ORMA-AREA Assessor's Sheets USGS Quad Area Letter orm Numbers in Area (.tt:'1oj\, / ~_1Sk;1?.;U I 69,70 81, 82 ~.J~ (ff~'7,,:::."".'/ t """lj' /. Town I Marlborough I N, 162-177, 376-406 Marlborough./ Place (neighborhood or village) city center Name of Area airmount Hill* Present Use residential Construction Dates or Period early-19th-early 20th C. Overall Condition fair to good Major Intrusions and Alterations seyeral modern houses, especially on lower Liberty, airmount, Ringold, E. side of Park. Acreage ca. 35 acres Recorded by Anne orbes, consultant Organization Marlborough Historical Comm. cs, Date (month/day/year) 7/31/94..... '/" \ <"":),-r.~, ~'T', 10 ( f'-.) (y ca..., I(/.. ),/,- (-'r \-,,-,,\ \. i-" I (.:A) SEE ATTACHED MAP "Includes whole street, unless otherwise indicated: Adams Street airmount Street Liberty Street: 35-144, inclusive Newton Street, 39-130, inclusive Park Street Ringold Street: 2-72, inclusive ollow Survey Manual instructions for completing this form
AREA ORM ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION [X] see continuation sheet Describe architectural, structural and landscape features and evaluate in terms of other areas within the community. Truly one of the "fairest" and most stylish historic neighborhoods in central Marlborough, most of airmount Hill is filled with high-style and vernacular wood-frame houses of the last four decades of the nineteenth century. In addition, sections of two streets along the west side of the hill, Liberty and Ringold, are lined with smaller, more modest cottages, several of them dating to the 1850's, which form a contrast with the larger houses on airmount, Newton, Adams, and Park Streets.. The earliest house in the area, the Caleb Witherbee armhouse of ca. 1820 at #37 airmount Street (see orm 164), was updated from its late federal beginnings, first to a 2 112-storygable-end Greek Revival house, and later to an Italianate building with round-headed windows and brackets. Samuel Boyd's late-1850's mansion near the top of the hill, which was rebuilt after a fire in the 1870's, and demolished ca. 1990, was the only true Italian villa in Marlborough. Other Italianate houses on the hill that remain, however, including the H.C. Curtis House (120 Newton Street--MHC #394), the W.H. Onthank House (74 Newton--orm #176), and the Nahum Witherbee House (47 Newton-- MHC #406), all ca. 1870, are among the best examples of the vernacular 2 1/2-story, gable-end type of Italianate house, with double-leaf glass-and panel doors, polygonal bay windows, and bracketed hoods and cornices. (Cont.) -, mstorical NARRATIVE [X] see continuation sheet Explain historical development of the area. Discuss how this area relates to the historical development of the community. As Marlborough's industrial and commercial economy grew with the burgeoning of the local shoe industry over the 1860's and early '70's, several stylish residential neighborhoods were developed on the side streets near the center of town. Businessmen and manufacturers whose enterprises were located northwest of Main Street built their homes on lower Pleasant Street and Witherbee Street, for instance, and those with business interests in the Middlesex Square area began to settle in the vicinity of East Main and upper Church Street. In addition, from ca. 1860 through to the turn of the century, many store-owners, shoe manufacturers, and other executives and professionals with businesses on Main Street built their homes here on airmount Hill. The development of airmount Hill as lithe fairest and most convenient residential portion of the city'!(samuel Darling in Hurd) can be attributed to shoe-manufacturer Samuel Boyd. In the 1850's he bought all or most of the Caleb Witherbee estate, which at Mr. Witherbee's death in 1853 consisted of a large farm covering most of the northwest to northeast sections of the hill. (The early-nineteenth-century Witherbee farmhouse at 37 airmount Street still exists as the oldest building in the area.) Caleb Witherbee's youngest son and Samuel Boyd's brother-in-law, William Wallace Witherbee, who built a house a short distance to the south of his father's in ca. 1855, (demolished) may also have been involved in the laying-out of streets and houselots in the area. At the same time Samuel Boyd built his own grand Italianate villa near the crest of the hill (also demolished). The cart path that led southward up to his house, then continued southeast to a large barn and resident farmer's house, later became airmount and upper Adams Streets. (Cont.) ::\ i BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REERENCES [ ] see continuation sheet Bigelow. Historic Reminiscences of Marlborough. 1910. Hudson. History of the Town of Marlborough, 1862. Hurd. HistoI)' of Middlesex County. 1890. Maps, birdseye views, and atlases: 1830, 1835, 1853, 1857, 1871, 1875, 1878, 1889, Sanborns. Marlborough directories and tax valuations. [ X] Recommended as a National Register District. I] checked, you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.
INVENTORY ORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property Marlborough airmount Hill orm Nos. N, 162-177,376-406 ARCHITECfURAL DESCRIPTION, cant. Other houses in the area that were built in the 1860's and '70's display a great diversity of Second Empire architecture. Hiram ay's little 1860's concave-flared-roofed, side-hall-entry mansard cottage at #56/58 Newton Street is complemented by two adjacent mansard cottages built at least fifteen years later, this time with high, unflared roofs, at #s 48 and 52. (Streetscape orm N, MHC #s 403-406). airmount Hill also has four good examples of 1860's mansard cottages with symmetrical, three-bay facades with a center mansard wall dormer--at 38 airmount Street, the Gibson House at 51 Park Street, and the W.W. Witherbee and George Whitney Houses at 101 and 85 Newton Street. (See orms 165, 172, and 175, and MHC #386.) The unique character of the largest of the cottages, the ca. 1865 Aldrich House at 49 airmount Street (orm 166), comes partly from its very vertical roof and the prominent wall-banding, or "stickwork", that may have been added in about 1870. Marlborough once had many large 2 l/2-story Second Empire Houses; two of the few that survive are the large square Smith/Brigham House at #65 Newton Street, and the flaredroofed A.C. Weeks House across the street at #68, which has a full-height, central facade pavilion. (MHC #s 400 and 399). As was true in other parts of town, houses built on airmount Hill in the last two decades of the nineteenth century tended toward some version of the Queen Anne style. Several of the earlier ones here are among the richest in detail of the many highly-textured and sculpted Queen Anne residences in the city. The W.A. Onthank House at 64 airmount Street (orm 168), the Daniel. O'Connell House at 98 Newton Street (orm 173), the DavenportlBoynton House at #105 (orm 171--with its original Queen Anne carriage house), the MJ. McCarthy House at #111 (orm 170), and the Charles arrell House across the street at #114 Newton Street (orm 169) all have the complex massing, variety of surface, and elaborate porch, window, cornice and gable detail that characterize the high-style Queen Anne of ca. 1880-1890. The Onthank House even combines the Queen Anne and many elements of the Stick Style in a building that is unique in Marlborough. A few later houses, including the Henry Eager House at #39 Newton (orm 177), and the Charles Robinson House at #125 (MHC #393), employ elements such as Palladian windows and pedimented gables that are associated with the more "free-classic" version of the Queen Anne. inally, four houses on the southern end of airmount Street bring the area into the twentieth century. One, the Thomas P. Hurley House of ca. 1916 at #50 airmount (orm 167), is a rare example in Marlborough of a half-timbered Tudor Revival house. Each of the three others, at the southern end of the street, illustrates a house-type typical of the 1920's-early '30's: #101 is a simple three-bay ederal Revival house with 8-over-8- and paired 6-over-6-sash windows and a curved portico at the center entry; #115 is a simpler, more craftsman-like shingled house with a four-bay facade and 6-over-1-sash windows, and #123 is an end-to-the-street Dutch Colonial (MHC #5 385, 384, and 383.) Very few rental houses were built on Newton, airmount, Park or Adams Streets. An exception is the pair of vernacular ca. late-1890's 2 l/2-story, four-bay double-houses with paired entries and center facade dormers at 82/84 and 88/90 Newton Street (MHC #s 397 and 396). On Liberty and Ringold Streets, however, many of the more modest single-family residences were apparently built as rental properties. The nearly astylistic simplicity of the little two-story cottages at #35, 39, 41, and 57 Liberty, or Samuel Boyd's ca. 1880 cottages at #53 and 57 Ringold Streets is typical of the many small houses put up by landlords for workers in the local shoe factories. (MHC #s 376-379, 381-382) The largest building on Liberty Street, the ca. 1895 house at #61 (MHC #380), is a 2 12- story shingled Queen Anne multi-unit house with a tall polygonal turret and, at the south end of the facade, a two-story, pedimented porch.
INVENTORY ORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property Marlborough airmount Hill orm Nos. N, 162-177, 376-406 HISTORICAL NARRATIVE, cont. Among Samuel Boyd's many gifts to the good of the community was his donation of the crest and southern slopes of the hill for a park. It was used for many years as a picnic site, and in 1907 a dance pavilion was built upon it (destroyed by fire in 1917.) By 1870, Newton Street had officially been laid out, with several houselots and houses along it, and Adams and Park Streets were also in existence. (Liberty Street, the oldest road in the area, had been a town road since at least the turn of the nineteenth century as the most direct route south from Prospect Street and the Common.) Also by 1870, a cluster of small houses was standing on the west side of its upper section, and the land to their southeast along the west part of the hill, including a short section of the east side of Liberty and both sides of the new Ringold and Onamog Streets, had been subdivided into 96 small houselots. Modest houses on this "back side" of the hill were standing on four of the new lots by 1871, but only a handful more had been built by 1890. South of the neighborhood, nearly all of Onamog, and the entire southern section of Ringold, in fact, remain largely undeveloped to this day. By 1875, airmount, too had become an official street; Park Street, which first was called Centre Street, gained its present name by 1889. By the tum of the century, the main residential part of airmount Hill had become fully developed as a largely upper- and upper-middle-class area of large, comfortable houses on airmount, Newton, Park and Adams Streets. Upper Liberty and Ringold Streets, however, were filled primarily with rental houses and smaller "workers' cottages". Many of the latter were owned by some of Marlborough's first- or second-generation Irish-American families, including the aheys, McGees, Gradys, itzpatricks, and Culligans. Owners of most of the hill, however, included some of Marlborough's most prominent industrialists, merchants, and professionals. On airmount Street, which still has the largest lots in the area, were the homes of Samuel Boyd (demolished), his daughter and son-in-law Delia and Henry Aldrich (by 1870 the residence of lawyer Samuel Aldrich) at 49, druggist W.A. Onthank at 64, shoe-store owner D.W. Cosgrove in the old Witherbee farmhouse at 37, and, from the 1890's, Mr. Cosgrove's son, Joseph Cosgrove at 25 (orm 162). The list of residents of Newton Street reads like a who's who of late-nineteenth-century Marlborough. Among its shoe-manufacturers were W.W. Witherbee, who was associated with the large Main Street factory of Samuel Boyd, at 101; William A. Alley of Russell & Alley, #57 (MHC #402); and Daniel. O'Connell of J. O'Connell & Sons, who built #98 in the late 1880's. Some of Main Street's most successful merchants lived here, including both Henry Eager and Loriman Brigham of Brigham & Eager, jewelers (see orm 108--173 Main Street) at s 39 and 65; clothiers Nathan Ranney and Michael J. McCarthy (at 80 and 111); Arthur Lamson of Lamson & Trowbridge's Hardware; and two dry-goods dealers, Herbert Wright of 106 (MHC #395), whose store was in the old Corey Block, and J.. Boynton of Boynton & Co., at 105. Among the street's earliest residents were brothers rancis C. and Henry C. Curtis, who had built homes at the southern end of the street at #s 120 and 126 (MHC #s 394 and 392) by 1870. or many years they ran a grocery store in the basement of the 1869 Town Hall (later D.W. Walker & Co.), and operated a slaughterhouse just south of the end of the street. There were several prominent lawyers, including partners W.N. Davenport and Edgar Weeks (later of Witherbee and Pleasant Streets), and Judges Nahum Witherbee ( at 47), and E.. Johnson, (at 62--MHC #401). (Cont.)
INVENTORY ORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property Marlborough airmount Hill orm Nos. N, 162-177, 376-406 HISTORICAL NARRATIVE, cont. Several Newton Street residents ran businesses or small manufacturing shops near the railroad on upper lorence Street, including livery-stable owners William H. Onthank of #74, and A. Smith, first owner of #65, James Wood of #56/58, owner of Marlborough Awl & Needle Co., T. Joseph Beaudry, maker of shoe-dies on lorence Street (68 Newton--MHC #399), and Charles Robinson of Marlborough Coal Co., who built #125. Other professionals who made their homes on Newton Street were builder and undertaker Hiram ay, who built one of the earliest houses in the area at #56/58, another undertaker, J. rank Childs at #82/84, architect Charles Barnes, dentist R.O. Clark at #52, and baseball-player Charles arrell, who built #114 in about 1890. In this century, #114 Newton Street became the parsonage for the Baptist church, replacing the earlier one they had owned at 80 Newton Street. Park and Adams Streets were for many years more sparsely built-up than the rest of the neighborhood. #51 Park Street, the home of Emerson G. Gibson, probably built in the late 1860's, was the only house on the street until the G. Taylor House at #34 (MHC #387) was built in the early 1870's. Adams Street, all of which was still owned by Samuel Boyd in the 1870's, was the site of his farm buildings, including a huge bam which stood until the tum of the century where #26 is today. The house of the farm manager, (#32--MHC #388) became the home of boxmanufacturer Charles Adams, and the houses at #s 14, 16, and 18 were put up, probably by Samuel Boyd, in the 1870's and '80's. (MHC #s 391, 390, 389.) In the early twentieth century, a few more houses were erected on airmount Street. Builder Thomas P. Hurley built his home at #50 airmount a few years before his death in 1926, and, after the southern end of the street was opened in the 1920's, three more early-modem houses were built at #s 101, 115, and 123. The buildings discussed above and listed on the Area Data Sheet represent some of the most historically or architecturally significant resources in the area. There are several more historic properties located in the area, however. See Area Sketch Map for their locations.
INVENTORY ORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property Marlborough airmount Hill orm Nos. N, 162-177,376-406 AREA DATA SHEET NOTE: Although the inventory includes the entire area outlined on the Area Sketch Map, only resources which have individual forms, or are mentioned in text of the Area orm, have been given inventory numbers and are listed on the Area Data 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 their locations.) Starred properties (*) have individual inventory forms). MHC# Parcel # Street Address Historic Name Date Style/type 391 82-16 14 Adams Street ca. 1875 Mansard rottage 390 82-15 16 Adams Street Peter Rogers House ca. 1889 Queen Anne 389 82-14 18 Adams Street ca. 1875 Italianate 388 82-9 32 Adams Street late 19th C. astylistic *162 69-419 25 airmount St. Joseph Cosgrove House 1890's Queen Anne *163 69-433 34 airmount St. Mrs. Brigham/Mrs. Davenport Hse. ca. 1870 Italianate *164 69-418 37 airmount St. Caleb Witherbee House ca. 1820 ed./italianate *165 69-434 38 airmount St. 1860's Mansard cottage *166 69-417 49 airmount St. Aldrich House 1865 2nd.mpire;Stick *167 69-435 50 airmount St. T.P. Hurley House early 20th Tudor Revival *168 69-437 64 airmount St. W.A. Onthank House ca. 1885 Queen Anne 385 81-266 101 airmount St. ca. 1920's Col. Revival 384 81-267 115 airmount St. ca. 1920's Craftsman/Col. Revival 383 81-269 123 airmount St. ca. 1920's Dutch Colonial 376 69-398 35 Liberty Street mid-19th C. astylistic 377 69-399 39 Liberty Street mid-19th C. astylistic 378 69-400 41 Liberty Street mid-19th C. astylistic 379 69-403 57 Liberty Street mid-19th C. astylistic
INVENTORY ORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property Marlborough airmount Hill orm Nos. N, 162-177, 376-406 AREA DATA SHEET, cont. MHC# Parcel # Street Address Historic Narne Date Style/type 380 69-404 61 Liberty Street 1890's Queen Anne *177 69-445 39 Newton St. Henry Eager House 1890's Queen Anne 406 69-444 47 Newton St. Nahum Witherbee House ca. 1870 Italianate *405 69-449 48 Newton St. Joel Gleason House ca. 1875 Mansard cottage *404 69-448 52 Newton St. Clark House ca. 1875 Mansard cottage *403 69-447 58 Newton St. Hiram ay/jas, Wood Hse. 1860's Mansard cottage 402 69-443 57 Newton St. William A. AJley House ca. 1870 Italianate 401 70-83 62 Newton St. E.. Johnson House ca. 1875 Queen Anne 400 69-442 65 Newton St. Smith/Brigham House 1860's 2nd Empire 399 70-84 68 Newton St. A.C. Weeks House 1860's 2nd Empire *176 70-85 74 Newton St. W.H. Onthank House ca. 1870 Italianate 398 70-86 80 Newton St. H.D. Barker Housel ca. 1888 Queen Anne Baptist Parsonage 397 70-90 82/84 Newton St. J. rank Childs House ca. 1890 Col. Revival *175 70-87 85 Newton St. G.H. Whitney House 1860's Mansard cottage 396 70-91 88/90 Newton St. ca. 1890 Col. Revival *174 70-89 97 Newton St. S.S. HowelE.E. Bond Hse. ca. 1860 Italianate *173 70-93 98 Newton St. Daniel. O'Connell House 1885-89 Queen Anne *172 82-2 101 Newton St. Derby/W.W. Witherbee House 1860's Mansard cottage *171 82-3 105 Newton St. Davenport/Boynton House ca. 1885 Queen Anne 395 82-23 106 Newton St. Herbert Wright House ca. 1880 Italianate *170 82-4 111 Newton St. M.J. McCarthy House ca. 1890 Queen Anne
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INVENTORY ORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Marlborough Property airmount Hill orm Nos. N, 162-177, 376-406 AREA DATA SHEET, cont. MHC# Parcel # Street Address Historic Name Date Style/type *169 82-22 114 Newton St. Charles altell Housel Baptist Parsonage ca. 1890's Queen Anne 394 82-21 120 Newton St. H.C. Curtis House ca. 1870 Italianate 393 82-7 125 Newton St. Charles Robinson House 392 82-20 126 Newton St..e. Curtis House 387 82-1 34 Park Street George Taylor House ca. 1890's Queen Anne ca. 1880's Queen Anne/ Shingle early 1870's Italianate 386 81-277 51 Park Street E.G. Gibson House 381 81-204 53 Ringold St. 382 81-206 57 Ringold S10 1860's ca. 1880 ca. 1880 Mansard cottage astylistic astylistic. ";...~. :.:."""'%." QJ eff-t~ '3;rU7-l~-'\ - -..~) C:i>D,'S:.f i~l'v\ ~~., ( ff- 377) (1t3"/2S;)
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Community Property Address Marlborough airmount Hill area orm No(s). Area N, 162-177, 383-385, 392-406 National Register of Historic Places Criteria Statement orm Check all that apply: [ ] Individually eligible [ ] Eligible only in a historic district [ ] Contributing to a potential historic district [x] Potential historic district Criteria: [x] A [] B [x] C [] D Criteria Considerations: []A []B []C []D []E [] []G Statement of Significance by A_. -o_r_b_e_s The criteria that are checked in the above sections must be justified here. _ A potential National Register District, meeting Criteria A and C of the National Register, exists on airmount and Newton Streets in the airmount Hill area. This district, most of which is remarkably well-preserved, articulates and contributes to an understanding of the residential section south of Main Street and its relationship to the businesses and industries of Marlborough center. In that many of its occupants also worked or owned businesses in the now-vanished rail-yard area near the terminus of the "south branch" railroad (demolished for Granger Boulevard/Rte 20 by-pass), it also preserves a connection to an aspect of Marlborough for which nearly all other traces have been erased. Many examples of high-style late-nineteenth-century architecture, from the Second Empire through the Italianate and Queen Anne remain here, and the neighborhood also includes some rare examples of the Stick Style and early-twentieth-century Tudor Revival. The eligible area includes all of airmount Street through the W.A. Onthank House at #64, and Newton from the Henry Eager House at #39, to the south end of the street.