HomeMy WebLinkAboutlake-street_0015 FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
0 0 2239
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 50/179
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village):
Photograph
Address: 15 Lake Street
Historic Name:
■
Uses: Present: residential
Original: residential
iDate of Construction: ca. 1906-25
■�� Source: historic maps, town directories, style
Style/Form: Dutch Colonial Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Front(facade)and right side elevations Foundation: fieldstone
Wall/Trim: artificial siding and trim
Locus Map Roof- asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Detached garage/barn
Major Alterations (with dates):
Artificial siding, replacement windows, rear addition (L 201h
E21stc)
Condition: good
A �
Moved: no ❑ yes ❑ Date:
* Acreage: 0.22
Setting: Residential side street between Massachusetts
- , Avenue and Columbus Street. Heterogeneous collection of
• late 19th—early 20th century housing, with small cluster of L
19th century cottages at intersection with Columbus.
-1 ��. ', Several recent mega-mansions appear in the streetscape.
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 is LADE STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
2239
❑ 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 Lake Street occupies a long trapezoidal lot, with a modest front setback and narrow setback on the left side. Generally flat,
the surface of the lot is dominated by concrete pavers, which form a U-shaped parking area/drive in front of the house and a
long, wide driveway to the right of the house. The house consists of a 1 3/4 story main block and a larger, 2-story rear addition.
The main block rises from a fieldstone foundation with deeply recessed joints to a front gambrel roof. Walls are clad with
artificial siding and trim. Windows are typically 6/6 and 8/8 double-hung replacement sash on the main block, 8/8 on the rear
addition. The front facade contains a full-width, hip-roofed porch with modern posts and railings. The offset entrance has a
single-leaf, period door with multiple wood panels and a square glass pane. Paired windows are set to the left on the first floor.
Two windows are symmetrically set on the second floor of the fagade, with a small window centered in the peak of the gambrel.
The left side elevation has two widely spaced windows on the first floor and two shed dormers, each with one window, on the
second floor. A narrow two-story rear addition at the left side of the main block appears to have a pitched roof and one window
at the second floor. The right side elevation of the main block contains two pairs of windows on the first floor and two shed-
roofed dormers of varied sizes on the lower slope of the gambrel.
The large rear addition projects several feet to the side of the main block and rises to a large, steeply pitched gambrel roof. Its
narrow front face (oriented towards the street) contains a single-leaf door under a small covered portico with wood steps. The
long right side elevation of the rear addition has paired and tripled windows at the first floor. A shed-roofed dormer runs the
entire length of the addition and encompasses one pair of large windows and three smaller, loosely grouped windows on the
second floor.
The outbuilding at the back right corner of the lot is 1 '/z stories high with a tall, front gable roof. Sheathed in wood or artificial
clapboards, its fagade contains an offset, single-bay garage door and a single-leaf pedestrian door on the ground floor, a blind
window opening centered above, and a vestigial hoist beam element near the peak. The side walls of this outbuilding are
constructed of small ashlar blocks; one window is centered in the right side elevation.
Well maintained, the original house at 15 Lake Street has suffered from the application of artificial siding and trim and the
dominating scale of the rear addition. Nonetheless, it survives as an example of early suburban development in an outlying area
of town. The house is notable for its front gambrel form, front porch, and the unusual composition and materials of its early
outbuilding.
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.
Lake Street appears on the town maps between 1875 and 1898. By the latter year, and at least through 1906, only four houses
were dispersed along the street. No building is shown at this location in 1906. The 1922 directory lists no house numbered 15,
although this building may have existed by that time. Mindful that street re-numbering (which was prevalent in Lexington in the
early 1930s) may have occurred, a possible candidate for this property is the last odd-numbered house on the street in 1922,
#11. That address was occupied by Jessie Ferry, a tree worker, and his wife Elsie. By 1935, house now numbered 15 was
occupied by Norman C. Carr, an iceman with A. G. Davis Ice Co., and his wife Mabel H. From at least 1945 through 1965, the
Continuation sheet I
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON is LADE STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
2239
house was occupied by Edwin H. Wilbur, a mechanic. In 1945, he was accompanied by his son Edwin R., a mechanic, and
daughter-in-law Constance E. In 1955, septuagenarian Leona Dunphy was also living here.
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 Comprehensive Cultural Resources Survey, Period and Area Summaries.
http://historicsurvey.lexingtonma.gov/index.htm Accessed Jul 23, 2015.
Lexington Directories: 1899, 1908-09, 1913, 1915, 1918, 1922, 1926, 1932, 1934, 1936.
Lexington List of Persons: 1935, 1945, 1955, 1965.
Massachusetts Historical Commission. "MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Lexington." 1980.
U.S. Census: 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940.
Continuation sheet 2
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 15 LAKE STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
2239
SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES
Front (fagade) elevation Garage: Front (fagade) elevation
Garage: Front (fagade) and right side elevations
Continuation sheet 3