HomeMy WebLinkAboutvine-brook-road_0015 FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 48/75A 0 0 2279
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Place: (neighborhood or village):
Photograph
Address: 15 Vine Brook Road
Historic Name:
d
Uses: Present: residential
Original: residential
�. : Date of Construction: ca. 1906-22
Source: historic maps, town directories
i11 Sty le/Form: Colonial Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: fieldstone
Front(facade)and right side elevations Wall/Trim: wood clapboards and trim
Locus Map Roof: asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
None
Major Alterations (with dates):
4 Fagade bay window, replacement window sash, rear
additions (L 20th— E 21St c), entry portico (E 21St c)
•. Condition: excellent
Moved: no ❑ yes ❑ Date:
e Acreage: 0.31
4
Setting: Residential side street connectin
• .. g 9 Waltham Street
and Winthrop Road, one block from (and parallel to) Mass.
Ave. Typically small to medium scale houses of similar age,
style, and form, close) spaced and with similar front
Y Y p
setbacks.
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 is VINE BROOK RD.
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
2279
❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
ff checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statementform.
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 Vine Brook Road occupies a small but relatively deep lot, with narrow side setbacks and a modest setback from the street.
Maintained chiefly in lawn, the front yard is flat, and the land slopes down gently towards the back of the site. Foundation
plantings, low hedges at the side property lines, and scattered small trees characterize the landscaping. A straight paved
driveway extends down the left side of the house, while a brick-paved walk leads from the street to the front entrance. The
building consists of a 2 story main block and a 1 '/2 story rear addition.
The three by two bay main block rises from a raised basement to a side gambrel roof with no gambrel returns. The fieldstone
foundation has deeply recessed joints. A long shed dormer extends nearly the full length of the facade. An exterior chimney
rises along the right side elevation, and an off-center interior chimney rises from the back slope of the roof. Another exterior
chimney is centered on the back wall of the rear addition. Walls are sheathed with wood clapboards and trimmed with plain sill
boards and corner boards. Windows are typically 6/1 double hung replacement sash with narrow band molding. Louvered wood
shutters are mounted on hinges and secured with S-shaped catches.
The gabled and pedimented roof of a tall, narrow entry portico (a later addition) is supported on slender Tuscan posts; it is
centered between paired windows to the left and a shallow, modern bay window to the right. In the dormer, a small center
window is flanked by paired windows to each side. The front portico is accessed by fieldstone steps that have slate treads and
wood railings with square balusters.
The left side elevation of the main block contains a shallow rectangular projection with a single window towards the front and a
pair of casement windows towards the back of the first floor, and two widely spaced windows above. The right side elevation of
the main block has a center exterior chimney flanked by one window on each side on each floor.
The rear addition extends across nearly the full width of the main block, with a gambrel roof surmounted by nearly full-length
shed dormers on each side. Visible windows are mostly single. The fully exposed basement at the left side of the addition
contains an offset entrance with a single-leaf door and a bracketed and pedimented hood. Spanning the back of the addition is
a flat roofed porch with square posts and square balusters at the railings on both the first and second floor.
15 Vine Brook Road is a typical, well-crafted example of early 20th century suburban housing in Lexington. It is notable for its
comfortable proportions, uncommon gambrel roof, window shutters, and the rustic stonework of its foundation.
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.
15 Vine Brook Road represents the early period of suburbanization in Lexington, in which infill development responded to the
arrival of street railway service along Massachusetts in the first decade of the 20th century. Vine Brook Road appears to have
been laid out, and development initiated, between 1906 and 1918. The street traversed previously open land through which the
eponymous Vine Brook runs before it crosses Massachusetts Avenue. The 1922 directory indicates only three buildings on the
whole of Vine Brook Road. By 1935, the entire north (Massachusetts Ave.) side of the road and the south half nearest to
Waltham Street were developed.
Continuation sheet I
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 15 VINE BROOK RD.
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
2279
The earliest known residents at this address were Wesley T.Wadman, a Canadian-born carpenter and builder, his wife Nellie B.,
and a boarder, Maurice B. Soper, who was employed as a clerk (1922). By 1930 and at least through 1945, the house was
occupied by James A. Nickerson, a Canadian-born real estate broker, and his wife Florence. In 1940 the Nickersons had two
lodgers, one of whom, Forrest Knapp, was a police officer. Subsequent residents included Guy S. Chace, a salesman, his wife
Belle P., and Virginia Chace (presumably their daughter), a secretary(1955). The Chace family was followed by Roland Uhrig,
identified as an adminstrator, and his wife Judith (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 Summaries. http://historicsurvey.lexingtonma.gov/index.htm
Accessed Jul 23, 2015.
Lexington Directories: 1899, 1906, 1908-09, 1918, 1922, 1926, 1930, 1934, 1936.
Lexington List of Persons: 1935, 1945, 1955, 1965.
Massachusetts Historical Commission. "MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Lexington." 1980.
U. S. Census: 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940.
SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES
r� E�
Left side and front(facade) elevations
Continuation sheet 2