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Home My WebLink Abouthayes-avenue_0034 FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 0 0 2141 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 63/56 MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Lexington BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village): Merriam Hill Photograph Address: 34 Hayes Avenue Historic Name: Uses: Present: residential Original: residential Date of Construction: ca. 1928-34 Source: assessors' records, town directories Style/Form: Tudor Revival Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: brick Left side and front (facade) elevations Wall/Trim: brick Locus Map Roof- asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: W \ / Detached garage Major Alterations (with dates): Uo� 4 l Condition: good to fair Moved: no ❑ yes ❑ Date: r Acreage: 0.24 ` s r Setting: Quiet residential side street with small to 46BSetting: scaled houses, most dating from the early 20tH 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 34 HAYES AVENUE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 �H 2141 ❑ 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. 34 Hayes Avenue is located in the center of a modest lot, with a deep front setback. The land slopes up gradually from the street, and is maintained chiefly in lawn, with several mature evergreen trees, foundation plantings, and small deciduous trees and shrubs lining the street edge. A paved driveway extends up the left side of the property. The building consists of a 1 '/2 story main block with rear appendages and a small detached garage. The roughly L-shaped building has a side gable on the left wing and a front gabled projection with a recessed entry porch on its left side. Both gable roofs have clipped peaks and no gable returns. Walls are sheathed with brick. An exterior chimney rises from the left side of the front gable, within the entry porch. Windows typically have multi-light double-hung sash, with multi-light casement windows in the gable peaks. Window openings are trimmed with brick header course sills and soldier course lintels. The fagade contains an offset, tripartite window in the front gable on the first floor and a narrow six-light casement window centered in the half-story. The entrance porch has arched openings on the fagade (semi-circular) and left side (segmental); the single-leaf wood paneled door has a flat, soldier course header. The left side wing has a tri-partite window/door unit with multi- light sash on its fagade elevation. The right side elevation contains a one-story enclosed sunroom with a flat roof and three 6/6 windows facing the street, and two wide, hip-roofed dormers at the half-story, each with three grouped windows. The end gable (left) elevation of the left wing is not clearly visible from the street. One large window with a brick header is visible toward the front, and a narrow six-light window is centered in the half-story. A wood addition (possibly a greenhouse) is attached to the back of this wing. A very modest, one-vehicle bay garage stands at the back left corner of the lot. It has a front gable roof, wood shingle cladding, and double-leaf garage doors constructed of vertical wood boards. Well preserved, 34 Hayes Avenue is a good example of modest, early 20th century suburban housing in Lexington. The building is notable for its similarities to the adjacent house at#32 and for its use of the Tudor Revival style, clipped gable roofs, well- detailed entrance porch, brick window sills and lintels, and early garage. 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. 34 Hayes Avenue represents the later development of the north slope of Merriam Hill, which continued to attract 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. The assessors' records for this house show a construction date of 1928, which has not yet been confirmed. 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 34 Hayes Avenue are thought to be Allen W. Rucker, in advertising and business consulting, his wife Elise M., and Minnie C. Bond, relationship and occupation unknown (1935). Reported to have moved to Lexington ca. 1926, the Ruckers are identified at 20 Hayes Avenue from 1930 through 1935. (They are listed on a different street in Lexington by 1942.) Continuation sheet I INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 34 HAYES AVENUE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 �H1 2141 Allen Rucker was a co-founder of the Eddy-Rucker-Nickels Co. in Cambridge, one of the country's first management consulting firms (1929-1992). Rucker is known for development of"The Rucker Share of Production Plan,"a system in which business operations were analyzed and productivity measured; recommendations were made to increase efficiency, productivity, and profits; and profits were shared with workers based on their productivity. More research is needed to confirm residents and street numbers in the 1920s and 30s and to provide greater historic context for Allen Rucker. Subsequent residents identified at this address included Charles E. Hogan, an underwriter, his wife Mae T., and Margaret Tynan, relationship unknown (1945) and Richard E. Filipowski a teacher, and his wife Patricia (1955). By 1965, the house was occupied by two families: Donovan P. Yeull, Jr., in the U.S. Army, his wife Mary G., and a grown daughter who was a student; and John M.Wilkinson, an economist, and his wife Ernestine. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Boston Record American. Obituary for Allen W. Rucker, Dec 7, 1963. Cambridge directories: 1937, 1944 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). Rucker, Vance. "Two Outstanding Ruckers—Father and Son." The Rucker Family Society Newsletter, Vol. 12, No. 2, June 2001. SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES ar rTL e f J II I I i. falo-u -.Fns iF Assessors' photograph: Front (fagade) elevation Continuation sheet 2