HomeMy WebLinkAboutmassachusetts-avenue_2361 FORM B - BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
Boston
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 50/151 North 1606
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town: Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Photograph
Address: 2361 Massachusetts Avenue
Historic Name: Barnard McCaffrey House
Uses: Present: residential
�— Original: residential
Date of Construction: c.1875
Source: maps, Census
�III
Style/Form: Italianate
�- Architect/Builder: unknown
Exterior Material:
Foundation: brick
Wall/Trim: wood clapboards
Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Topographic or Assessor's Map garage
SB.2'`B '
255 46.5• Major Alterations(with dates):
NPD 5,830
c.1990— new windows
27
mT
'A 88,510
1 �1•
"AN Condition: good
N 151 Moved: no x yes Date
3W 04 $ 1
�, 2295
150A 1 '26 2377 Acreage: 0.90 acre
21.270
23,6
1614 25-��NVSE'0501 Setting: mixed residential neighborhood
125 k
73'N � 0� ,p u
5g4 .2900 2360 15•
2
103.2' 2360
103.2' w 2 1Oo,
' 74,
Recorded by: Lisa Mausolf
Organization: Lexington Historical Commission
Date(month/year): May 2008
Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 2361 MASS. AVENUE
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
1606
Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION:
Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community.
2361 Massachusetts Avenue is a simple 2 %2-story, 3 x 1-bay dwelling which dates to the late 19`h century. It is set on a brick
foundation and clad in wood clapboards. The asphalt shingled roof has projecting eaves that end in returns on the gable ends
and a brick chimney rises from the center of the ridge. The fagade is fronted by a single-story,three-bay porch supported by
turned posts with jigsawn brackets and a stick balustrade. The center entrance is set into a projecting vestibule and the door is
flanked by sidelights. The house originally had double-hung 2/2 windows as evidenced by the remaining attic window. Most of
the windows have been replaced by modern 1/1 vinyl sash. There is a decorative bay window on the east elevation. A two-story
ell projects to the rear of the main house.
Behind the house is a clapboarded outbuilding resting on a mortared fieldstone foundation with 2/2 windows.
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.
Inspection of historic maps and Census data indicates that this house was constructed between 1875 and 1880. The original
owner was apparently B. McCaffrey who is shown as the owner on the 1898 and 1906 maps and was living here at the time of
the 1880 Census. Barnard(aka Barney)McCaffrey(d.1905)was born in Ireland about 1835. He was living in a house nearby in
1870. The 1880 Census lists his occupation as farm laborer and indicates that he was then living here with his wife Mary, four
daughters, and a boarder. At the time of Barnard's death in 1905,he was one of Lexington's oldest citizens. A member of St.
Brigid's Church,he was buried in Calvary Cemetery in Woburn.
Ownership of the house later passed to Barney's daughter Catherine who married John Ready in 1891. John and Catherine
Ready were living here(then 663 Mass. Ave.) in 1906. John Ready was employed as an ice wagon driver. By 1913 Catherine
was a widow; she continued to live here into the early 1920s. In 1932 the house was occupied by William Minear and in 1942
by Gerald Robinson. The house was owned from 1940 to 1983 by Albert and Janet Pitt.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
1853, 1876, 1889, 1898, 1906 maps
Lexington Minute-man, Oct. 12, 1905
Middlesex South Registry of Deeds, Cambridge,Mass.
Town Directories
U.S. Census,various years.
Continuation sheet 1
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 2361 MASS. AVENUE
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
1606
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Continuation sheet 2