HomeMy WebLinkAboutwoodland-road_0032 FORM B - BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 63/128 Boston �H 2170
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING North
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Town/City: Lexington
Photo raph Place: (neighborhood or village): Merriam Hill area
* R� Address: 32 Woodland Rd.
Historic Name: Ada Govan House
Uses: Present: Residential
-- Original: Residential
m Date of Construction: 1930
Source: Assessors Records
mStyle/Form: Colonial Revival
Architect/Builder: Unknown
Exterior Material:
Foundation: Cement
Wall/Trim: Wooden clapboards and trim
Locus Map Roof: Asphalt shingles
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
4
s Major Alterations(with dates):
Rear ell added in 2005
28 Condition:
^ .100
Moved: no ® yes ❑ Date:
Acreage: 0.25 acres
b � F
L�
Setting: Neighborhood of early 20th century houses with
some recent replacements.
�s
Recorded by: Anne Grady
Organization: Lexington Historical Society
Date(month/year): July 2015
12/12 Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET TOWN ADDRESS
LEXINGTON 32 WOODLAND RD.
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
H� 2170
❑ 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.
The Ada Govan House was built in 1930 as a center-entrance Colonial Revival dwelling, one of many such houses built in
Lexington in the early to mid 20th century. The front portion, five bays wide and 2 1/2 stories high under a gable roof, began as a
saltbox structure. The house is sheathed with shingles above a cement foundation. The roof is covered with asphalt shingles. A
single chimney is placed at the southeast end of the roof at the ridge. Symmetrical fenestration on the facade is of 6/6 double
hung windows with simple frames. There is an enclosed entrance porch with a doorway that is surmounted by a closed
pediment. The paneled door includes a semicircular window at the top. Half-height sidelights flank the door. A single story porch,
originally open but now enclosed, is found on the southeast side of the building. On the northwest side is a two-sided bay
window on the first level. The side walls have a single semicircular louvered opening at the attic level.
A rear ell with hip roof spanning the northwestern two thirds of the building that was built in 2005. The ell includes an
underground garage and an attached deck. Solar panels now cover the lower two thirds of the front of the roof.
A brick walk leads to the front door, A driveway extends along the southeast side of the lot. The house is surrounded by
shrubbery and backed by the trees of the Ada Govan Bird Sanctuary
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.
In 1929 Ada Clapham Govan and her husband David, a wool broker, purchased the property identified as Lot 5 in the Plan of the
Oakmount Park subdivision of 1903 on what was originally called St. Margaret Avenue.
In the early years in the house Mrs. Govan was despondent over the deaths three young daughters and was bedridden from
injuries. As described in her best selling book, Wings at My Window(Macmillan Co., 1940), her life changed when a bird landed
on her windowsill during a snowstorm. From that experience grew her avid interest in birds and bird banding. Her bird feeding
attracted as many as 600 birds to her yard at once. She was able to band and keep track of the many bird species that visited
her yard over the years. She wrote about birds for the Boston Globe under the nom de plume, "Of Thee I Sing" and for the
nationally distributed Nature Magazine. She also became one of the leading bird banders in the country. In the mid 1930s a next
door neighbor, who owned 7.2 acre woodland behind the Govan's backyard, began to cut the trees for a subdivision. Mrs.
Govan, alarmed that the birds that visited her yard would loose their wooded habitat, convinced the neighbor to stop cutting
temporarily. She was able to lease the property for a year, using the money that she and her husband had saved to pay their
taxes. Mrs. Govan then began a campaign to raise funds to purchase the property from her readers at Nature Magazine. In the
end she raised $8,000 to secure the land for a bird sanctuary. In 1937, the property became the Woodland Bird Sanctuary,
administered by a private trust with family members and neighbors as trustees. The Trust continued to oversee the sanctuary
after Mrs. Govan death in 1964. In1989, however, the Town of Lexington assumed ownership as conservation land with the
understanding that access to the sanctuary would continue to be limited, with educational and scientific investigations being only
allowable use. The woodland was renamed the Ada Govan Bird Sanctuary. Today the Sanctuary serves as a natural buffer to
surrounding development and the Fiske School. For birds of prey that hunt in the Ciesa Farm fields, it provides a secure habitat,
according to David Williams of the Lexington Conservation Commission,
The house remained in the Govan family until 1960. Robert and Sally Scott owned the property from the property froml965 to
1997. Mrs. Scott was active in the Lexington Historical Society.
Continuation sheet I
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET TOWN ADDRESS
LEXINGTON 32 WOODLAND RD.
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
2170
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
"Bird Sanctuary is on Town Meeting Agenda." Lexington Minute Man. April 6, 1989.
Govan, Ada. Wings at My Window. New York: Macmillan Co.: 1940.
Lexington Assessors records.
Obituary, Ada C. Govan. Lexington Minute Man. April 16, 1964.
South Middlesex County Registry of Deeds. Plan Bk. 145, Plan 3; Bk. 10852, P. 129.
Continuation sheet 2