HomeMy WebLinkAboutcurve-street_0005-0007 FORM B - BUILDING
Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 10022000026 1 Boston N. I L__J 643
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place (neighborhood or village) East Lexington
Address 5-7 Curve St.
to
-_ 11 Historic Name Williams/Clapp/Munroe House
= — s Uses: Present Multi-Family Residential
Original Residential
Date of Construction before 1798
Source Deeds, Direct Tax of 1798
Style/Form Georgian (altered)
ii i lig �
lArchitect/Builder
Exterior Material:
Foundation Fieldstone
to Wall/Trim Vinyl Siding
L ! Roof Asphalt Shingle
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures
Major Alterations(with dates)
_ Changed to a two-family house (at least by 1854)
IF Vinyl siding(date unknown)
r
•`. Condition Fair
Ono Moved ❑ no ® yes Date 1924-1926 (range)
—
WAS�,.�TT. Acreage 0.8-A.
- — Setting On a side street in a neighborhood of mid-to-late
19th-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.
5-7 Curve St. is one of several Georgian houses in Lexington that have been moved,but although the move was over 50 years
ago,the house has since been sided and has lost most of its architectural integrity. The house is rectangular, 2'/z stories, five-by-
three bays, and side-gabled with two front end and one rear off-center chimneys. It is set on a fieldstone foundation, clad with
vinyl siding and roofed with asphalt shingles. It now has a double center entrance and two small enclosed rear entries;windows
are 2/2 double hung sash.
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 Massachusetts Ave. around the corner from Curve St. where the one-story brick office building at
789 Massachusetts Ave. is now located. Although it has not been possible to establish exactly when the house was built or by
whom, deed research indicates that it was owned in the early 19th century by the widow of John Williams. Since the Direct Tax of
1798 lists a house owned by John Williams and this house has a Georgian profile, it was very likely built in the 18th century. An
antiquarian account of this part of Massachusetts Ave. in 1830 says the land had been part of the Thomas Fessenden estate but
does not discuss this house specifically. Worthen describes it as the"Munroe-Fiske"or the"Fiske-Clapp"house, and it was
owned by a Clapp and a Munroe. In 1829 John Williams' widow sold the house,then on eight acres, to Eli Robbins, an important
businessman in East Lexington. Robbins built anew house just east of this one—the house now at 773 Massachusetts Ave.
(MHC#219)—and in 1831 sold this house to William Clapp, a trader who died in 1842 and whose widow then sold it to
Thaddeus Munroe. Thaddeus died in 1846 and this house was inherited by his son George, who built the large house now at 344
Lowell St. (MHC#662)and rented this one out. Beginning in 1854 the lefthand side was occupied by James Fiske and his
daughters Emma and Carrie,the latter for many years a teacher at the Adams School in East Lexington. The righthand side had
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑ see continuation sheet
Bryant, Albert W. "Lexington Sixty Years Ago." Proceedings of Lexington Historical Society 2 (1900): 39-41.
Direct Tax of 1798. Microfilm. Cary Library, Lexington, MA.
Lexington Directory. 1913, 1916, 1918, 1924, 1926.
Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge, MA. 294: 20; 304: 536;428: 514.
Worthen, Edwin B. Notes on buildings burned,torn down,and moved. "Houses"file,Worthen Collection. Cary Library,
Lexington, Mass. #65, East Lex. 7.
A Calendar History of Lexington,Massachusetts, 1620-1946. Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Savings Bank, 1946. 116.
Tracing the Past in Lexington, Massachusetts. New York: Vantage Press, 1998. 50.
❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National
Register Criteria Statement form.
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Town Property Address
Lexington 5-7 Curve St.
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING L_j 643
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE (continued)
various tenants, among them Rufus Holbrook,who ran a stable,and the Laws family. Sometime between 1913 and 1915
Frederick T. Merrill and Calvin W. Childs opened a garage just west of this house on the same lot. The garage was
replaced by a filling station sometime between 1924 and 1926 and at that time this house was moved to its present location
on Curve St.