HomeMy WebLinkAboutshirley-street_0007 FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
0 0 2262
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 64/4A
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village):
Photograph
Address: 7 Shirley Street
Historic Name:
Uses: Present: residential
- Original: residential
■ Date of Construction: ca. 1906-20
Source: historic maps, census
Style/Form: Colonial Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: fieldstone
Front facade and right side elevations Wall/Trim: wood clapboards, shingles, and trim
Locus Map Roof- asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Garage
` �z-''�+� - `ado ■
Major Alterations (with dates):
y ' ■ d " Replacement windows (L 20th— E 21St c), shed dormer? (L
20t c)
A04 * ❑
�m ■ �a
Condition: good
8
5 -.4 ■ Moved: no E] yes E] Date:
8
Acreage: 0.09
Setting: Dead-end, residential side street with houses of
92 o generally similar period, scale, and style. Cohesive
�1 streetscape with buildings set close together and to the
73 i ���;�,� street. Near corner of major arterial thoroughfare of
Bedford Street.
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 7 SHIRLEY STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
2262
❑ 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.
7 Shirley Street occupies a small, flat lot near the intersection of the main thoroughfare of Bedford Street. Maintained chiefly in
lawn, the building has narrow front and side setbacks with small shrubs and a paved driveway on the right side of the lot. The
building consists of a 2 '/2 story main block with a rear extension and a detached garage. A concrete walkway leads from the
sidewalk to the main entrance.
The two by two bay main block rises from a fieldstone foundation to a front gabled roof with gable returns and a small brick
chimney in the center, at the ridgeline. Walls are clad with wood clapboards at the first floor and wood shingles at the second
story, which flares out slightly at its base over a plain flat belt course. Windows typically have 1/1 double hung sash with narrow
band molding. On the street fagade, a one-bay wide, gabled pavilion is offset above a full-width, enclosed sun porch. The sun
porch has a low hip roof and predominantly paired windows; its wooden stairway has modern wrought iron railings.
The right side elevation has one window towards the front, and angled bay window with a pitched roof towards the back, and two
symmetrically placed windows on the second floor. The left side elevation has a square Queen Anne-style window with gridded
panes and colored glass towards the front and paired windows towards the back of the first floor. Above are two symmetrically
set windows on the second floor and a shed-roofed dormer with paired windows. A low, one-story extension at the back
appears to have a hip roof.
The one-story garage at the back right corner of the lot has a high hip roof and one long garage door across its full width. Walls
are constructed of small coursed paving blocks. A single-leaf door is located on the right side.
Well maintained and well preserved, 7 Shirley Street is a good example of modest, early 20th century suburban housing in
Lexington. It is notable for its fagade massing (full-length sun porch and gabled pavilion), mix of wall textures, Queen Anne
window sash, and the uncommon stone construction of its original/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.
Shirley Street appears on the maps between 1898 and 1906; a handful of buildings, mostly along the south side, were standing
along it in the latter year. All but one lot was developed by 1927, when the streetscape contained ten buildings (four of them
side-by-side duplexes) and six garages.
The house at 7 Shirley Street represents the early period of suburbanization in Lexington, in which development along Bedford
Street was sparked by the re-building of the roadway and the arrival of street railway service here at the turn of the 20th century.
George F. Tewksbury, a farmer who owned the land in this area in 1898 and 1906, is credited with developing the Hill
Street/Tewksbury Street/Shirley Street neighborhood.
7 Shirley Street appears on the maps by 1927 and shared a lot with 92 Bedford Street until at least 1950. The earliest known
occupants of the house were Charles M. Collins, who owned Charles M. Collins & Co., plumbers, at Depot Square, and his wife
Helen R. (1920). In 1935, Margaret M. Callahan and Mary B. Griffin were identified as living here. Subsequent residents
included Mr. and Mrs. John F. Estle (1936); Lester P. Dutka, a molder of bronze castings, his wife Mary(both were born in
Hungary), and two children (1945, 1955); and Carl B. Ketchum, a student, and his wife Beverley(sic) (1965).
Continuation sheet I
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 7 SHIRLEY STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
2262
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913.
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://historicsurveV.Iexingtonma.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, 1940.
SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES
s
A.
Garage: Front(facade)elevation
Left side and front (facade) elevations
Continuation sheet 2