91-225) - the historical society farm division.pdf · i~'entory form continuation sheet...

FORMA-AREA Assessor's Sheets USGS Quad Area Letter Form Numbers in Area

44, 57

~(o etld. -ic SEE AITACHED SHEETCA-t'l1~tL6It 51'.

IMarlborough I 5U744,.'\1061-1080z

.>,::Town Marlborough

'.'~:Place (neighborhood or village)

Name of Area Howe Farm Division

,Present Use residential

,'Construction Dates or Period 17th- to early20th cen tu ry

Overall Condition _

fair

Major Intrusions and Alterations much visible

alteration; some mid- to late-20th C. houses

Acreage approximately 30 acres

Recorded by Anne Forbes, coDsultant

Organization Marlborough Historical Comm.

Date (month/day/year) 5/3/95

Streets included*:

Bolton Street (e. side, #s 91-225)Chandler StreetFowler StreetState StreetStevens Street (#s 28 through 197)Union Street (#5 14-50)

"boundaries include entire street, unlessotherwise noted

AREA FORM ..

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

The architectural character of the thirty-acre neighborhood north of Lincoln Street, stretching northto Union between Bolton and Stevens Streets, reflects its relatively late date of development. In spiteof considerable alteration (very few houses here have escaped changes in form and siding, orreplacement of windows and doors,) the area still accurately presents a varied mix of modest tum-of-the-century gable-ends and some of the most popular vernacular house-types and styles of the earlytwentieth century. Interspersed with the late Queen Anne houses are small Craftsman Bungalows,American Four-Squares, Colonial Revivals and Cape Cod cottages, a few English Revival cottages and,on Chandler Street, three duplexes of hip-roofed "two-decker" design.

The area's oldest building, the Howe Homestead at 29 Fowler Street, is a center-chimney, five- by two-bay vernacular Georgian farmhouse, typical of the second half of the eighteenth century. Part of it,however, is said to date to the third quarter of the seventeenth century. (See Form #44) Across fromit, at #34 Fowler, is a three-bay 1112-story cottage of the "Cape Cod" type, which may date to ca. 1930,or may be a much older house that was moved from another location. (Cont.)

(I

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

As the industrial and commercial development of Marlborough center expanded in the latter part ofthe nineteenth century, modest residential neighborhoods spread northward into the farmland bisectedby Bolton and Stevens Streets. Coinciding with rapid expansion in the local shoe industry, a protracted"building boom" began right after the Civil War and continued through the 1890's. This area north ofLincoln Street between Bolton and Stevens, however, remained open long after other former farms nearthe center. It was the last sizeable area north of Main Street to be subdivided for residentialdevelopment, and, even after it had been divided into houselots, much of it was still vacant when theboom subsided.

Until the late 1880's, the whole area was part of what was once a 165+-acre farm belonging tomembers of the John Howe family. Descendants of the first white man to settle in Marlborough, theirfamily homestead at 29 Fowler Street is believed to incorporate John Howe's original small house ofthe third quarter of the seventeenth century. (See Form #44.) The building was also an early tavem(apparently the first in Marlborough). Late in the nineteenth century, the house, with all the land inthe north part of this area, belonged to Ephraim Howe, and a wide strip north of Lincoln Streetbelonged to shoe-manufacturer Abel Howe. (Cont.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES [ ] see continuation sheetMaps, birdseye views, and atlases: 1803, 1830, 1835, 1856/57, 1871, 1875, 1878, 1879:

(Pictorial Marlborough), 1889, Sanboms from 1920.Bigelow. Historic Reminiscences of Marlborough. 1910.Marlborough directories and tax valuations.

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

I~'ENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community

Marlborough

Property

Howe Farm Division

Massachusetts Historical Commission80 Boylston StreetBoston, Massachusetts 02116

Area(s)Z

Form Nos.44, 507, 1061-1074;

1076-1080

ARCHITECfURAL DESCRIPTION, cant.Three nineteenth-century houses on Bolton Street are also among the oldest in the neighborhood.#225, a side-gabled, 2 1I2-story five-bay house with a sidelighted entry, may date to the middle of thecentury, and could be another relocated building. Two others were constructed in about 1870: thetall T-plan 2 lI2-story house of J. Burke at 91 Bolton (also included in Area I) has a two-light glass-and-panel door and openwork porch posts that are characteristic of that time; the Shields House at#103 Bolton, a two-story gable-end, is much more altered. A twin-chimney, 2 lI2-story side-gabledhouse at #117 was built by Michael Ring in the 1880's, probably as a rental house.

State Street was opened at the end of the 1880's, and a line of seven three-bay gable-end houses wasstanding on the north side by 1900. All are altered, but some retain some vernacular Queen Annedecoration, including a decorative verge board at #75, and porches with bracketed, turned posts at#s 67 and 73. Another, built on the south side in 1894, at #18, has a wraparound porch on turnedposts, and the "half-turned" type of balustrade that was popular in the neighborhoods north of MainStreet at this time. State Street also has two good examples of a multi-unit house-type that was builtat scattered locations throughout this part of town in the 1890's--the four-bay, side-hall-entry, 2 1/2-story gable-end. Both of those located here, #s 54 and 72, retain their turned-posted facade porches.#54 has a glass-and-panel door with colored-glass panes; #72 has a slightly older type of entry, witha large double-leaf glass-and-panel door. A third four-bay gable-end, also with turned-posted porchand double-leaf door, was probably the first house built on Chandler Street, at #57. The most stylish,and also the best-preserved, late Victorian house in the neighborhood, #108 Stevens Street, is a littleQueen Anne two-story gable-end with clapboard and patterned-shingle siding, two porches on turnedposts, one with a "half-turned" balustrade, the other with a geometric one. It also has the popularincised verge boards with heavy corner brackets, and a glass-and-panel door with colored glass panes.

Most early-twentieth-century houses represented in this neighborhood date to the 1910's and 1920's.There are a few Craftsman Bungalows on Bolton Street, and one each on Union, Chandler, andState. All are altered. Four American Four-Squares were built on Bolton Street in about 1918, twoon Chandler and one on State Street, most on the rock-faced or rusticated concrete-block foundationsthat were typical of the time. 42 State Street retains its exposed rafter ends and entry porch on shortTuscan columns. Two examples of the little English Revival Cottage are also found here-vat #42Union Street and 159 Bolton Street. Both have the steep gables that are a hallmark of the type.

The Colonial Revival is largely represented in this neighborhood by several simple, side-gabled two-story houses. The best-preserved, #52 Chandler Street, has typical 8-over-l and 6-over-l-sashwindows, and a gabled entry hood on paired Tuscan columns. Several Cape-Cod cottages at the westend of State Street, and two each on Union and Chandler Streets may also pre-date 1950. ChandlerStreet also has the only examples in the area of early-twentieth-century duplexes. Three, all of thehip-roofed "two-decker" type, with two-story facade porches, stand at the west end of the street at #s86, 103, and 108.

INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community

Marlborough

Property

Howe Farm Division


Area(s)Z

Form Nos.44, 507, 1061-1074,

1076-1080

HISTORICAL NARRATIVE, cont.In the late 1880's Ephraim Howe laid out State and Fowler Streets through his property, and dividedthe land along them and the adjoining section of Bolton Street into 69 narrow houselots. (FowlerStreet, which follows the line of the ancient lane from Stevens Street to the Howe homestead, was atfirst intended to extend west all the way to Bolton Street.) State Street began to fill with houses bythe mid-1890's, but it developed only slowly after that. In the 1890's, Chandler Street was laid outthrough the Abel Howe property in the southern part of the neighborhood, and only one or twohouses were standing there by 1900. As on State Street, the lots on Chandler, Union, and StevensStreets filled only gradually in the period between the two World Wars. Nearly all the lots on BoltonStreet, however, which was the major north/south route to Marlborough center, were built upon by1929.

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.

INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property

Marlborough Howe Farm Division

Massachusetts Historical Commission80 Boylston StreetBoston, Massachusetts 02116 f

IArea(s)Z

Form Nos.44, 1061·1080SO?

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Massachusetts Historical Commission80 Boylston Street Area(s) Form Nos.Boston, Massachusetts 02116 Z 44, 507, 1061-1074;

1076-1080

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.) Starred properties (''') have an individual form.

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

507 57-255 91 Bolton Street J. Burke House ca. 1870 Italianate vernac.

1074 57-256 103 Bolton Street Shields House ca. 1870 Italianate vernac.

1073 57-288 117 Bolton Street ca. 1880's Italianate vernac.

1072 57-331 159 Bolton Street 1920's English Revival

1071 44-19 225 Bolton Street mid-19th C. Vernac. side-gable

1080 57-267 52 Chandler Street ca. 1930 Colonial Revival

1079 57-281 57 Chandler Street 1890's Queen Anne vernac.

1078 57-260 86 Chandler Street 1920's Two-decker

1077 57-286 103 Chandler Street 1920's Two-decker

1076 57-258 108 Chandler Street ca. 1870 Italianate vernac.

*44 57-345 29 Fowler Street Howe Homestead 3rd Oter 17th; vernac. Georgian18th Century (Colonial)

1063 57-323 34 Fowler Street early 20th C. Colonial Rev.(or earlier)

1064 57-302 18 State Street Harlan Creighton Hse. 1894 Queen Anne vernac.

1065 57-300 42 State Street ca. 1918 Four-Square

1066 57-299A 54 State Street ca. 1890's Queen Anne vernac.

1067 57-317 67 State Street ca. 1890's Queen Anne vernac.




1062 57-309 108 Stevens Street ca. 1890's Queen Anne vernac.

1061 44-24 42 Union Street 1920's English Revival


Marlborough

Property

Howe Farm Division


Area(s)Z

Form Nos.44, 507, 1061-1074, 1075-1080


Marlborough

Property

Howe Farm Division


Area(s)Z

Form Nos.44, 507, 1061-1074, 1075-1080

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Area(s)Z

Form Nos.44, \11061-1080

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Marlborough

Property

Howe Farm Division


Area(s)Z

Form Nos.44,v 1061-1080

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Marlborough Howe Farm DivisionMassachusetts Historical Commission80 Boylston StreetBoston; Massachusetts 02116

Area(s)Z

Form Nos.44;v 1061-1080:)b1


Marlborough

Property

Howe Farm Division


Area(s)Z

Form Nos.44, v 1061-1080

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91-225) - the historical society farm division.pdf · i~'entory form continuation sheet...

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