HomeMy WebLinkAbouthayes-avenue_0032 FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
0 OH 2140
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 63/55
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village):
Merriam Hill
Photograph
Address: 32 Hayes Avenue
Historic Name:
Uses: Present: residential
x= Original: residential
=�__=_ Date of Construction: ca. 1920-26
--___=-�ymuEm-imriu7iuumium:
Source: assessors' records, town directories
Style/Form: Tudor Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Front (facade) elevation
Wall/Trim: brick with brick trim
Locus Map Roof- asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Detached garage
Major Alterations (with dates):
Rear addition (L 20th— E 21 st c)
h
- "-' � Condition: excellent
41 Moved: no ❑ yes ❑ Date:
Acreage: 0.28
I � _
Setting: Quiet residential side street with small to
,.' moderately scaled houses, most dating from the early 201h
~ ~
century, set relatively close together and to the street.
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 32 HAYES AVENUE
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
�H 2140
❑ 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.
32 Hayes Avenue occupies a modest size lot with a deep front setback. The land slopes up gently from the street, and is
maintained chiefly in lawn with large planting beds holding dense shrubs and small trees along the street edge. A curvilinear
stepping stone path leads from the street to the front entrance; a straight paved driveway occupies the left side setback. The
building consists of a 1 '/2 story, irregularly shaped main block and a detached garage.
The building has a side gable roof with exposed rafter ends and gable returns and a broad front pavilion with a saltbox roof form
and gable returns. An interior chimney is located near the center of the front slope of the main roof. Walls are clad with brick.
Windows typically have 6/1 double-hung sash, with occasional 4/1 and 8/1 windows, and are usually grouped. Openings are
trimmed with brick header course sills and flared brick lintels. The front-gabled pavilion has a recessed entry porch in its lower
end, near the center of the building, which is framed by semi-circular openings. A pointed arch window opens onto the porch,
and the doorway has a flared brick lintel and paneled wood door. To the right of the entry porch, the tall end of the pavilion has
a tripartite window unit on the ground floor with paired windows centered above in the half-story. To the left of the entry porch is
a large opening with a pair of French doors flanked by narrow multi-light windows.
The right side elevation is not clearly visible from the street. It appears to have single and paired windows, exposed rafter ends,
and a low, shed-roofed wall dormer across much of its length. The left side elevation has a one-story projection with a steep
shed roof and paired 4/4 windows in a segmental arched opening on the front fagade. Paired windows are centered in the half
story of the main block. The back elevation includes a wood addition with a gabled ell perpendicular to the main block; its half-
story has scalloped wood shingles and a Palladian window in the elevation facing the driveway.
A small two-vehicle bay garage stands at the back left corner of the lot. It includes a front gable roof, flush panel doors with
lattice siding above, and clapboards on the side walls.
Well preserved and well maintained, 32 Hayes Avenue is a good example of modest, early 20th century suburban housing in
Lexington. The well-detailed building is notable for its similarities to the adjacent house at#34 and for its use of the Tudor
Revival style, picturesque massing, well detailed entrance porch, and brick window sills and lintels.
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.
32 Hayes Avenue represents the later development of the north slope of Merriam Hill, which continued to attract upper middle-
class professionals. In 1903, much of this area was surveyed and subdivided for house lots according to a plan prepared by civil
engineers H. T. Whitman and Channing Howard. By 1906, however, buildings appeared only along the perimeter roads
(Adams and Grant streets). Unfortunately, the portion of Hayes Avenue between Castle Road and Meriam Street is not
illustrated on the 1927 Sanborn maps, but by 1935 it was almost completely developed.
Discrepancies in the street numbering systems for Hayes Avenue make it difficult to pinpoint the residents in this house from the
directories and censuses. The first known occupants of 32 Hayes Avenue are thought to be Robert M. Stone, a manager at an
insurance company in Boston, his wife Ruth M., and his mother-in-law Florence Seaver(1935). The Stones are identified at 18
Hayes Avenue from 1926 through 1934, and in 1920 were living a block away, with Robert's brother Henry, at 14 Berwick Road.
More research is needed to confirm residents and street numbers in this period.
Continuation sheet I
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 32 HAYES AVENUE
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
�H1 2140
Subsequent occupants named at this address include Herbert A. Flint, in the gauge business, his wife Frances C., and their
daughter, a student (1945); and James Chisholm, who worked at MIT, and his wife Claire (1955 and 1965). The Chisholms'
grown son, a student, was also identified here in 1965.
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, 1918, 1922, 1926, 1930, 1932, 1934, 1936, 1942.
Lexington List of Persons: 1935, 1945, 1955, 1960, 1965.
Massachusetts Historical Commission. "MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Lexington." 1980.
Middlesex Registry of Deeds, South District. "Plan of Oakmount Park, Lexington Mass. (Part A)". Recorded Jul 15, 1903, 145/3
(A of 2).
U.S. Census: 1920, 1930, 1940.
SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES
Evil
i
1
Front (facade) elevation: Detail
Assessors' photograph: Left side and front (fagade)
elevations
Continuation sheet 2