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Home My WebLink Aboutpaul-revere-road_0004 FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 51/87 0 0 2257 MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Town/City: Lexington Place: (neighborhood or village): Photograph Address: 4 Paul Revere Road F.,7 tii' Historic Name: y -4 Uses: Present: residential Y 4 - F Original: residential Date of Construction: ca. 1937-45 L Source: subdivision plan, town directories Style/Form: Colonial Revival cape i Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Left side and front (fagade) elevations Foundation: fieldstone, poured concrete Wall/Trim: wood shingles and trim Locus Map Roof. asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: ° Attached garage Major Alterations (with dates): fenestration, side porch enclosure, garage roof deck (L 201h c); replacement window sash (L 20t — E 21s'c) Condition: good a 5t-t28�, 1 Moved: no ❑ yes ❑ Date: i sa-as Acreage: 0.33 5i Setting: Located on a busy connector road between Cedar Street and Massachusetts Avenue, near Mass. Ave. and Route 128. Dense residential neighborhood of heterogeneous, mostly M — L 20th c houses. 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 4 PAUL REVERE RD. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 0 2257 ❑ 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. 4 Paul Revere Road occupies a modestly sized lot that slopes down significantly from the street. The house is positioned near the right front corner of the property, which is maintained chiefly in lawn, with trees scattered throughout. A paved driveway leads from the street to the attached garage, and a brick walkway extends from the driveway to the front door. The building consists of a rectangular main block, side ell, and attached garage. The small main block rises 1 '/2 stories from a fieldstone foundation to a side gambrel roof without returns and one interior chimney set off-center at the ridgeline. Walls are sheathed with wood shingles. Windows typically have 6/1 double-hung replacement sash, with 4/1 sash employed in the front dormer. The front fagade of the main block has a nearly centered single- leaf door, a small modern polygonal bay window to the right, and shed-roofed dormer with two small 4/1 windows centered above. The front door has a poured concrete stoop, flat trim, and a decorative sunburst panel as a lintel. The right ell steps back slightly from the fagade of the main block and has a poured concrete foundation. Its asymmetrical fagade contains a triplet of 6/1 windows on the first floor and a full-length shed dormer above with two small, asymmetrically set windows. The right side elevation of the ell contains a single-leaf door in the half story, which access a modern roof deck on top of the attached garage. The garage has a single vehicle bay with an arched opening facing the street. Its right side elevation has an offset single-leaf pedestrian door and a single window. The left side elevation of the main block contains an offset door towards the front and paired windows toward the back. The first floor is spanned by a one-story screened porch with a shallow hip roof, arched openings, and flush board siding. A modern wood deck with square balusters at the railings extends across most of the rear elevation. 4 Paul Revere Road is a very modest example of mid 20th century suburban housing in Lexington and has been extensively altered. Little historic integrity remains. 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. 4 Paul Revere Road represents the intense suburbanization of Lexington in the mid-20th century,just prior to creation of the modern Route 128. Nearby Massachusetts Avenue was established in the 17th century as part of an early highway from Cambridge to Concord. Development of this section of the road, west of Lincoln Street and the town center, was sparse, however, until the beginning of the 20th century. New transportation systems established in the early 20th century opened up large areas of rural land in Lexington for residential and commercial development. Street railway service began in Lexington in 1900 (including a railway line down Waltham Street by 1906), replaced by bus lines in 1924. Two state roadways were designated in the town, including Marrett and Middle streets as the Route 2A bypass in the 1920s, and parts of Mass. Ave., Woburn Street, and Waltham Street as components of an early Route 128 in the 1920s and 30s. By 1921, 35 new residential subdivisions were being developed in Lexington. The present Route 128 superhighway was constructed in 1950. A decade and a half later, 4 Paul Revere Road was part of the Wellington Estates subdivision. As noted in the architectural inventory form for that development, Continuation sheet I INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 4 PAUL REVERE RD. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 0 2257 "The area including Revolutionary Road and parts of Constitution Road, Massachusetts Avenue, Ross Road and Paul Revere Road was originally laid out as 'Wellington Estates' in 1937 by the Ross Realty Corporation[,] although construction did not begin until 1941. The subdivision plan (Plan number 294 of 1941) shows that it was laid out adjacent to the `proposed circumferential highway' which would become Rt. 128. The neighborhood reflects an early local phase of the Cape Cod house construction that intensified in Lexington during the post-World War II building boom." (LEX.AW) Wellington Estates encompassed thirty lots, obviously intended for modest, affordable housing. About half the homes in this small subdivision were designed by the firm of Royal Barry Wills. 4 Paul Revere Road occupies one of the lots on the 1937 plan, but its proportions and details do not seem consistent with other buildings in the subdivision that have been identified as Royal Barry Wills' designs. The first known occupants of this house, in 1945, were Charles D. Allen, an electrician, and his wife Mildred. Charles and Mildred continued to reside in the house in 1955; by 1965, Mildred was living alone here. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES 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 and Area Summaries. http://historicsurvey.Iexingtonma.gov/index.htm Accessed Jul 23, 2015. Lexington Directories: 1899, 1906, 1908-09, 1918, 1922, 1928, 1934, 1936. Lexington Historical Commission. Form A—Area, Wellington Estates. Prepared by Lisa Mausolf, 2010. Lexington List of Persons: 1935, 1945, 1955, 1965. Massachusetts Historical Commission. "MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Lexington." 1980. SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES f.. d:� I f pol.. ti --m RM l' Assessor's photograph: Front(fagade)elevation Front(fagade) elevation: Ell and attached garage Continuation sheet 2