B - BUILDING AREA FORMNO.
560 '
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION
294 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MA 02108
Y i Y • -
z ` own Lexington
� r
ddress 353 Concord Avenue
istoriC Name Joseph Underwood House
=_ Jse: Present residential
UriOriginal residential
-- DESCRIPTION:
- ate c. 1815?
Burgess 1965:85;
Source Hudson 1913, 11:715
SKETCH MAP
Show property's location in relation Style Federal
to nearest cross streets and/or
geographical features. Indicate Architect
all buildings between inventoried
property and nearest intersection. Exterior wall fabric vinyl sidinc
Indicat north.
Outbuildings barn (demolished 1948) ;
y six greenhouses (demolished 1973)
CO.Av- D
q yE.. Major alterations (with dates) two-story
Drear ell; one-story ell to the right;
Q
� I"7 chimney rebuilt (1952)
�J Moved Date
a
3 Approx. acreage 7921 ft.2
Recorded by Nancy S. Seasholes Setting on residential street with
Organization Lexington Historical Commission continual traffic; abutting recent town-
Date February, 1984 house development on land formerly
associated with this house.
(Staple additional sheets here)
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE (Describe important architectural features and
evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community.)
One of the six surviving Federal farmhouses on or in the immediate
vicinity of what was the Cambridge-Concord Turnpike (see Concord Avenue area
form) , this house is very similar in profile to those at 389 Concord Avenue and
945 Waltham Street (see forms for these buildings) . Like them, this house has
two rear chimneys but has otherwise lost most of its exterior Federal finishes:
the foundation has been cemented over, an entryway added, and a window over the
entry probably removed. The east side (shown in the accompanying photograph)
has one window on each story; the west side has two.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE (Explain the role owners played in local or state
history- and how the building relates to the development of the community.)
According to an antiquarian account, this house was owned in the early
nineteenth century by Joseph Underwood. This is apparently the same Joseph
Underwood who built- the Cutler farmhouse (see 503 Concord Avenue form) . He
sold that house to his mother-in-law Marr Underwood in 1815 (Burgess 1965:85) ,
which suggests a logical date for the building of this one, and a house is
shown in this location on the 1830 map.
Joseph Underwood was a .mason and employed several men. He was a
selectman in 1809 and was also a noted singing teacher who gave lessons all
over town and for many years led the singing in the meeting house. He died in
1845 and in 1846, during an auction in the house of his possessions, the floor
collapsed and all the people and goods fell into the cellar; no one was
seriously hurt, however. By 1852 the house was owned by a G.W. Kuhn and in
1876 by a A.B. Shedd; in 1889 it was owned by M. Bryant and apparently occupied
by Whitney Foster and in 1906 it was owned by Edward Bryant, a farmer. A 1923
photograph shows it virtually the same as it is now except for vertical window
panels in the entryway.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (name of publication, author, date and publisher)
Burgess, Marjorie Cutler. A Genealogy of the Cutler Family of Lexington,
Massachusetts, 1634-1964. Concord, New Hampshire: Evans Printing Company,
1965.
Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington, Volume II, p. 715. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1913.
Smith, A. Bradford. "Kite End" (1891) . Proceedings of the Lexington Historical
Society II (1900) :109.
Lexington Historical Society, Burr Church Collection
1830 map
1852 map
1853 map
1876 map
1889 map
1906 map 10M - 7/82