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Home My WebLink Aboutrindge-avenue_0032 FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 0 0 2259 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 20/75 MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Lexington BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village): Photograph Address: 32 Rindge Avenue Historic Name: Uses: Present: residential Original: residential Date of Construction: ca. 1918 Source: historic maps, town directories Style/Form: Four-Square Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: concrete East (fagade) and north elevations Wall/Trim: vinyl siding and trim Locus Map Roof- asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: Lam+ I Detached garage Major Alterations (with dates). Artificial siding (L 20th c?) 13 Condition: good Moved: no ❑ yes ❑ Date: El o � 5 � � Acreage: 0.19 aam � Q Setting: Located near the intersection of Rindge and Winn avenues, in a dense residential neighborhood. Surrounding R buildings are of varying size and scale and predominantly early to mid-20th 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 32 RINDGE AVENUE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2259 ❑ 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. 32 Rindge Avenue occupies a small lot that slopes up slightly from the street. The house is positioned near the back right corner of the property, with a detached garage to the left. The front and side yards are maintained chiefly in lawn, with foundation plantings around the house. A broad driveway lined with concrete pavers leads from the street to the garage and is bordered by a low stone retaining wall enclosing the corner of the front yard. A stone-paved walkway extends from the street to the front entrance. The house consists of a 2 '/2 story, nearly square main block and a low rear addition. The two by two bay main block rises 2 1/2 stories from a concrete foundation to a hip roof with a center chimney. Walls are sheathed with vinyl and vinyl trim. Windows typically have 1/1 double hung sash. The front fagade (east elevation)contains an angled bay window and wide entrance porch on the first floor, surmounted by paired windows over the bay window and a triplet of windows centered above the porch. Due to the slope of the yard, the basement is partially exposed at the front of the house, with a long flight of wood steps leading to the front entry porch. Thin square posts support the porch's low hip roof, and vinyl railings span the posts. The single-leaf doorway is offset to the right of a set of paired windows underneath the porch. The half story dormer is centered on the front slope of the main roof and contains paired 1/1 windows. The north (right side) elevation contains three small awning windows at the basement level, three small symmetrically placed, 1/1 windows on the first and second floors, and a small modern bow window on the first floor. A narrow, 1-story extension spans half of the rear elevation of the main block, displaying a very shallow-pitched shed roof and one window on its right side. The south (left side) elevation of the main block contains two widely spaced window bays with a single window on each story. Standing to the left of and well back from the front fagade of the house, the garage has concrete block walls, a hip roof, and two individual vehicle bays on its front fagade. Although the house has lost architectural integrity through the application of artificial siding and the replacement of porch components, 32 Rindge Avenue is well maintained and preserves many of the defining elements of its style. The house is notable for its simple massing; angled bay window and wide entrance porch; employment of single, paired, and tripled windows; and original or early garage. 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. The neighborhood centered around Bow Street and Hillcrest, Cliffe, and Rindge avenues covers a steep hillside between Massachusetts Avenue and Lowell Street along the Arlington town line. The Great Meadows and Arlington Reservoir are located to the west and east, respectively. By 1898, a very short stub of road between Mass. Avenue and the B & M Railroad tracks is labeled Bow Street. North of the tracks, it continues as a pathway to a farmhouse identified as J. A. Wilson. The 1899 directory identifies a James Wilson, farmer and market gardener, with a house off Bow, and a James A. Wilson, market gardener, with a house on Bow. The land remained undeveloped as part of the Wilson Farm until at least 1906. Most of the streets here were laid out and platted for house lots by 1927; development most likely began after 1918. Development slowly crept up the hillside through the early and mid 20th century, most densely along the grid of streets closest to Massachusetts Avenue. The Wilson farm remained in existence east of Bow Street (in the area now traversed by South Rindge Street) until at least 1950, when it encompassed a substantial farmhouse and greenhouse and two other large outbuildings. Continuation sheet I INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 32 RINDGE AVENUE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2259 The area was likely developed in response to the electric street railway, which began service on Mass. Avenue in 1899. Like Liberty Heights to the south of Massachusetts Avenue (which it resembles, architecturally; LEX.Q), this neighborhood—known as Massachusetts Avenue Terrace and Arlington Heights Terrace—was laid out by Jacob W. Wilbur, a prolific Brookline developer. Wilbur typically sited his subdivisions near streetcar lines and appealed to working class residents. Rindge Avenue was laid out by 1918, and by 1922 seven households were identified on the street, in unnumbered houses. By 1935, houses stood on only about a third of the lots platted on the west side, and only one house is shown on the unplatted east side of the street. 32 Rindge Avenue is first depicted in 1935, although occupants were identified much earlier. The first known residents at this address, in 1918, were Frank A. Caprio, who worked in a candy factory, and his wife Louise. The 1930 census shows the couple here with five children. The Caprio family remained at this address until at least 1965, always including between one and four of Frank and Louise's children, and at least two of the children's spouses, during that period. Most of the family worked in a candy factory at some time; later occupations also included farm work, elevator operator, and mechanic. 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://historicsurveV.Iexingtonma.gov/index.htm Accessed Jul 23, 2015. Lexington Directories: 1899, 1908-09, 1918, 1922, 1926, 1934, 1936 Lexington List of Persons: 1935, 1945, 1955, 1965. Massachusetts Historical Commission. "MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Lexington." 1980. . Form A– Liberty Heights. 2001. U.S. Census: 1930, 1940. SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES South and east (fagade) elevations East(fagade) elevation Continuation sheet 2