HomeMy WebLinkAboutwebb-street_0020 FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
0 0 2281
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 47/91
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village):
Photograph
Address: 20 Webb Street
Historic Name:
y 3
µ'`ms Uses: Present: residential
'c:h Original: residential
a " Date of Construction: ca. 1918-20
Source: historic maps, town directories
Style/Form: Tudor Revival
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: fieldstone, concrete block
Left side and front (facade) elevations Wall/Trim: stucco, brick veneer, wood clapboards
Locus Map Roof- asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
None
ti •,� ti Major Alterations (with dates):
} �' Brick veneer?, porch posts and railing, brick steps,
a.. 4 ° fenestration, additions (L 20th c)
7-ag '� n _ Condition: good
47-1 Moved: no ❑ yes ❑ Date:
--- Acreage: 0.11
. 1 Setting: Residential side street off Woburn Street, with
Colonial capes transitioning to homogeneous mid to L 20tH
century garrison colonials. Houses set close together with
consistent setbacks from street. Mature street trees.
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 20 WEBB STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
2281
❑ 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.
20 Webb Street is located on a small flat lot on the west side of Webb Street, near its intersection with Woburn Street. The
building has a moderate setback from the street, and the lot is occupied mainly by lawn, with a two-car wide paved parking area
at the northeast corner. Trees are scattered through the back of the property.
The 1'/2 story, rectangular main block has a 1'/2 story addition along its north (right side) elevation, a 1 story rear wing to the
west, and a small wood deck in the northwest corner between the side addition and rear wing. The front gabled main block is
clad with stucco and brick veneer on its fagade (east) elevation and clapboard on its south (side) elevation. The side and rear
additions are sheathed with wood clapboards. Plain narrow corner boards frame the walls, and flat fascia boards trim the roof
edges. A brick chimney rises along the exterior of the south side wall, and a concrete block chimney rises from the exterior of
the back wall of the rear wing. Fenestration is heterogeneous in size, type, and trim and irregular in arrangement.
The fagade of the main block is faced with clinker-type brick on the first floor and half-timbered stucco on the half story. A
narrow one-story porch with a hip roof wraps around the fagade and part of the south side, projecting in a cross-gable at the
offset entry vestibule. The porch includes turned posts, square vertical balusters, and brick steps with bluestone treads. The
cross gable at the entry contains half-timbering; a single-leaf door in a modern Victorian revival style is offset in the vestibule.
Flanking the vestibule is a modern angled bay window; a modern, shallow rectangular bay window is centered in the half story.
The left side elevation appears blank; it contains a small shed-roofed projection that terminates the wrap-around porch. The
right side addition has a side gable with a saltbox form. Centered on its street (front)fagade is a large tri-partite window unit with
a high semi-circular fanlight and radiating clapboards from the fanlight to the eave. Its asymmetrical right side elevation contains
a triplet of casement windows on the first floor and a small pair of casements in the half story towards the back. The one-story
gabled rear wing is barely visible from the street. Observable were a low-pitched gable roof, irregular fenestration, and a wood
deck at the corner with the front addition.
20 Webb Street is distinctive as an example of the locally distinctive Tudor Revival style, employed on a modest cottage.
Although considerably altered by additions, modern cladding materials, and new windows, it is notable for its surviving half-
timbering and front porch and for its early 201h century origins on a street now characterized by repetitive mid-201h century
housing.
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.
Woburn Street was an early thoroughfare, established in the 17th century as one of the radial roads from Lexington's town
center. Large farms were established along nearby Vine Brook by the mid 17th century, and commercial dairy and produce
farms arose along early highways throughout outlying areas of town in the 19th century. Webb Street appears to have been laid
out between 1918 and 1927. In the latter year, it is depicted as extending approximately its current length, providing access to
Young Street and its inchoate grid of cross streets, likely intended for new suburban development. L. M. Webb was one of the
farmers identified as owning property in this general area in 1906.
The first known residents at this address are thought to be Charles E. Moloy, who worked as a farm laborer, teamster, and later
a janitor, and his wife Ellen M. in 1920. Remaining in this house through at least 1955, the family consisted of Charles, Ellen,
Continuation sheet I
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 20 WEBB STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
2281
and four children, one of whom was still living here in 1945 (Charles E. Jr., a store clerk). Subsequent residents include J.
Joseph Harrington, a programmer, and his wife Annette R. 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 Historical Society. Webb Street folder in Whipple Collection.
Lexington List of Persons: 1935, 1945, 1955, 1965.
Massachusetts Historical Commission. "MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Lexington." 1980.
U. S. Census: 1920, 1930.
SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES
- - -- - - � If■11 M
r
Front (facade)and right side elevations Assessors' photograph: Front facade
Continuation sheet 2