HomeMy WebLinkAboutcottage-street_0031-0033 AREA FORM No.
FORM B - BUILDING i F 363
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION
294 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MA 02108
_ t r =
1 Lexington
cess 31-33 Cottage Street
--oric Name William Stevens Ell
1 _ Present residential (two-family)
- Original residential
-- -- ,SCRIPTION:
_ c. 1850
- ,ource 1830, 1853 maps
SKETCH MAP
Show property's location in relation Style
to nearest cross streets and/or
geographical features. Indicate Architect
all buildings between inventoried
property and nearest intersection. Exterior wall fabric aluminum siding
Indicate north.
Outbuildings
❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ ❑ Major alterations (with dates)
from south corner of Massachusetts Ave.
ST Moved and Wallis Court Date 1889-1895
Approx. acreage 4106 ft.2
Recorded by Nancy S. Seasholes Setting On dead end of quiet back
Organization Lexington Historical Commission street; near other nineteenth century
Date April, 1984 houses.
(Staple additional sheets here)
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE (Describe important architectural features and
evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community.)
Set in a neighborhood of nineteenth century houses, this house has lost
all its exterior finishes and has been converted to a double house. Only its
three-bay-long, two-room-wide profile gives any indication that it was once
the ell of a mid-nineteenth century house. It was originally located near
Lexington Center and moved to this site in the late nineteenth century.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE (Explain the role owners played in local or state
history and how the building relates to the development of the community.)
This house was originally on the south corner of Massachusetts Avenue
and Wallis Court. It belonged to William Stevens, a clerk in the Customs House
in Boston, who moved to Lexington in 1845, suggesting a possible date of
construction. The house appears on the 1853 map and is shown on the 1876 map
with a long rear ell. By 1889 the property was owned by Lewis Hunt, a hardware
merchant who owned a great deal of real estate in Lexington. Sometime between
that year and 1895 he moved the main section of the house to 29 Cottage Street
and the ell to this location on Cottage Street and built a new house on the
Massachusetts Avenue site. On Cottage Street this house was presumably rented,
for Hunt is still shown as the owner on the 1906 map.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (name of publication, author, date and publisher)
Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington, revised and continued to
1912 by the Lexington Historical Society, Volume II, p. 671. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913.
Worthen, Edwin. Notes Made in 1941-1942. No. 83, Worthen Collection, Cary
Memorial Library, Lexington, Massachusetts.
1853 map
1876 map
1889 map
1898 map
1906 map
10M - 7/82
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Town Property Address
LEXINGTON 31 COTTAGE STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD 363
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE:
On October 30, 1896 the Lexington Minute-man contained what appears to be a reference to this house:
The house owned by the Lewis Hunt estate has been removed from the corner of Wallace Court and Mass.
avenue to a location on Woburn street,not far from the railroad crossing.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Lexington Minute-man, October 30, 1896.
Supplement prepared by:
Lisa Mausolf
March 2009