HomeMy WebLinkAbouthibbert-street_0019 FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
0 0 2232
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 13/5
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village):
Photograph
Address: 19 Hibbert Street
Historic Name:
Uses: Present: residential
Original: residential
Date of Construction: ca. 1898
Source: historic maps, style
Style/Form: Queen Anne
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: concrete
Fagade (east)and right side (north) elevations
Wall/Trim: wood shingles and trim
Locus Map Roof- asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
- ' None
ilk
�sz
Major Alterations (with dates):
5.017
r Condition: good
Or, -Y_ Moved: no E] yes ❑ Date:
os g j Acreage: 0.05 (part of the lot is in Arlington)
1' •
Setting: Located on a residential side street near the main
thoroughfare of Massachusetts Avenue, on the Arlington
_ sg town line. Dense hillside neighborhood with buildings of
varying size and scale and predominantly early to mid-20t" 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 19 HIBBERT STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
0 2232
❑ 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.
19 Hibbert Street occupies a narrow rectangular lot, nearly half of which is within the Town of Arlington. The lot slopes gently up
from right to left across the site, and the building sits slightly above street level. The building is positioned on the left(southern)
property line, with a narrow setback on the right side, occupied by a paved driveway, and a modest front yard, which is
maintained chiefly in lawn. A low fieldstone wall with a concrete cap edges the front yard.
The T-shaped building rises 2 '/2 stories to a front gable roof with an offset gabled pavilion on the facade (east elevation).
Original gable returns have been blocked in on all three visible gable ends. A chimney is located on the right slope of the main
roof, near the ridgeline. Walls are clad with wood shingles. Windows typically have 1/1 and 2/1 double hung sash with band
molding. A hip-roofed porch wraps around the front fagade (east elevation) and part of the right side (north elevation), with a
canted corner from which wood steps project and connect with the driveway. A pedimented gablet highlights the corner entry.
The porch is composed of shingled half walls, decoratively turned posts, and a band of turned spindles across the top. The front
facade (east elevation) has a two-story gabled pavilion comprised of an angled bay window on the first floor, with one window on
each face, and a rectangular bay on the second floor, containing two symmetrical windows. The right half of the fagade has an
offset, single-leaf door, one window above on the second floor, and a smaller window centered in the gable peak.
The right side (north) elevation has a 2-story, gabled wing with a single window on each floor. A one-story, flat roofed
appendage is just visible at the back of this wing. The left side (south)elevation has a comparable gabled wing whose first floor
is cut back at the corners for an angled bay. The angled bay has one window on each face; a single window is centered above
at the second story. A small fixed window is set towards the front of the first floor, on the main block.
Well preserved and maintained, 19 Hibbert Street is a lively example of early 201h century, middle class suburban housing in
Lexington. The house is notable for its substantial T-shaped massing, vertical proportions, manipulations of wall planes, and
unusually decorative front porch.
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.
Continuation sheet I
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 19 HIBBERT STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
0 2232
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,
"'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 19 Hibbert Street seems to be depicted on the historic maps as early as 1898, and appears originally to have been
numbered 33. The first known residents were James Irwin, a policeman, and his wife Kate in 1920. In that year their household
included three teenage children and a boarder, Ralph C.Woodman, who worked as a teamster. Kate Irwin was widowed by
1935, when she lived here with George F. Cogswell, a laborer, and his wife Maud H. No residents were identified at this
address in 1945, but in 1955 and through at least 1965, the house was occupied by Concetta Aloisio. She was accompanied in
1955 and 1965 by Leo J. Aloisio, a machinist, and in 1955 by Frances Aloisio, a bookkeeper.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
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.
SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES
` � l
Left side (south) and front (east)elevations
Continuation sheet 2