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Home My WebLink Abouteast-street_0198 FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 0 0 2217 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 62/40 MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Lexington BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village): East Lexington Photograph Address: 198 East Street Historic Name: t'. Uses: Present: residential Original: residential p r � � Date of Construction: ca. 1890-1920 Source: style Style/Form: Colonial Revival Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: fieldstone Front (facade) and right side elevations Wall/Trim: artificial siding and trim Locus Map Roof- asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Two shed/barn structures (L 19th— E 201h c?) Major Alterations (with dates): Artificial siding (L 20th c) - - s Condition: good Moved: no ❑ yes ❑ Date: Acreage: 0.68 Setting: Set on north side of a main cross street, surrounded by mostly mid to late 20th century residential development on large lots. 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 198 EAST STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 0 2217 ❑ 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. 198 East Street occupies an ample lot on the north side of East Street, a main connector road through East Lexington, not far from its intersection with Lowell Street. The building is set relatively close to the street edge, with the land sloping gradually up towards the back of the property. Maintained chiefly with lawn, the site also contains a fieldstone retaining wall with poured concrete ends along the street edge, concrete steps and a flagstone walk to the front entrance, and a paved driveway to the right of the house with a parking area at the end. Foundation plantings and scattered trees comprise the natural landscaping. The building consists of a 2 '/2 story main block with one-story side and rear appendages, decks, and porches, and two detached outbuildings. The three by two bay main block rises from a fieldstone foundation to a side gable roof. Walls are clad with artificial siding and trim. Windows typically have 2/1, possibly original or early double-hung sash with no trim. A hip roofed enclosed porch is centered on the fagade, with modern casement and picture windows and a wood stairway, and narrow sidelights on its single leaf door. A pair of windows is centered above. The outer bays of the fagade have a single window, vertically aligned, on each floor. The gable ends are pedimented on both of the side elevations. The right side elevation is symmetrical, with two windows on each of the lower floors and paired windows in the attic story. The left side elevation contains a one-story side extension with one window centered in the fagade, an exterior chimney on its left side elevation that is centered between two narrow windows, and a flat roof with a modern roof deck. Two symmetrical single windows occur on the second story, and paired windows are centered in the attic story. The rear elevation is not clearly visible from the street, but includes a small one-story addition at the left corner and a two-story ell near the middle. Two early outbuildings stand behind the house. Near the back corner of the house and the west property line is a small shed/barn structure with a shed roof. Clad in wood shingles, the fagade of this structure has irregular fenestration, including a large offset opening that has been turned into a glazed entrance bay. Near the back (north) property line is a long, one-story barn structure with a low side gable roof, three pairs of plain double-leaf barn doors, and one pedestrian door at the left end. A 1 '/2 story, cross-gabled bay anchors the right end of the structure, on which are centered a pair of large, double-leaf barn doors. This structure is clad with wood shingles and wood trim; no gable returns visible. 198 East Street is an important and uncommon example of turn of the 20th century, rural residential design in Lexington. Although it has lost its original siding and trim, the house is notable for its proximity to the street, large lot, substantial volume, pedimented gable ends, and extant agricultural outbuildings. 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. Appearing as early as the 17th century, East Street is an important early road, facilitating access to the farmland of East Lexington and connecting to the adjacent town of Woburn. Names attached to houses on the north side of this stretch of East Street during the 19th and early 20th centuries include Harrington and Johnson (1853), M. O'Connor(1875), and J. Crowley (1898, 1906). The 1898 and 1906 maps also appear to indicate the long barn that currently stands to the northeast of the house. Unfortunately, due to the lack of accurate building footprints, these maps do not conclusively date the present house. Jeremiah Crowley, farmer, may have been living on this property as early as 1880; members of the Crowley family remained here at least through 1920. Jeremiah and his wife Julia were both Irish immigrants, and occupied the farm with their four Continuation sheet I INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 198 EAST STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 0 2217 children and various boarders (Irish and eastern European) who worked as farm laborers. Jeremiah died between 1906 and 1910. His son Daniel, a single man, occupied the property in the latter year with his mother Julia and his younger sister(who had previously worked as a dressmaker) and her husband (then a retail merchant in a dry goods store). The Crowley family continued at this address until at least 1920, when the property was described as a truck farm, the brother-in-law was working as a farm laborer(presumably on this farm), and the sister and brother-in-law had a family of four young children. In 1935 and 1945, the property was occupied by the Kelly family, which included Thomas Kelly, an engineer, his wife Catherine, and four children. (Two of the children served in the Army and WAVEs during the war; they also worked as a secretary, stenographer, and registered nurse). The house was subsequently occupied by Ralph D. Cataldo a farmer, and his wife Elizabeth (1955)and by George A. Barstow, who was in the trucking business, and his wife Marilyn, a typist (1965). Further research on the agricultural history of this property is recommended. 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: 1894, 1899, 1906, 1908-09, 1913, 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: 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920. Continuation sheet 2 INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 198 EAST STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2217 SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES Barn 1: South (facade) elevation Left side and front (facade) elevations —r"r- Barn 2: East elevation Continuation sheet 3