HomeMy WebLinkAboutlowell-street_0537 FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
0 0 2244
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 61/71A
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village):
Photograph
Address: 537 Lowell Street
Historic Name:
Uses: Present: residential
Original: residential
Date of Construction: ca. 1865-90
Source: architectural features, historic maps
Style/Form: No style
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick, concrete block, poured concrete
South (facade) elevations Wall/Trim: wood shingles and trim
Locus Map Roof- asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
� Barn, garage, shed
IWOr
4 Major Alterations (with dates):
. a ! Front, rear, and side additions (19th and 20th c), fenestration
(201h c)
Condition: good
Moved: no ❑ yes ❑ Date:
Acreage: 0.86
Setting: Located on a main thoroughfare through East
• Lexington, near a major intersection with East Street.
Surrounded by residential development of various styles,
and scales, mostly mid to late 20t century 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 537 LOWELL STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
2244
❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
ff 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.
537 Lowell Street occupies a large lot near the busy intersection of Lowell and East streets, main thoroughfares in East
Lexington. The building is set close to Lowell Street, facing the side of the parcel. Several outbuildings are scattered to the east
of the house, and a large lawn area occupies the northern half of the parcel. The land slopes gently back from the street.
Arborvitae and a small trees line part of the Lowell Street frontage; large trees are scattered throughout the lot. A paved
driveway curves into the house from the south, with a brick walkway to the main entrance.
The three by one bay main block rises two stories from a parged brick foundation to a shallow-pitched side gable roof; it faces
the side of the parcel. A an irregular series of ells and additions includes a two-story, perpendicular gabled wing extending from
the back left(northwest) corner of the main block; a one-story shed-roofed addition along the front(south)wall of the main block;
a one-story, gabled addition at the front (south) right corner of the main block, with a cross-gable in front of the main block
facade; and a two-story gabled addition at the back right(northeast) corner of the main block. The building has two exterior
chimneys on the back walls of the northeast ell and northwest addition.
Walls are sheathed with wood shingles without sill boards, corner boards, or wall fascia. The raking eaves of the main block and
northwest ell have molded fascia and gable returns. Windows are chiefly 6/6 double hung replacement sash with a narrow
band molding; some early or original 2/2 sash survives.
On the main (south)fagade, the one-story, hip roofed addition contains a slightly off-center entrance with a single-leaf paneled
wood door, full height sidelights, and gablet above, and a modern granite stoop and step. This addition has a poured concrete
foundation. The two windows on the second floor of the main block's fagade are not vertically aligned with the door and window
on the first floor addition. Extending to the right (east)of the entrance is another one-story gabled addition on a poured concrete
foundation, rising to a cross gable with a center pair of casement windows at its western end and a small double-hung window at
its eastern end.
Proportioned and detailed similar to the main block, the northwest ell is set slightly back from the plane of the gable end of the
main block. It rises from a decorative concrete block foundation and is characterized by 2/2 window sash. Its symmetrical
fenestration comprises two symmetrical and vertically aligned windows on each floor. Its rear(north) elevation has two windows
on each floor, flanking an exterior chimney. The rear elevation of the large northeast addition displays banded casement
windows on the first floor, four single casement windows on the second floor, an exterior chimney, and a small square wood
deck.
Two outbuildings are visible from the street; a third appears on maps and bird's eye photographs near the back property line.
Closest to the house is a large one-story garage near the northeast corner of the house. It has a front gable roof with gable
returns, wood shingle siding, one wide wood-paneled garage door trimmed with a plain flat casing, and one 6/6 window each on
the west side and back (north)elevations. To the southeast of the garage is a 1 '/2 story, side gabled structure with a saltbox
form, concrete block foundation, and wood shingle siding with plain corner boards. It presently contains an apartment. The
fagade (west) elevation contains an offset entrance with a modern single-leaf door and a modern angled bay window in the
center. A low shed dormer extends across the back of the structure.
Well-maintained, 537 Lowell Street is an interesting example of a simple, mid-19th century vernacular farmhouse, with a
picturesque accretion of ells, wings, and addition. The building is notable for its modest original/early form, which is still
intelligible (including its shallow-pitched gable roofs and one-bay main block and original/early northwest wing); its siting along a
major thoroughfare; the large size of its lot; and its collection of outbuildings.
Continuation sheet I
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 537 LOWELL STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
2244
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.
537 Lowell Street is located near the important crossroads of Lowell and East streets in East Lexington. 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. Appearing as
early as the 17th century, East Street is an important early road, facilitating access to the farmland of East Lexington and
connecting to the adjacent town of Woburn. This peripheral area of east Lexington remained mostly agricultural and sparsely
developed through the early 20th century, however, home to commercial dairy and produce farms.
A building first appears in the location and orientation of today's 537 Lowell Street by the turn of the 20th century, identified as T.
Walley on the 1898 map and C.J. Molley in 1906. Molley also owned property and a building diagonally across the road. No
information is presently known about these persons. Assessors' records for this house show a construction date of 1861, which
has not been confirmed. Further research is recommended to establish more conclusively the date of the house, its early
occupants, and early uses of the property.
The first occupants of the property at 537 Lowell Street about whom information is known were Stephen Hotz, and his wife
Paraska, who seem to have resided here at least by 1920. Both Austrian immigrants, the couple had five children together, one
or more of whom lived in the house through at least 1965. Stephen is described as a machine operator at a pipe fittings
company(probably the Jefferson Union Co.) in 1920, farmhand in 1922, and gardener at a private estate in 1930 and later. His
daughter worked as a secretary at a printing company (1940, 1945). The sons' occupations included farm laborers on a truck
farm (when as young as 11; 1920), gardeners on private estates (1930), radio operator at a radio station (1930, 1940), and
farmers at a mink ranch (1940). Stephen lived at this address until at least 1955; Paraska until at least 1965. The property was
identified as a farm for at least part of the time that the Hotz family lived here; agriculture may have been a sideline for the
family.
Further research is recommended to establish more conclusively the date of the house and early uses of the property. Local
historian Sam Doran suggests contacting Guy Doran for additional information on the Hotz family.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com
Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records.
Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook).
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 Summaries. http://historicsurvey.lexingtonma.gov/index.htm
Accessed Jul 23, 2015.
Lexington Directories: 1899, 1906, 1908-09, 1913, 1922, 1934, 1936.
Lexington List of Persons: 1935, 1945, 1955, 1965.
Massachusetts Historical Commission. "MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Lexington." 1980.
U.S. Census: 1920, 1930, 1940.
Watertown city directories: 1907.
Continuation sheet 2
INVENTORY 1 ' i CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON •
HISTORICALMASSACHUSETTS • •
1 MORRISSEY :• • • BOSTON, 02125 2244
SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES
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elevation • and west elevations
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SE Outbuilding: West (facade) and south elevations
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Continuation