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Home My WebLink Abouttheresa-avenue_0030 FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 0 0 2274 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 13/398 MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Lexington BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village): Photograph Address: 30 Theresa Avenue Historic Name: Uses: Present: residential _ Original: residential 1 � Date of Construction: ca. 1915-26 Source: town directories, style Style/Form: No Style Architect/Builder: WER Exterior Material: Foundation: concrete North (facade)and west (right side) elevations Wall/Trim: wood shingles and trim Locus Map Roof- asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: ga N V ' Major Alterations (with dates): 7i548 ` y Replacement sash L 20th— E 21St c 2s s eo 21-, p ( ) 13- 4. 4 Condition: good Moved: no ❑ yes ❑ Date: s 100 Acreage: 0.20 4 Setting: Located near the base of Hillcrest Avenue. Densely built, hillside neighborhood contains heterogeneous buildings of similar 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 30 THERESA AVENUE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2274 ❑ 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. 30 Theresa Avenue occupies a flat, trapezoidal lot at the intersection of Hillcrest and Theresa avenues. Maintained chiefly in lawn, the yard has moderate front and side setbacks that contain foundation plantings, scattered shrubs and trees, and short segments of hedges. A low fieldstone retaining wall borders the gently sloping paved driveway at the west side of the parcel. A concrete walkway leads to the front entrance. The building consists of a 2 '/2 story main block with small front and rear appendages. The small, rectangular house rises from a concrete foundation to a front gable roof with no returns. Walls are clad with wood shingles. Windows typically have 6/1 or 4/1 double hung replacement sash with band molding. The front fagade (north elevation) contains a narrow one-story projection with a hip roof across most of the first floor. The eastern portion of this projection contains a tripartite window unit with a large square picture window in the center; a single-leaf door with a cross gabled pediment, brick steps, and wrought iron railing is offset on the western end. Two 6/1 windows are asymmetrically placed in the second story of the fagade, surmounted by a horizontal six-light windows centered in the half-story. The east (left side) elevation contains a triplet of windows and a set of paired windows on the first floor and two widely-spaced single windows at the second story. The west (right side) elevation has a small horizontal window at an intermediary floor level towards the front of the building, a pair of casement windows towards the rear of the first floor, and two 6/1 windows of varied heights at the second floor. A one-story addition across the rear elevation has a single-leaf doorway on the west(right) side. Well maintained and presumably largely intact, 30 Theresa Avenue is a very plain, nondescript example of early 20th century suburban housing in Lexington. 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. 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. Continuation sheet I INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 30 THERESA AVENUE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2274 Theresa Avenue was laid out by 1922, when there were only three houses on the street, all unnumbered. Based on its style, 30 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. 30 Theresa Avenue is first depicted on the Sanborn maps in 1927, when it appears with a one-story accessory building, likely a (non-extant) garage, which was set at an angle to the street, parallel to the west property line. The first known residents of 30 Theresa Avenue were Francis A. (Frank)Anderson and his wife Gladys F., who moved here from Arlington between 1923 and 1926. In 1930, Francis and Gladys lived here with their two young sons and Francis's septuagenarian uncle, Francis H. Andrews. Francis Anderson was born in Canada; his employment while living in this house was described as dairy foreman in a milk business, milkman, and milk dealer. From at least 1945 through 1955, 30 Theresa Avenue was occupied by Albert E. Bertini, employed as a foreman and later a truckman, and his wife Lillian. By 1965, Pasquale Tramontozzi, a teacher, and his wife Grace B., a secretary, were living here. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Arlington Directories: 1923. 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, 1922, 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. Somerville Directories: 1927. U.S. Census: 1920, 1930, 1940. SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES North (facade)elevation Continuation sheet 2