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Home My WebLink Aboutlowell-street_0048-0052 FORM B - BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 10020000042 1Boston N. � 657 MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town Lexington BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place (neighborhood or village) NI Y oto Address 48-52 Lowell St. oil Historic Name Isaac Winship House 9s Uses: Present Multi-Family Residential Original Residential y w Date of Construction 1798-1825 (range) r 3 Source Deeds, Direct Tax of 1798 Style/Form Federal Architect/Builder Exterior Material: f" Foundation Granite to Wall/Trim Wood Clapboard Roof Asphalt Shingle Outbuildings/Secondary Structures r1 1 Major Alterations(with dates) m I IZ .� Rear additions (dates unknown) STREET LOWELl- Condition Good Moved ® no ❑ yes Date Acreage 0.2 A. 1ti 'I — Setting Very close to street next to farm stand of the farm I ,I with which it is historically associated Recorded by Nancy S. Seasholes Organization Lexington Historical Commission Date (month/year) February 1998 Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form. BUILDING FORM ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION ❑ see continuation sheet Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. 48-52 Lowell St. is one of a number of modest Federal houses in Lexington and is reasonably well-preserved. The original house is rectangular, 2%stories, five-by-one bays,and side-gabled with a rear chimney. It is set on a granite foundation,clad with wood clapboards,and roofed with asphalt shingles. At the rear are two additions: one,two-story and front-gabled on a fieldstone foundation ; the other, 1'/�-story and front-gabled on a concrete foundation. There are also a two-story, shed-roofed bay on a fieldstone foundation on the east elevation and a one-story, shed-roofed addition on a concrete foundation on the west elevation. The center entrance is flanked by sidelights that do not appear to be original;windows are 6/6 double hung sash. Perhaps the only original finish is a dentil course that extends across the cornice on the-facade. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE ® see continuation sheet 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. This house is known as the Winship House and was probably built for Isaac Winship (1749-1834) sometime between 1798 and 1825. On April 5, 1825, Isaac's son Oliver(1794-1874)purchased all his father's real estate in Lexington, including the buildings. That same day a Thomas Winship,a cousin and probably the Thomas Winship who lived from 1766 to 1830, quitclaimed his right to Isaac's dwelling house that he had"joined and assisted"in building and in which Isaac was then living The Direct Tax of 1798 does not list a house for Isaac Winship, suggesting that his house was built after that date, so it is very likely that the house Oliver Winship bought in 1825 was this one and that it had been built by Thomas Winship for Isaac sometime between 1798 and 1825. It is, of course, possible that Oliver Winship built a new house on this site after 1825,but Lexington assessors' records do not indicate enough of an increase in the value of Oliver's' real estate to explain a new house—the value rose from$506 in 1830 to$626 in 1831 because Oliver had built a new barn, increased to$770.45 in 1832, and to $827.45 in 1839,the latter because he had acquired an additional three acres. The$144 increase in 1832 does not seem enough for a new house, further evidence that this is probably Isaac Winship's house built sometime between 1798 and 1825. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑see continuation sheet Direct Tax of 1798. Microfilm. Cary Library, Lexington, MA. Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington. Revised and continued to 1912 by the Lexington Historical Society. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913. 2: 772, 773, 774. Lexington Valuation Lists. 1790s-1840. Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge, MA. 259: 456, 457. Shaw,Jim. "Busa Farms Continues A `Growing' Tradition." Lexington Citizen, July 1996. ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form. INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Town Property Address Lexington 52 Lowell St. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD 657 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 HISTORICAL NARRATIVE (continued) After Oliver Winship's death in 1874 the house was owned by his son Charles F.Winship (b. 1828)and then by William R. Shay. The Winship/Shay farm was then acquired, reportedly beginning in 1919,by four Busa brothers,who had emigrated from Sicily. The Busas raised produce which they took into Boston every day to sell at the Faneuil Hall Produce Market, eventually consolidating their farms as Sun Valley Farms. After several decades, one brother,John, operated the farm;he opened a farm stand in Lexington in 1960 though continued to take produce to Boston until 1975. John's sons, Fran and Denis Busa, now operate the farm,which since 1993 has been called Busa Farm. The farm still produces vegetables, particularly corn and tomatoes, and is one of only two farms remaining in Lexington where crops are still grown(the other is Wilson Farms at the corner of Massachusetts Ave. and Pleasant St.)