Essex Street - The Marlborough Historical Society

Assessor's number
FORM B - BUILDING
71-130
Massachusetts Historical Commission
80 Boylston Street
1oston, Massachusetts 02116
USGS Quad
Area(s)
Form Number
206
K
Marlborough
Town
Marlborough
Place (neighborhood or village)
_
133 Essex Street
Address
Historic Name
Uses:
_
Present
dwelling
Original
dwelling
Date of C0l1struction_~c~a~1~8~9~O~'s~
_
Maps· style
Source
Qneen Anne
Style/Form
unknown
Architect/Builder
Exterior Material:
Sketch Map
Draw a 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. Attach a separate
sheet if space is not sufficient here. Indicate north.
Foundation
Wall/Trim
brick
wood clapboard
Roof
and shingle
asphalt shingle
Outbuildings/Secondary
Structures
_
garage
\.1)
Major Alterations
gO)
(with dates)
_
~~
0
0
a
0.
DOD
0
windows replaced with ] 11 's
few
~
E$S<5~
'Sf.
I
1t'd--Ck
I
N
Condition
excellent
Moved [X] no
Acreage
corded by
Organization
Date
AnIle
Forbes
for Marlhoro
91)
"/94
Setting
Hi,t
Carom
Split-rai]
Modern
] yes
Date
less than
N/A
oDe acre
In 19th- early 20th C residential
fence
across
small front
ranch bouse to east
yard
area
BUILDING
FORM
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION
[ ] see continuation sheet
Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other
building) within the community.
One of the best-preserved building on a street that has many altered houses, 133 Essex Street is a
very large 2 1!2-story Queen Anne gable-end with a long hip-roofed, two-story west wing. The main
gable-end facade has a large gable which projects over a wide two-story, skirted polygonal bay
window and, beside the bay, a set of two-story porches.
(
This house displays nearly all the elements frequently found on Marlborough's Queen Anne houses.
It is clad primarily in a combination of clapboards and patterned shingles, with part of the wall
surface broken up by vertical stickwork and diagonal-board panels. The gable is embellished with
corner brackets, decorative verge boards and a multiple-square paneled gable screen. The porches
are supported on lathe-turned posts and have spindle- and square-balustered balustrades, as well as
quare-balustered frieze screens. Diagonal spindle braces adorn the posts of the porch on the wing.
The stair window is a multi-paned diamond; most of the other windows are 2-over-2-sash, with flat
surrounds. The main entry, in the side of the first story bay, has a large glass-and-panel door. The
wing facade also retains its original glass-and-panel door.
(
I
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE
[] see continuation sheet
Explain history of the building. Explain its associations with local (or state) history. Include uses of the
building, and the roleis) the owners/occupants played within the community.
In the 1890's, when both the nearby shoe factories and the local economy were prospering, and the
recent streetcar line down Maple Street promised accessible transportation nearby, the Church Street
area, which had been developing slowly as a residential neighborhood since the early 1850's,
experienced a period of accelerated growth. New houses such as this one rapidly filled most of the
empty spaces on the established streets, and short side roads were opened across the few remaining
large pieces of land.
Further research will be necessary to determine for whom this house was built, but it appears to
stand at the western end of what was one of the largest remaining parcels of land in the Church
Street area at the end of the nineteenth century. The land belonged to a member of the Greenwood
family in the 1870's.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sanborn maps.
and/or REFERENCES
[] see continuation sheet
[ ] Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, a completed
National Register Criteria Statement form is attached.
\