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HomeMy WebLinkAboutmassachusetts-avenue_2139 FORM B - BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 10050000201 Boston N.1 1 686 MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town Lexington BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place (neighborhood or village) Address 2139 Massachusetts Ave. A to Historic Name Walter G. Morey House . i i{t t`tIr i ' s -Uses: Present Residential Original Residential it I Date of Construction 1889 Source Lexington Valuation lists II Style/Form Queen Anne w 7 T Architect/Builder y _ i Exterior Material: Foundation Fieldstone/Dressed Granite 4441{1+j4tii44{ to Wall/Trim Wood Clapboard/Wood Shingle Roof Asphalt Shingle Outbuildings/Secondary Structures Garage v � Major Alterations(with dates) 1 Condition Excellent � k Moved ❑ no ® yes Date between 1911 and 1914 Acreage 0.9 A. �s ;o VENUE MR i Setting On a heavily-trafficked street in an area of early 20th-century houses Recorded by Nancy S. Seasholes Organization Lexington Historical Commission Date (month/year) March 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. 2139 Massachusetts Ave. is one of the nicest and best preserved high-style Queen Anne houses in Lexington. The house is rectangular with a rear ell, 2'/Z stories, and front-gabled with a large ridge chimney in the main block and an end ridge chimney in the ell. The house is set on a foundation of fieldstones and dressed granite, clad with wood clapboards and woods shingles, and roofed with asphalt shingles. Some of the distinguishing Queen Anne finishes are repeated throughout the house: triglyph-pattern molding under the cornice;a queen post detail in the gable pediments with a king post or curved half-timbering at the peak; curved brackets underneath the overhanging front gable pediment and the west gable; second story walls clad with bands of staggered shingles finished with a row of scalloped shingles at the lower edge,which flare outward; clapboards on the first story;and double hung windows with a large pane surrounded by small panes in the upper sash and two panes in the lower. There are paired windows on the second story of the front and east elevations—the former have a pedimented head and the latter are next to a square window with arched muntins—and a triple window on the first story of the east elevation. On the west, in addition to a 2'/x story projecting gable with finishes similar to those described above, is a hip-roofed dormer and three-sided bay on the first story. The spindle frieze on the front porch is repeated on the small rear porch. The garage is constructed of timbers from the barn, which burned before 1956. 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 was built in 1889 by Walter G. Morey, presumably a relative of Charles E. Morey who in 1884 had purchased the house now at 21 Hastings Rd. (MHC#685). At that time the latter house was on a narrow but deep 18-acre parcel that extended all the way back to what is now Hill St. In 1889 Charles E. Morey divided this lot, setting off the western eight acres for this house, so, when it was originally built, this house was on a lot with a frontage of 275 feet on Massachusetts Ave. and extended back to Hill St. Walter Morey did not live in this house very long;he sold it in 1893 to Alvin D. Puffer,who that year started a factory in Winchester to manufacture marble soda fountain tops,hiring marble cutters from Italy. In July 1907 Puffer sold the house to Catherine Kimball,wife of Franklin R. Kimball,who had purchased the house now at 21 Hastings Rd. in April of that same year. The Kimballs reportedly thought that this house obstructed their view and they moved it, but the question is from where. In 1911 the Kimballs set off the parcel on which this house now stands,which is on the west side of its original lot with a frontage of 124 feet on Massachusetts Ave. So,given that the new lot was less than half the width of the old and west of it,this house was probably moved west onto it,a conclusion supported by a former resident, who said this house was moved"a short distance up Concord Hill." In 1914 the Kimballs sold this house on its new lot to Mary T. B. Wellington,the wife of Herbert L. The Wellingtons owned the house until 1937 when they sold it to the Rosenbergers, who, in turn, sold it in 1956 to the Stolzes,the present owners. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑ see continuation sheet Lexington Valuation Lists. 1889-1890. Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds, plans. Cambridge, MA. 1682: 252; 1946: 588; 2202: 487; 3312: 22; 3908: 578,end; 6158: 131; 8756: 500; PI. Bk. 61, Pl. 18. Norman and Shirley Stolz, personal communication 1998. Whipple, S. Lawrence. Remembrances of Edith Hill Bowker. In possession of S. Lawrence Whipple, Lexington, MA. ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.