HomeMy WebLinkAboutvine-street_0132 FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
0 0 2278
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 47/46
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village):
Photograph
Address: 132 Vine Street
Historic Name:
4 Uses: Present: residential
l Original: residential
Date of Construction: ca. 1906-18
- Source: assessors; visual observation
Style/Form: Craftsman/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:
ONI�
None
�~ -L./,%,447-458 I' \
47-47 Major Alterations (with dates):
°'°& Casement windows on side elevation, front steps (L 20th c)
! 47-4a
47 3gc Condition: very good
47-5C Moved: no E] yes F] Date:
5A x 47-398 47-39A Acreage: 0.34
4 -37 . Setting: Narrow, winding residential road with a great
`, — diversityof buildingscale, form, period, and style; irregular
(( C 1s building setbacks and orientations. Conservation land
;,4 abuts the back of this property; large L 20th-E 21St c
suburban houses are prominent at this end of Vine 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 132 VINE STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
2278
❑ 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.
132 Vine Street occupies a long narrow lot near the intersection of Vine and Woburn streets. The land slopes down gently
beyond the front wall of the building, and the yard is maintained mostly in lawn with foundation plantings. Front and side
setbacks are moderate, with a deep back yard. A gravel driveway extends along the left side of the house, and a straight
stepping stone path leads from the street to the front entrance.
The two by four bay rectangular block rises 2 '/2 stories from a fieldstone foundation with deeply recessed joints to a hip roof.
Two chimneys are set along the ridge of the roof. Walls are clad mostly with wood clapboards and trimmed with flat corner
boards. Windows typically have 6/1 double hung sash with plain flat casings. Sheathed completely with clapboards, the facade
has a shallow, two-story angled bay window on its right end and a slightly off-center entrance. The entrance consists of an
original or early single-leaf door(with wood and glass panels)framed by flat pilasters and a plain entablature; it is accessed by
wood steps and railings with square balusters. A low shed-roofed dormer on the front roof slope contains paired, six-light
awning windows.
On each of the side elevations, the second story flares out slightly at its base and is clad with wood shingles below the second
story window sills. The right side elevation features three asymmetrically placed windows towards the front end of the wall and
grouped casement windows towards the back. The left side elevation has four asymmetrically set double-hung windows on
each floor. The exposed basement at the back of the left side of the building contains awning windows towards the front of the
building and a short, flush panel door towards the back.
Well-preserved and well-maintained, 132 Vine Street is a good example of relatively modest, early 20th century middle-class
housing in Lexington, and represents an uncommon use of a two-family building type outside of the village center. Notable
features include the single-family appearance of the composition, the rustic stonework of its foundation, two-story bay window on
the fagade, and the simply but classically framed main entrance.
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.
One of the earliest roads in Lexington, Vine Street was established as part of the route between Lexington and Woburn in the
17th century. It formed the southwesterly end of this road until 1833, when the old highway was widened and straightened to
meet Massachusetts Avenue. Vine Street was sparsely settled through the 19th century; suburban infill developed gradually
through the 20th century.
132 Vine Street appears to have been built as a two-family house, perhaps anticipating denser suburban development that did
not materialize in this area. At the turn of the 20th century, the property on which this building stands was owned by Daniel
Buckley, most likely a farmer, but the present house is not indicated on the maps of that period. The first known occupants at
the present house, in 1920, included John E. Kelley, who worked as a mason and as a janitor at town hall, and his wife Mary J.
(who were here by 1918), and also Fred W. Given, who was described as a weigher for a grain company and as a laborer, and
his wife Charlotte E. In 1936, the house was occupied by Samuel T.Watson, a carpenter, and his wife Eva G., along with Clifton
R. Price, a manager, and his wife Evelyn M.
Continuation sheet I
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 132 VINE STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
2278
In 1945 and 1955, the DeLay family—including Joseph L., a sandblaster, and his wife Grace M.—and the Gilson family—
Malcolm, who worked in advertising, and his wife Elva—were living here. Subsequent residents included Dennis M. Riley and
his wife Deborah D., and Howard C. Cobb, a teller, and his wife Ann E. in 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, 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, 1930.
Worthen, Edwin B. Tracing the Past in Lexington, Massachusetts. New York: Vantage Press, 1998.
SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES
•1; 41"11-
Left
111-
Left side and front (facade) elevations
Continuation sheet 2