HomeMy WebLinkAboutarea-vFORM A - AREA
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION
294 Washington Street, Boston, MA. 02108
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Form numbers in this area Area letter
573 v
Lexington
)f area (if any) Ricci's Lane
L1 date or period seventeenth-
.ieth century
Sketch map. Draw a general map of the area indicating properties within it.
Number each property for which individual inventory forms have been completed.
Label streets (including route numbers, if any) and indicate north. (Attach a
separate sheet if space here is not sufficient)
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Recorded by Nancy S. seasholes
Organization Lexinqton Historical Commissio?
Date February, 1984
(Staple additional sheets here)
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE of area.(Describe physical setting, general character,
and architecturally significant structures).
Part of the road from Lexington to Boston in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, Ricci's Lane is no longer maintained as a road and most of it is
overgrown or obliterated. Certain areas, however, particularly the first section
running northeast from Waltham and the next section running northwest (see sketch
map), preserve the historic character of a roadbed about two rods wide bordered
on either side by stone walls. In addition, the area through which the road now
runs is distinctly rural, just as it has always been, though with less open
farmland than in the ast. Foundations remain of two historic houses associated
with Ricci's Lane: theeennett /Mayer house at the intersection of Ricci's Lane and
Bow Street and the Stearns/Smith/Doe house on the eastern extension of Ricci's
Lane near the intersection with a road, also still discernible, that comes down
from Walnut Street (see archaeological forms for these sites).
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE of area. (Explain development of area, what caused it,
and how it affected community; be specific).
Ricci's Lane has been in existence since the seventeenth century and
reflects the fact that South Lexington was the first area of the town to be settled.
Ricci's Lane was laid out in 1660 as part of a road to connect Lexington, then part
of Cambridge, to Boston. Until the end of the eighteenth century, a main route
from Lexington to Boston went through what is now Waltham and Ricci's Lane was the
.connecting link between this route and two major road systems. One came from
Bedford and in Lexington followed present Grove Street, Hancock Street, Waltham
Street, Marrett Road (east), Stedman Road, Allen Street, Blossomcrest Street (going
west; formerly Blossom Street which, until the -mid 1960s, entered Waltham Street
approximately where Piper Road does today), Waltham Street, Ricci's Lane, Bow
Street in Waltham, and Trapelo Road. The other major road came from Concord and
Lincoln. It entered Lexington on Mill Street (not shown on Lexington street maps
after 1967), then went down Lincoln Street, jogged on Weston Street to Shade Street,
then ran on Old Shade Street (now not maintained and the eastern end cut off by W.R.
Grace property and Route 2), Cutler's Lane (present Old Shade Street on south side
of Route 2), back and forth across the present Concord Avenue, down a no longer
existing driveway at the corner of Concord Avenue and Waltham Street, on Waltham
Street, Ricci's Lane, Bow Street, and Trapelo Road.
In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, bridges were built
across the Charles directly to the Boston peninsula, thus permitting roads to
bypass routes, such as the one from Waltham, that approached the city across Boston
Neck. Ricci's Lane thus became less important as a route to Boston, though it
continued to be one of the main roads between Lexington and Waltham until Waltham
(see Continuation Sheet)
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Worthen, Edwin B. 1946. A Calendar History of Lexington, Massachusetts, 1620-1946,
pp. 20, 23, 43-45. Lexington, Massachusetts: Lexington Savings Bank.
1830 map
1852 map
1876 map
1889 map
(see Continuation Sheet)
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INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET
MASSACHUSETTS HI STORI CAL CCMI SS ION
Office of the Secretary, Boston
Commmity :
LexingtonV
Form No:
Property Name: Ricci Is Lane
Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Street south of Marrett Road was laid out sometime between 1830 and 1852.
Thereafter, Ricci's Lane continued as a county road and was shown on maps throughout
the nineteenth century and on Lexington street maps through 1955. As recently as
ten years ago the road was described as a "pleasant country lane" (Gere Frick,
personal communication). Today, however, the continued existence of this historic
road in Lexington is threatened by recent bulldozing and dumping. The Waltham
section, along Bow Street, is in relatively good condition, however, perhaps because
the south end of Bow Street is still an accepted street.
BIBLIOGRAPHY" and/or REFERENCES
1906 map
1937 map
1955 map
1961 map
1964 map
Staple to Inventory form at bottom