The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink Abouttheresa-avenue_0015 FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 0 0 2270 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 20/151 MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Lexington BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village): Photograph Address: 15 Theresa Avenue Historic Name: Uses: Present: residential Original: residential !� Date of Construction: ca. 1910-27 N Source: historic maps, style Style/Form: Colonial Revival Architect/Builder: Exterior Material: Foundation: fieldstone West(left side)and south (facade)elevation Wall/Trim: wood clapboards and trim Locus Map Roof- asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: 14. None 8.266 Major Alterations with dates +' ■ �$' '"•� 20- 4 B Remodeled front porch and siding at front entry bay(L 20tH 2,100 20-14 C) ' ea .t, 2,100 • . ° 'S Condition: good 1 , 20-149 Moved: no ❑ yes ❑ Date: ao• i 21' 9.400 w Acreage: 0.10 Setting: Located on a residential side street, near corner of 4411 1 Cliffe Avenue. Densely built, hillside neighborhood contains 6a , heterogeneous buildings of similar scale and predominantly 13 3BB 8.100 $ •, �y' 4 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 15 THERESA AVENUE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2270 ❑ 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. 15 Theresa Avenue occupies a small, level lot that is lined with a low hedge and occupied by shrubs, scattered trees, and street trees. The two-family building is offset towards the west side of its parcel, with a paved driveway on either side of the front yard. A concrete walkway leads from the street to the front entrance. The long, rectangular building rises 2 '/2 stories from a fieldstone foundation to a high front-gambrel roof with a center chimney. Walls are clad with wood clapboard and trimmed with narrow corner boards and a wide flat fascia. Windows typically have 6/1 double hung sash with band molding. The two-bay wide front facade (south elevation) contains a two-story high, angled bay window on the eastern half, with a single 6/1 window on each face of each floor. The western half of the elevation is spanned by a two-story porch supported by slim square posts and ringed by a wood balustrade on the first and second floor decks. A wood stairway accesses this porch. Vertical board siding clads the walls of the entry bay on both floors; the second story deck is uncovered. Behind the porch, the first story contains a single leaf door; above is a sliding patio door with a square Queen Anne window on the left. A pedimented gambrel end is formed by a narrow, flared roof skirt connecting the front corners of the roof. Within the half story is a pair of closely spaced 6/1 windows. The east (right side) elevation contains a two-story high, angled bay window in the center, with three 6/1 windows at each story. The rear bay of this elevation has, on both floors, a tripartite window with a center picture window flanked by a 1/1 window on each side. A hip roofed dormer, centered on the roof, contains a single casement window. A two-story wood staircase on the rear elevation is visible from the east side of the building. The west(left side) elevation has three bays, each floor featuring paired 6/1 windows towards the front of the building, a small awning window in the center bay, and a single casement window towards the back. Well preserved and well maintained, 15 Theresa Avenue is a simple but handsome example of early 20th century suburban housing in Lexington. Notable features of the house include its straightforward massing, two-story high bay windows, and voluminous, pedimented front-gambrel roof. 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, at which time it encompassed a substantial farmhouse and greenhouse and two other large outbuildings. Continuation sheet I INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 15 THERESA AVENUE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2270 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. Theresa Avenue was laid out by 1922, when there were only three houses on the street, all unnumbered. Based on its style, 15 Theresa Avenue might have been one of these. The households on the street in 1922 included John A. Murray, a traveling salesman, and his wife Rose M.; Wensley Barker, a manager, and his wife Christine; and James Irwin, Jr., a carpenter, and his wife Mary. 15 Theresa Avenue is first depicted on the Sanborn maps in 1927. Its large lot in that year contained the land on which 11 Theresa Street now stands. Due to inconsistencies in the street numbering between the Sanborn maps and the town directories, the residents 15 Theresa Street in 1935 are uncertain at present. In 1945, this house was occupied by James L. Beaudreau, a painter, his wife Mae A., and Edward F. McBarron, serving in the Navy, and his wife E. Lorraine, a bookkeeper. Subsequent residents included William H. McAlduff, a meat cutter, his wife Eileen G. (1955 and 1965), and Frank J. Longleway, a truck driver, his wife Cecilia, and their son Frank Jr.,who was serving in the Marines (1965). 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.lexingtonma.gov/index.htm Accessed Jul 23, 2015. Lexington Directories: 1899, 1908-09, 1915, 1922, 1926, 1930, 1934, 1936, 1942. Lexington List of Persons: 1935, 1945, 1955, 1965. Massachusetts Historical Commission. "MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Lexington." 1980. . Form A– Liberty Heights, LEX.Q. Prepared by Anne Grady and Nancy Seasholes, 1984 and 2001. SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES South (fagade) elevation Continuation sheet 2