HomeMy WebLinkAboutwoburn-street_0038-0040 AREA FORM N0. —1
FORM B - BUILDING F 303
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION
294 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MA 02108
r \
'n Lexington
Tress 38-40 Woburn Street
toric Name Locke-Callahan House
low
Present residential
Original residential
)ESCRIPTION:
:e c 1855
•iource 1876 map; stylistic analysis
SKETCH MAP
Show property's location in relation Style Double workers Cottage
to nearest cross streets and/or
geographical features. Indicate Architect
all buildings between inventoried
property and nearestt�.�'',ntersection. Exterior wall fabric clapboard
Indicate north. (n
��;;� Outbuildings
o �,z Major alterations (with dates)
n �
Moved Date
1
Approx. acreage 6812 ft.2
i
Recorded by Nancy S. Seasholes Setting Gable end facinq busy street;
Organization Lexington Historical Commission near other modest nineteenth century
Date April, 1984 houses.
(Staple additional sheets here)
.1%.
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICAINCE (Describe important architectural features and
evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community.)
See area form F.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE (Explain the role owners played in local or state
history and how the building relates to the development of the community.)
See area form F.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (name of publication, author, date and publisher)
10NI - 7/82
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Town Property Address
LEXINGTON 3 8-40 WOBURN STREET
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD 303
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
The double house at 38-40 Woburn Street is a variation on the workers cottage which is found throughout the Woburn
Street area. Like the cottages, each section is three bays long and one room deep with a center entrance on the side and a
narrow center chimney, but this house is one-and-a-half stories high in contrast to the one-and-a third story cottage. Also
this house is on a granite and fieldstone foundation, suggesting a construction date in the first half of the 19th century. It
is not, however, indicated on the 1852 map. A house with a similar,very narrow profile, although two stories high, is
located at 65 Woburn Street.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE:
A road from Lexington Center to Woburn has existed since the 17th century. In the early 19th century Woburn Street
began to develop as a locus of small cottages however the major development of the area seems to have occurred after
1855. By 1875 Woburn Street and the south side of Cottage Street were lined by small houses.
Beginning about 1855 but certainly by 1875,the vast majority of the residents in the Woburn Street area were Irish. Irish
immigrants had begun moving to Lexington in the 1850s to work as laborers on farms and in other occupations. Those
who could afford to rent or own.their own houses soon became concentrated in the Woburn Street area, a section known
as "Skunk Hollow". More research is needed to determine why the Irish settled along Woburn Street; perhaps it was
because this was already a working-class neighborhood and was also near the railway line.
For more detail see:
Seasholes,Nancy S. Area form(F)for Woburn Street, 1984.