HomeMy WebLinkAbouthibbert-street_0015 FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
0 0 2231
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 13/6
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village):
Photograph
Address: 15 Hibbert Street
Historic Name:
Uses: Present: residential
Original: residential
r Date of Construction: ca. 1906-20
Source: historic maps, town directories, style
Style/Form: Victorian Eclectic
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: granite
East(front facade)elevation
Wall/Trim: wood shingles and trim
Locus Map Roof- asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
- - - - = -- - none
ram
- — Major Alterations (with dates):
Side addition (M - L 20th c), replacement window sash (L
20th- E 21St c)
CTa-3e � `fi 1
Condition: fair
/�.
Moved: no ❑ yes ❑ Date:
ag
L� -- Acreage: 0.17 (part of the lot is in Arlington)
Setting: Located on a residential side street near the main
thoroughfare of Massachusetts Avenue, on the Arlington
�°� r � � town line. Dense hillside neighborhood with buildings of
j 1 ° •r varying size and scale and predominantly early to mid-20th c
- construction.
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 15 HIBBERT STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
0 2231
❑ 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.
15 Hibbert Street occupies a small lot that slopes up gently from right to left across the site. The building sits above street level,
with a fieldstone retaining wall surmounted by a low hedge along the sidewalk edge. Concrete steps and a concrete walkway
extend from the street edge to the front entrance. The modest front and left side setbacks are maintained chiefly in lawn. The A
paved driveway lined by poured concrete retaining walls extends along the right side of the house. The building consists of a 1
'/2 story main block and a full-length side addition.
The rectangular main block rises above a granite foundation to a steeply pitched, front gable roof without gable returns. It has a
chimney at the top of the right slope, near the ridgeline. Walls are clad with wood shingles; the shingled wall of the front gable
peak appears to flare slightly above the half story. Windows typically have 1/1 double hung replacement sash with narrow band
molding. The front(east) elevation of the main block contains a small, angled bay window with a hip roof and an offset entrance
on the first floor, and narrow paired windows centered above. Fenestration on the bay window includes a large square picture
window on the front face and a narrow double hung window on each of the angled sides. The entrance is sheltered by a wide
front porch whose tapered Tuscan posts support a low hip roof.
The north (right side) elevation contains a cross-gabled ell towards the back with a single 1/1 window centered in the half story.
A broad one-story addition extends across the entire south (left side) of the main block, under a low shed roof. The addition has
two small 1/1 windows on its east(front)fagade and two widely spaced 1/1 windows on its south (left side) elevation.
15 Hibbert Street is a very simple, very modest example of early 20th century suburban housing in Lexington. The house is
notable for its flared wall surface in the front gable, side cross gable, front porch, and fieldstone retaining wall.
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.
The small grid of streets bordered by Massachusetts Avenue, Hibbert Street, Taft Avenue, and Bowker Street represents an
early area of suburban infill in East Lexington, near the Arlington town line. Immediately south of Taft Avenue is Liberty Heights
(LEX.Q), a hilltop subdivision laid out by Brookline developer Jacob W. Wilbur in 1909 and developed in the teens and twenties.
The growth of both these neighborhoods followed the arrival of the electric street railway on Massachusetts Avenue in 1899 and
was directed at working class residents.
In the area adjacent to Massachusetts Avenue known as Dexter Hillside, Hibbert and Sylvia streets, which straddle the
Lexington/Arlington line, were laid out, platted, and partially developed by 1898. The only other evidence of development here at
that time is the L-shaped beginning of Charles and Cherry streets, where ten house lots were laid out but vacant. By 1927, both
Charles and Bowker streets extended from Massachusetts Avenue to Taft Avenue, and the western ends of Cherry Street,
Stevens (then Cary) Road, and Camden (then Smythe) Street pushed a few lots eastward from Charles. Development was
gradual through the 1920s and 30s and was virtually complete, with the present network of streets, by 1950.
The Dexter Hillside development was conceived by Nathan Dexter Canterbury(1837-1912), who in 1895 began development of
a large farm previously owned by Micajah Locke. A resident of Weymouth, Canterbury was a shoe and boot manufacturer,
founded the East Weymouth Savings Bank and two Weymouth newspapers, and served as a state representative. Streets were
given the middle names of Canterbury and his family. As reported by a local newspaper,
Continuation sheet I
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON is HIBBERT STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
0 2231
"'Dexter Hillside' attracted many Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who moved from densely populated areas of
Boston to what was then a suburban outpost. In 1916, an Orthodox synagogue, Temple B'nai Jacob, was built on the
Lexington section of Sylvia Street. It served members for three decades and closed after younger generations of early
residents moved from the neighborhood, ending its unique Jewish identity." (Arlington Advocate, May 2, 2011)
The house at 15 Hibbert Street appears on the historic maps between 1906 and 1927, and appears originally to have been
numbered 19. The first known residents, in 1920, were Sebastian Hellman, a glassblower in a factory(born in France), his wife
Anna (born in Germany), and their daughter Clotilde, who worked as a cashier in a lunch room. By 1935, the house had its
present street number and was occupied by Anna Hellman along with James Irwin, a carpenter, and his wife Mary T. From at
least 1945 through 1955, the house was occupied by Anthony E. Smith, an engineer(first identified as a station engineer) and
his wife Sally. William E. Silvio, who worked in the post office, and his wife Charlotte lived here in 1965.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Arlington Directories: 1920, 1923.
Duffy, Richard. "Sylvia and Rublee echo with family connection". Arlington Advocate, May 2, 2011.
Historic maps and atlases: Walling 1853; Beers 1875; Walker 1889; Stadly 1898; Walker 1906; Sanborn 1908, 1918, 1927,
1935, 1935/1950.
Lexington Comprehensive Cultural Resources Survey, Period and Area Summaries.
http://historicsurvey.lexingtonma.gov/index.htm Accessed Jul 23, 2015.
Lexington Directories: 1899, 1908-09, 1922, 1934, 1936.
Lexington List of Persons: 1935, 1945, 1955, 1965.
Massachusetts Historical Commission. "MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Lexington." 1980.
. Form A— Liberty Heights, LEX.Q. Prepared by Anne Grady and Nancy Seasholes, 1984 and 2001.
U. S. Census: 1920.
Continuation sheet 2