HomeMy WebLinkAboutcummings-avenue_0015 FORM B - BUILDING
Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 10020000136 Boston N. 636
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Place (neighborhood or village)
Address 15 Cummings Ave.
Historic Name
ilses: Present Residential
s Original Residential
I I I Date of Construction
. Source
Style/Form No style
® Architect/Builder
Exterior Material:
Foundation Fieldstone
1
Wall/Trim Asbestos Shingle
Roof Asphalt Shingle
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures
Major Alterations(with dates)
Rear addition (1995)
J a
E NOSE • • AVENUE �\
0 Condition Fair
Moved [:] no ® yes Date ca. 1917
D � uwNras AVENUE `
�• I Acreage 0.1 A.
Setting On a hilly quiet side street in a neighborhood of
modest early 20th-century houses
Recorded by Nancy S. Seasholes
Organization Lexington Historical Commission
Date (month/year) April 1998
Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.
BUILDING FORM
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION ❑see continuation sheet
Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community.
15 Cummings Ave. may be an early Federal house and, if so, it is one of several three-bay houses from this period in Lexington;
other examples are at 321 Concord Ave. (MHC#558), 168 East St. (MHC#717), and 176 Cedar St. (MHC#692). This
house has less integrity than the others,however,because it has been moved and lost more of its original finishes. The house is
rectangular, 1'/z stories,three-by-one bays, and side-gabled with a front stove pipe. It is set on a fieldstone foundation, clad with
asbestos shingles, and roofed with asphalt shingles. On the east elevation the roofline has been extended to meet a two-story, shed-
roofed, one-by-one bay rear addition on cement posts. The enclosed main entry is at the southeast corner of the facade;windows
are 1/1 double hung sash. There are two gabled dormers on the front-slope of the roof and a shed-roofed dormer on the west end
of the rear slope.
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE ❑see continuation sheet
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.
This house was originally on Bow St. near the present intersection with Cliffe Ave. facing the mill that was once located on a mill
pond there. Worthen assumes that this is the same house that was described in an antiquarian account of Lexington in 1830 as
"ancient looking . . . two stories in front with a long, slanting roof." A recent interior inspection,however, revealed little that
would suggest an 18th-century construction date, although the new roof construction made it impossible to see the framing of the
old roof. But this inspection did find features consistent with early 19th-century construction: post and beam framing, a reused
summer beam, floor joists about the same depth as width, and cut nails. Because the massing of this house is similar to that of
several early three-bay Federal houses in Lexington, it seems likely that this one,too,dates from the early Federal period. The
house was moved to its present location about 1917 when J. W. Wilbur was developing the Bow St. area.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑ see continuation sheet
Bryant,Albert W. "Lexington Sixty Years Ago." Proceedings of Lexington Historical Society 2 (1900): 22.
Campbell, Eva M. to Edwin B. Worthen, 12 April 1944. Worthen Collection, Cary Library, Lexington, MA.
Worthen, Edwin B. Notes on buildings burned,torn down, and moved. "Houses"file,Worthen Collection. Cary Library,
Lexington, Mass. #76, East Lex.
Tracing the Past in Lexington, Massachusetts. New York: Vantage Press, 1998. 69.
❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National
Register Criteria Statement form.