HomeMy WebLinkAboutdunham-street_0007 FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
0 0 2216
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 47/68
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village):
Photograph
Address: 7 Dunham Street
Historic Name:
Uses: Present: residential
Original: residential
Date of Construction: ca.1922-30
Source: town directories, U.S. census
Style/Form: Craftsman/ Bungalow
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: concrete?, cobblestone
Front(facade)and right side elevations
Wall/Trim: stucco, wood shingles, wood trim
Locus Map Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
19 1941- None
—– — - _ Major Alterations (with dates):
58
1k-6B WL7
47.71 Condition: good
r a7-7o 47in
Moved: no ❑ yes ❑ Date:
Acreage: 0.23
47-72 Setting: Residential dead-end street with disparate
development from the early to late 20th century, mostly of
- -• similar scale. Stucco and concrete block building across
street at#8, of similar period, scale, and character.
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 7 DUNHAM STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
2216
❑ 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.
7 Dunham Street occupies a moderately sized lot that slopes up gently to the back of the property from the street. The building
is set close to the street edge, bordered by a cobblestone retaining wall at the back property line. The yard is covered mainly
with lawn, with a wide asphalt driveway in front of the house and a brick paved walkway to the front door and entrance on the left
side elevation.
The rectangular main block rises 1 '/2 stories above a raised basement, which is fully exposed at the street edge, to a front gable
roof. Walls are clad with stucco with a single course of textured concrete block at the eaves, a low-relief stucco belt course
separates the basement and main floors. The roof's deep soffits are sheathed with narrow wood boards. Window openings are
trimmed with brick sills and lintels and typically contain 6/1 double hung sash. The half-story has 2/1 and 1/1 windows. A single
interior chimney rises near the center of the building.
The asymmetrical fagade has two single-bay garage doors at the basement level, with an offset main entrance door to the left
that is framed with plain flat trim. Triplets of windows on the main level align with the garage doors below, while a single window
is set off-center above the main entrance. Diamond-shaped tiles flank the window lintels on the main level. Two small windows
are centered in the wood-shingled gable peak.
The right side elevation contains a progression of triple, paired, and single windows that become shorter at the back end of the
elevation. A small shed roofed dormer with two single windows is set towards the front of the roof slope. The left side elevation
has a variety of single and double windows of different sizes and sill heights. A utilitarian basement door has plain wood trim. At
the back of this elevation, a shingle-clad, side-gabled vestibule rises from a cobblestone foundation. This entryway contains a
single leaf door facing the street, accessed by concrete stairs and a stepped, poured concrete cheek wall. The rear elevation
appears to contain a hip roof dormer.
Well preserved and maintained, 7 Dunham Street is an unusual example of stucco-clad housing in Lexington. Its vernacular,
idiosyncratic design is further notable for its lively fenestration, brick window trim, concrete block and tile decoration, and integral
basement garages that dominate the front fagade (anticipating post-World War II suburban housing).
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.
Neither Dunham Street nor Utica Street, from which it extends, appears on town maps by 1906, and Dunham Street does not
appear in the town directories through 1922. Development of the street was slow: only numbers 7 and 8, directly across the
street, were identified here in 1945. The first known resident of 7 Dunham Street was Stephen Trebino (1886-1968), a self-
employed mason, carpenter, and contractor; he may have designed and built the house himself. Born in Italy, Trebino appears
to be living here in 1930 with his wife Catherine (both were born in Italy) in 1930. In 1920, Trebino was a widower living in
Arlington with his brother-in-law; by 1930 he had re-married and the blended family included nine children in this house. The
grown children here worked as a tailor, truck drivers, laborer, and porter.
In 1945 and 1955, the house was occupied by Antonio Bacigalupo, a janitor, his wife Lena, Antonio's older brother, Andrew, and
Louise Bacigalupo, possibly Andrew's wife. (In 1940, Andrew and Antonio were identified as farmers with their own farm.) Also
living here in 1945 and 1955 were James Redmond, a defense worker and later town employee, his wife Mary (who seems to be
Continuation sheet I
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 7 DUNHAM STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
2216
Antonio and Lena's daughter), and at least one child, Alice (they also had two younger children). By 1965, the house was
occupied by George Pedersen, a student, and his wife Pauline.
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 Directories: 1899, 1908-09, 1922, 1926, 1934, 1936
Lexington List of Persons: 1935, 1945, 1955, 1965.
Massachusetts Historical Commission. "MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Lexington." 1980.
U.S. Census: 1920, 1930, 1940.
U.S. Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014.
SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES
T
I
Left side and front(facade) elevations
Continuation sheet 2