FORM. A ~AREA Assessor's Sheets USGS Quad Area Letter Form Numbers in Area

Massachusetts Historical Commission80 Boylston StreetBoston, Massachusetts 02116 P~D ~ ~/t-J~0tlV1 ~

55, 56 I Marlborough I 1 W 7_48_-_76_S _

Town Marlborough

Place (neighborhood or village)

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Maplewood Area

residential

Construction Dates or Period ca. 1870 toearly 20th c.

fair to good

" ·Major Intrusions and Alterations some visible

alterations: a few mid- to late-20th C. houses

· Acreage ca. 20 acres

...~:""': Recorded byw·· I

Anne Forbes, consultant

· Organization Marlborough Historical Comm.

•Date (month/day/year) 4/1/95

Streets included":

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SEE ATIACHED SHEET

Kirby StreetMaplewood AvenueMountain AvenuePleasant Street, #s 273, 275, 281Preston StreetRussell Street

*boundaries include entire street, unlessotherwise noted

Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Swwy Manual instructions for completing this form

AREA FORM

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION [X] see continuation sheetDescribe architectural, structural and landscape features and evaluate in terms of other areas within thecommunity.

Twenty acres between Elm and Russell Streets, which includes the side streets of Kirby, Preston,and Maplewood and Mountain Avenues, is a residential area of largely single-family houses thatrepresent various vernacular forms and styles of the 1870's through 1910's. Much of it is highlyaltered, including the earliest street, Kirby Street, but Kirby is typical in the fact that the generalJines of its closely spaced, 1 1/2- to 2 I/2-story, gable-end houses are still clearly visible in spite ofmany additions and other changes. A few, including the Kirby House at #32, retain features typicalof the 1860's and early 1870's, such as 2-over-2-sash windows, some with molded, projecting lintels,polygonal bays, and molded, boxed cornices.

Three Italianate vernacular houses on the east side of Maplewood Avenue, including the WrightHouse at.#19, with a bracketed, overhanging cornice, two-story polygonal bay and heavy, bracketeddoor hood on the facade, were built in the early 1870's. Constructed at about the same time wasthe large Italianate "upright-and-wing" house at 6 Mountain Avenue. Standing on what was thena lane at the rear of the L.P. Howe property at 235 Pleasant Street (see Form #122), it belongedto his sister, Charlotte Stevens. (See Form #151.) It, too, retains its Italianate bracketed doorhood, which shelters a glass-and-panel door with a pair of round-headed lights. (Cont.)

HISTORICAL NARRATIVE [X] see continuation sheetExplain historical development of the area. Discuss how this area relates to the historical developmentof the community.

The area north of Elm Street between Pleasant and Mechanic Streets was one of severalneighborhoods north of the center that was largely built up with modest houses and cottages in thelatter part of the nineteenth century. The earliest street here was Kirby Street, apparently laid outby Philip Kirby on the small farm that he had maintained since the 1860's. Six of the present tenhouses, most belonging to Mr. Kirby, and occupied by tenants with Irish surnames, were standinghere by 1875.

The last quarter of the century was a period when the local shoe industry was expanding rapidly,especially in the nearby "West Village", and housing was needed for the families of the expandedwork forces at the nearby S.H. Howe, J.A. Frye, and Coolidge Shoe companies, in particular. (SeeArea Form C.) Both S.H. Howe and John Frye owned considerable land in the area, andsubdivided parts of it into small building lots. It was apparently S.H. Howe, possibly with hisbrother, Frank, who laid out the lower section of Maplewood Street in the early 1870's with sixteenlots, where three houses were standing by 1875. (Cont.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES [ :I see continuation sheetMaps, birdseye views, and atlases: 1871, 1875, 1878, 1879 (Pictolial Marlborough), 1889,

Sanborns from 1885.Bigelow. Historic Reminiscences of Marlborough. 1910.Conklin, Edwin. Middlesex County and its People. 1927.Hurd. History of Middlesex County. 1890.Marlborough directories and real estate valuations.

[] Recommended as a National Register District. If checked, you must attach a completedNational Register Criteria Statement [orm.

, INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property

Maplewood AreaMarlborough

Massachusetts Historical Commission80 Boylston StreetBoston, Massachusetts 02116

Area(s)W

Form Nos.748-765

HISTORICAL NARRATIVE, cont.During the 1880's, John A. Frye, who had acquired nearly a hundred acres in the vicinity for aprogressive dairy farm, "Hillside Farm", and by then had moved to Frank Howe's former propertyat 207 Pleasant Street (see Area Form U), created Russell and Preston Streets and MountainAvenue, and extended Maplewood to its present length. In spite of the fact that the huge barns,silo, and other outbuildings of his farm occupied the heart of the area until the 1920's, by that timemost of the 45 lots that he had laid out from Pleasant Street down Russell, Preston, and the upperend and west side of Maplewood had filled with houses, Although John Frye had initially ownedat least seven of the houses, like S.H. Howe, he sold off most of his properties over the years.

The establishment of other manufacturing businesses, some of them support .industries to the shoefactories, increased the need for workers' housing in and near the West Village. In 1896, forinstance, the construction of the a.H. Stevens paper box factory at the comer of Maplewood andElm (demolished) sparked more residential building in the area.

Housing construction continued here through the early years of the twentieth century, and by 1925,the neighborhood was virtually complete. The south end of Preston Street, which had originallyturned west to Pleasant Street via "Preston Court", just south of 187 Pleasant, was cut through toElm Street in the 1910's, and the huge Craftsman-style Frye family greenhouse complex was builtacross the line where Preston Court had been. (See Form #642, with 643 and 644). Russell Streetwas also extended east to Mechanic Street at that time, although because of the wetlands locatedthere, building on the eastern section today still consists of only four modem houses.

The buildings discussed above and listed on the Area Data Sheet represent some of the mosthistorically or architecturally significant resources in the area. There are several more historicproperties located in the area, however. See Area Sketch Map for their locations.

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INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community

Marlborough

Property

Maplewood Area

Massachusetts Historical Commission80 Boylston StreetBoston, Massachusetts 02116

Area(s)W

Form Nos.748-765

ARCHITEcruRAL DESCRIPTION, cont.One of the most well-preserved of the neighborhood's larger Italianate buildings is one that wasmoved from Pleasant Street--the large cruciform-plan, three-bay, 2 1/2-story gable-end house at 24Preston Street. Its side-hall entry retains its double-leaf, glass-and-panel door and wide bracketedhood, and most of its windows are still the original 2-over-2-sash. The orientation of this house,facing south, with its side to the street, is due to the fact that it faced the former Preston Court (seebelow).

By 1890 other house types, in addition to the predominant 1 1/2- to 2 1/2-story gable-ends, werebeginning to appear. A two-story, five-bay side-gabled house with a pair of ridge chimneys at 15Maplewood was built during the 1880's, and the area's only Second Empire building, a little mansardcottage with a long wing, was apparently moved by I.A. Frye to "lot 911 (88 Preston Street) of thesubdivision on his farm. During the 1890's, on upper Preston Street John Frye built several virtuallyidentical two-story gable-ends on brick foundations, most designed with a corner wraparound porchand second entry in a short side bay. The most intact example is 102 Preston, which illustrates theunboxed roof line, 2-over-2-sash windows, and wraparound porch with turned posts and saw-cutbrackets that all these houses would have originally displayed.

With the coming of the twentieth century, more styles and house-types slowly brought morearchitectural variety to the neighborhood. A large gable-end duplex with two-story, inset cornerporches on turned posts was built on John Frye's lot #2 at 275 Pleasant Street during the 1910's.In the 1920's, the lower west side of Maplewood Avenue was filled in with two 1 1I2-st01Yside-gabled houses with shed-roofed facade dormers at 22 and 24 Maplewood, a three-bay, side-gabledColonial Revival house with 6-over-1-sash windows at #40, and an American Four-Square at #44.At the north end of Maplewood, at #122, built ca. 1925, is the area's best example of a CraftsmanBungalow, a long 1 1I2-story gable-end type, with gabled facade bay, overhanging eaves withtriangular braces, and double-hung windows with four vertical panes in the upper sash. Two more1920's Craftsman cottages, with the same type of windows and braces, are located at 13 and 19Preston Street. These are of the side-gabled type, with the roof, pierced by a gabled dormer,extended over a facade-width front porch. The short porch posts at #19 are of the "battered"profile often seen in Craftsman cottages. Next door, at #21 Preston, is a hip-roofed version of theCraftsman bungalow, with exposed rafter-ends at the eaves, and lozenge-paned upper sash in thedouble-hung windows. Another altered one stands on John Frye's lot #1, at 281 Pleasant Street.

One of the last significant houses to be built, #67 Maplewood Avenue, is a large hip-roofed, two-st01Y double-house or small apartment block, constructed during the 1930's on the site of a formerhouse.

INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property

Maplewood AreaMarlborough

Massachusetts Historical Commission80 Boylston Street Area(s)Boston, Massachusetts 02116 W

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Form Nos.748·765

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INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property

Marlborough Maplewood Area

Massachusetts Historical Commission80 Boylston Street Area(s) Form Nos.Boston, Massachusetts 02116 W 748-765

AREA DATA SHEET

NOTE: Although the inventory includes the entire area outlined on the Area Sketch Map, only resourceswhich are mentioned in text of the Area Form have been given inventory numbers and are listed on the AreaData Sheet. As a rule, these represent the most historically or architecturally significant resources in the area.There are many more historic properties located within the area, however. (See Area Sketch Map for theirlocations. )

MHC# Parcel # Street Address Historic Name Date Style/type Condition

748 56-30 32 Kirby Street Philip Kirby House ca. 1860's Italianate Fairvernacular

749 56-35 15 Maplewood Ave. ca. 1890 vernacular Fair

750 56-33 19 Maplewood Ave. Wright House early 1870's Italianate Fair/good

751 55-179 22 Maplewood Ave. 1920's vernacular Fair

752 55-180 24 Maplewood Ave. 1920's vernacular Fair

753 55-179 40 Maplewood Ave. 1920's Col. Revival Fair

754 55-184 44 Maplewood Ave. 1920's Four-Square Good

755 55-203 67 Maplewood Ave. 1930's Col. Revival Fair

756 55-219 122 Maplewood Ave. ca. 1921 Craftsman Fair/good

757 55-138 6 Mountain Ave. Stevens House early 1870's Italianate Fair/good

764 55-146 275 Pleasant Street 1910's Col. Rev. Fairduplex

765 55-226 281 Pleasant Street 1920's Craftsman Fair

758 55-171 13 Preston Street ca. 1921 Craftsman Fair

759 55-170 19 Preston Street ca. 1921 Craftsman Fair/good

760 55-169 21 Preston Street ca. 1921 Craftsman Fair

761 55-133 24 Preston Street ca. 1880 Italianate Fair/good

762 55-153 88 Preston Street ca. 1870's Mansard Faircottage

763 55-150 102 Preston Street ca. 1890's Queen Anne Fair/goodcottage

INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property

Maplewood AreaMarlborough

Massachusetts Historical Commission80 Boylston StreetBoston, Massachusetts 02116

Area(s)W

Form Nos.748-765

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INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property

Marlborough Maplewood Area

Massachusetts Historical Commission80 Boylston StreetBoston, Massachusetts 02116

Area(s)W

Form Nos.748-765

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Maplewood AreaMarlborough

Massachusetts Historical Commission80 Boylston StreetBoston, Massachusetts 02116

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INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property

Maplewood AreaMarlborough

Massachusetts Historical Commission80 Boylston StreetBoston, Massachusetts 02116

Area(s)W

Form Nos.748-765

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