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Home My WebLink Aboutarea-at-orig Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form. FORM A - AREA MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Photograph Assessor’s Sheets USGS Quad Area Letter Form Numbers in Area 47 Boston North Town: Lexington Place (neighborhood or village): Name of Area: Utica Street Present Use: residential Construction Dates or Period: late 19th to early 20th c. Overall Condition: fair to good Major Intrusions and Alterations: Acreage: less than 10 acres Recorded by: Lisa Mausolf Organization: Lexington Historical Commission Date (month/year): Jan. 2010 Topographic or Assessor's Map ___ see continuation sheet INVENTORY FORM A CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON UTICA STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area Letter Form Nos. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 ___ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION Describe architectural, structural and landscape features and evaluate in terms of other areas within the community. The wood-frame homes on Utica Street are set on small lots and include variations on workers cottages visible in the adjacent Woburn Street neighborhood (see Area F). All of the houses are modest, wood-frame dwellings with little or no decorative ornament. Two of the houses (6 and 10 Utica Street) are two stories high with 3 x 1-bay massings and oriented with their side gables to the street and their entrances in the center of the broad (south) elevation. The house at 10 Utica Street is the better preserved of the two but both have been added onto several times including a two-story section from the west end of the south façade. The house at 12 Utica Street has a similar form but is oriented with its broad side to the street. Located at the northeast corner of Woburn Street and Utica Street, 1 Utica Street is a 2 !-story, 3 x 2-bay dwelling which is set on a mortared stone foundation. It retains its basic form as well as exterior finishes such as cornice returns (its front porch was recently removed). The house at 15 Utica Street is a 1 !-story, side-gabled cottage with a high kneewall area above the first floor façade windows. It has seen several additions over the years. Three of the houses, 11, 14 and 19 Utica Street, are 2 !-story gablefront dwellings. The houses at 11 and 19 Utica Street have decorative shinglework in their front gables. Nearly all of the buildings on the street have seen alterations including siding and additions. Collectively, the streetscape still conveys its 19th century origins. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE Explain historical development of the area. Discuss how this relates to the historical development of the community. Utica Street was laid out in the late 19th century, part of the working class Woburn Street neighborhood (see Area F – Woburn Street). Utica Street is not depicted on the 1875 map but probably took shape soon thereafter. It appears to have been laid out by the time of the 1889 map and is labeled on the 1898 map although there are only one or two houses, located on the east side of the street. By 1906 Utica Street was lined by approximately eight dwellings. Most of the original residents of Utica Street were Irish immigrants or second generation immigrants. Irish immigrants had first moved to Lexington in the 1850s to work as laborers on farms and in other occupations. By 1875, the vast majority of the residents in the Woburn Street area were Irish. This trend continued for several decades. In 1894 neighborhood residents included Bridget Kelleher, widow of Patrick, who lived at the corner of Woburn Street and Utica Street; John Devine, a sexton, who lived at 10 Utica; Thomas Harrison, a milk dealer; David Hennessey, a farmer, and Edward O’Connor of 11 Utica Street, a day laborer. Edward O’Connor was a long-term resident of Utica Street and owned two buildings. He had immigrated from Ireland about 1885. He and his wife Bridget had nine children and lived here into the 1940s. In 1920 residents of Utica Street included Frank Hart, plumber (#2); Patrick Broderick, laborer at a nursery company (#6); Terrence McDonnell, production clerk at a pipe fitting business (#12); Patrick Cronin, caretaker at a private estate (#14); Andrew Palasky, a Hungarian cabinetmaker (#19); Thomas Leyland, auto mechanic (#15); Edward O’Connor, gardener at a private estate (#11) and Martin Casey, also a gardener (#9). Five of these heads of house were Irish or of Irish descent. Terrence McDonnell was married to a Portuguese woman and his household included a number of Portuguese in-laws. By the time of the 1930 Census, the number of Irish residents in the neighborhood had decreased even more. Another trend which is evidenced in Utica Street’s development is the tendency to relocate buildings here from other parts of town. This is evidenced in numerous buildings along Woburn Street and at least two in this neighborhood. The house at 9 Utica Street was moved from next to St. Brigid’s Church in the late 19th or early 20th century. The house at the northwest corner of Woburn Street and Utica Street – 132 Woburn Street – was moved to its present site from east side of Massachusetts Avenue, near Marrett Road, between 1898 and 1906. (On Nov. 3, 1899 the Minute-man reported that Thomas McCarthy had moved the Ham House to Utica Street – it is not clear how this relates to the other two examples). INVENTORY FORM A CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON UTICA STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area Letter Form Nos. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington. Cambridge: The Riverside Press Co., 1913, vol. 2. Middlesex South Registry of Deeds, Cambridge, Mass. Seasholes, Nancy. Area form for Woburn Street (Area F), April 1984. Town Directories. U.S. Census, various years. 1875, 1889, 1898, 1906 maps. INVENTORY FORM A CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON UTICA STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area Letter Form Nos. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 3 Utica Street Neighborhood Data Sheet MHC # Name Address Date Comments 335 Cutler-Kenison-O’Connor House 132 Woburn Street c.1860 Moved here betw. 1898 & 1906 James McCarthy House 1 Utica Street c.1880 McCarthy House 3-5 Utica Street c.1880 Haley-Broderick House 6 Utica Street c.1880 (by 1898) Keefe-Rycroft House 9 Utica Street c.1860 Moved here from Mass. Ave., near Marrett Road, before 1906 Devine House 10 Utica Street c.1880 Edward O’Connor House 11 Utica Street c.1880 (by 1894) O’Connell-Shannon House 12 Utica Street c.1880 Albion-Cronin House 14 Utica Street After 1906 (c.1910) Edward O’Connor House 15 Utica Street c.1880 Palasy House 19 Utica Street After 1906 (c.1910) INVENTORY FORM A CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON UTICA STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area Letter Form Nos. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 4 19 Utica Street 14 Utica Street INVENTORY FORM A CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON UTICA STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area Letter Form Nos. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 5 11 & 12 Utica Street 15 & 11 Utica Street INVENTORY FORM A CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON UTICA STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area Letter Form Nos. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 6 3-5 Utica Street 9 Utica Street INVENTORY FORM A CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON UTICA STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area Letter Form Nos. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 7 1 Utica Street 132 Woburn Street