The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink Aboutwoodland-road_0035 FORM B BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 0 0 2171 MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 63/21 MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town/City: Lexington BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place: (neighborhood or village): Merriam Hill Photograph Address: 35 Woodland Road Historic Name: Uses: Present: residential ` Original: residential �► Date of Construction: ca. 1935-45 Source: town directories Style/Form: Colonial Revival cape Architect/Builder: unknown; possibly Royal Barry Wills - Exterior Material: Foundation: poured concrete Front (facade) and right elevations Wall/Trim: wood clapboards and trim Locus Map Roof- asphalt shingles Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: �\ A Attached garage s � � Major Alterations (with dates): Entry portico on garage, front appendage, rear ells, ° replacement windows (L 20th— E 21St c) 63-a2 N s *-2t 1� 14, Condition: very good 140 av -- Moved: no ❑ yes ❑ Date: ° U ¢ a a 5 Acreage: 0.27 o 7q - `35 Setting: Residential side street with houses set fairly close a.a°3 179 7q o to each other and to the street, most of similar period, scale, � d and style (early to mid 20th c Colonial Revival). 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 35 WOODLAND ROAD MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 0 2171 ❑ 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. 35 Woodland Road is located on a residential street in the Merriam Hill neighborhood; its neighbors to the right are closely space to each other and to the street, while those to the left occupy larger lots with greater setbacks at the front and sides. 35 Woodland is set well back from the street, and the lot slopes up significantly from front to back. The front and is mainly lawn, with a straight paved driveway at the right side and a slate stepping stone path from the street to the front door. A mature oak trees stands at the street edge; other landscaping is mainly foundation plantings. The building consists of a 1 '/2 story main block with a small ell at the front of the left side, an attached garage at the back right, and a string of small ells behind the garage. The rectangular main block rises from a poured concrete foundation to a side gambrel roof with a large interior chimney at the center. Walls are sheathed with wood clapboards and trimmed with flat cornice boards and fascia. Windows typically have 6/6 double-hung replacement sash and band moldings. The four-bay fagade contains a slightly off-center doorway framed with a narrow flat casing and accessed by granite steps; two windows are set to its left, one to its right. The right side elevation has two windows on each floor; sash are smaller in the half-story. A one-story side-gabled addition projects from the front of the left side of the house. Presently being re-sided, it is trimmed similarly to the main block and contains plywood sheathing with shallow vertical battens in its gable peaks. Two slightly asymmetrical 6/6 windows occupy its street fagade. The attached garage has a steep lean-to, side-gable roof, flush vertical boarding on the street fagade, and clapboards on its right side elevation. The garage fagade features an off-center entrance under a gable porch with wood posts and truss bracing, slender square posts and simple railings. It is flanked by a 6/6 window on the left and a one-car vehicle bay on the right. The right side of the garage has irregular fenestration. A series of small one-story appendages extend from the back of the garage. Well preserved and well maintained, the compact cottage at 35 Woodland Road is a representative example of modest yet skillfully designed early 20th century suburban housing in Lexington. It is distinguished by its gambrel roof shape, solid massing and fine proportions, asymmetrical fagade, large center chimney, and salt-box form garage. 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. 35 Woodland Road represents the later development of the north slope of Merriam Hill, which continued to attract middle-class professionals. In 1903, the land was surveyed and subdivided for house lots according to a plan prepared by civil engineers H. T.Whitman and Channing Howard. Woodland Road was then named St. Margaret Avenue and was lined with nearly identically sized lots, each with about 100 feet of street frontage and about 130 feet deep. On the 1906 map, however, this area was still part of the Hayes Estate, with buildings constructed only along the perimeter roads (Adams and Grant streets). The first known occupants of 35 Woodland Road, in 1945, were John H. Halfner, who was in the Navy, and his wife Dorothy J. Subsequent occupants include Merton S. Barrows, an architect, and his wife Alice M. (1955), and Douglas W. Bryant, a librarian, and his wife Rene K., a writer(1965). The design of the house is consistent with the work of Royal Barry Wills; further research is merited to determine the architect. Continuation sheet I INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 35 WOODLAND ROAD MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 0 2171 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. Middlesex Registry of Deeds, South District. "Plan of Oakmount Park, Lexington Mass. (Part A)". Recorded Jul 15, 1903, 145/3 (A of 2). SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES r Front fagade, detail Continuation sheet 2