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Home My WebLink Aboutsanderson-road_0003 (formerly 194 Lowell St) FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 0 0 2242 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 37/168 MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Lexington BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village): Photograph Address: 194 Lowell Street Historic Name: =�= Uses: Present: residential -__ Original: residential =I` Date of Construction: ca. 1910-22 Source: directories, assessors' records, style Style/Form: Colonial Revival Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: South (facade) and west elevations (view NE) Foundation: stone Wall/Trim: wood clapboards and trim Locus Map Roof- asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: A / shed / 37.248 r 7 Major Alterations (with dates): _ 1 37 16B 4' Condition: good Moved: no ® yes ❑ Date: 37-167 37.Y Acreage: 0.72 acres 166i 3 Setting: Near intersection of Lowell and Maple streets, on corner of a busy thoroughfare and a modern subdivision road. Surrounded by residential, predominantly late 20tH century construction. Recorded by: Wendy Frontiero, preservation consultant Organization: Lexington Historical Commission Date: September 2015 12/12 Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 194 LOWELL ST. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2242 ❑ 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. 194 Lowell Street occupies an ample lot on the corner of Lowell Street, a main thoroughfare through East Lexington, and Sanderson Road, a late 20th century subdivision street. The building is set well back from both streets, which are lined with mature street trees on both frontages. Maintained chiefly in lawn, the large lot slopes down to the north behind the house; it is otherwise generally flat. An asphalt sidewalk extends along both street frontages of the property. A brick-paved walkway leads to the front door. The square-shaped main block rises two stories from a fieldstone foundation to a generous, side-gambrel roof with one interior chimney. Walls are sheathed with wood clapboards and trimmed with flat sill boards, corner boards, and fascia, the latter with a simple crown molding. Windows typically have 6/1 sash with band moldings. Centered on the south fagade is a large, 2 '/z story cross-gabled pavilion, which has an offset entrance with a small shed roof, a single-leaf paneled door, flat casing, and a brick stoop. A small awning window has been inserted in the second story above the entrance. Paired windows occupy the east bay of this pavilion, and a narrow 6-light window is set in the gable peak. The asymmetrical west elevation contains a slightly off-center entrance with prominent molded cornice, paired windows at the back of the first floor, and irregular single windows at various levels, including a 6-light window in the gambrel peak. A small back porch with a square corner post and a railing with square balusters projects from the northwest corner of the house. The east elevation is symmetrical, with paired windows on the first floor, two single windows on the second floor, and a single 6- light window in the peak. On the rear(north) elevation, a shed-roofed dormer is centered on the building and contains one pair of windows and one single window. A small first floor projection that also appears centered on this wall is capped by a hip roof that extends to the back porch at the southwest corner. A variety of shrubs is planted close to the front and sides of the house, and a line of trees parallel to the back wall is set about 25 feet behind the building. Other medium-sized to mature trees are set irregularly throughout the site. An L-shaped planting of mature evergreen and deciduous shrubs defines the corner of Lowell Street and Sanderson Road. A small shed is located near the northwest corner of the property. Constructed of vertical wood boards with a saltbox roof, it is detailed with flat wood trim, a pair of solid wood doors on its fagade (south elevation), and a small, rectangular 4-light window on its east elevation. Well-preserved and well-maintained, 194 Lowell Street is a good example of relatively modest early 20th century housing in Lexington. Its is notable for its prominent corner lot, its survival on a busy road within much later suburban development, its distinctive roofline and massing, and its simple but careful detailing. 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. Lowell Street appears to have followed a Native American trail and was developed as an important transportation corridor in the Colonial period. A new regional turnpike system radiating from Boston was established in the early 19th century; Lowell Street formed part of the Middlesex Turnpike (ca. 1806), which extended from Cambridge to Tyngsborough and the New Hampshire border. This peripheral area of East Lexington remained mostly agricultural and sparsely developed through the early 20th century, however. The Great Meadow marshlands occupy an extensive area bordered by Lowell Street to the east, the Arlington Continuation sheet I INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 194 LOWELL ST. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2242 town line to the south, the railroad to the west, and Maple Street to the north. The Stadly map of 1898 shows a small cluster of houses a short distance east of the intersection of Lowell and Maple streets, as well as the Arlington Reservoir to the east, straddling the town line between Lexington and Arlington. The number of buildings in this vicinity increased slightly by 1906; most of the owners in that year were farmers. It is difficult to confirm if the house at 194 Lowell Street is represented on the 1906 map; it may be the similarly-shaped building at the east end of the cluster, which was owned by William E. Fiske, a farmer who is listed as boarding on Mass. Ave. in that year. The property at 194 Lowell Street has been owned and occupied by members of the Castelli family since 1922, when John B. Castelli, a private chauffeur, and his wife Mary are first listed as living on Lowell Street(no street number; the first time the street number appears is 1940). John (b. ca. 1884) emigrated from Italy in 1903; Mary came from northern Ireland in 1901. John worked as a chauffeur well into his 70s, and was listed here until at least 1965. The couple had three children who lived at the house. Their daughter Mary(b. ca. 1914)was described as "at home"through 1950, but her occupation in 1960 and 1965 is identified as teacher. Their son John (b. ca. 1918) lived here until at least 1950, with his occupation described as salesman for a linen business in 1940 and electrical engineer in 1950. Their second son, Joseph (b. ca. 1920), was identified here in 1930 and 1940; in the latter year he worked as a gardener on a private estate. The house is presently owned and occupied by John and Mary's grandson, Joseph Castelli. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Historic maps and atlases: Stadley 1898; Walker 1906; Sanborn 1908, 1918, 1927, 1927/1930, 1935, 1935/1950 Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913. Lexington Historical Commission website. "Period Summaries: Suburbanization (1870-1915)" and "Early Modern Period (1915- 1940)". historicsurvey.lexingtonma.gov . Accessed 6 May 2015. Massachusetts Historical Commission. Historic&Archaeological Resources of the Boston Area. 1982. Massachusetts Historical Commission. "MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report; Lexington." 1980. Town of Lexington directories, 1916, 1918, 1921, 1922, 1924, 1930, 1940, 1950, 1960, 1965. U.S. Census, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940. Continuation sheet 2 INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 194 LowELL ST. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2242 SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES f South (fagade)elevation West elevation x • f South (fagade) and east elevations (view NW) East and north elevations (view SW) Continuation sheet 3 INVENTORY ' i CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON •' LOWELL HISTORICALMASSACHUSETTS • •N Area(s) Form No. 1 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON, 02125 2242 SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES Iyy ss r3 fr �"" South (fagade) elevations: Shed and house East elevation: Shed West R w , � �� ti �- � •� tires � -. • south .•' • from Sanderson R•.•