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

Marlborough X 11, 766 -788,

923
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Massachusetts Historical Commission
'0 Boylston Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02116
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Town Marlborough

Place (neighborhood or village)

Name of Area Mechanic/Hudson/Ash area

Present Use residential; industrial

Construction Dates or Period ca] 860's to

early 20th C.
Overall Condition------------

fair

Major Intrusions and Alterations mucb uiiiible

alteration, e.g. synthetic siding, window change;
several mid- to late-20th C houses on Asb aDd
Hudson Streets.
Acreage ca 45 acres

Recorded by Anne Forbes. consultant

Organization Marlborough Historical Comm.

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

Streets included*:

Ash Street (#s 7 and 19)

Hudson Street, (west side, #s 8-180;
east side, #s 19 and 133)
Mechanic Street (#s 176 to 346)

SEE ATIACHED SHEET

Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form
AREA FORM

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION [X] see continuation sheet

Describe architectural, structural and landscape features and evaluate in terms of other areas within the
community.

A linear residential neighborhood stretching north on Mechanic and Hudson Streets from Elm and
Union to Ash Street covers approximately 45 acres. The former railroad bed of the Marlborough
branch of the Fitchburg Railroad runs north to south through the center of the space between
Mechanic and Hudson. Most of the houses here are altered examples of modest wood-frame building
types representative of the decades between the 1860's and 1900. Predating those are two mid-
nineteenth-century cottages and one large, well-preserved late-eighteenth-century farmhouse. :

The eighteenth-century building, the Solomon Barnes House at 19 Ash Street (Form #11), is a five-bay,
"double-pile" structure with twin ridge chimneys and a pedimented, pilastered doorway that is typical
of the Revolutionary War period. The cottages, #s 146 and 156 Hudson Street, of the "story-and-a-
half" type, each with a two-story rear wing and one off-center ridge chimney, were probably built around
the time of the Civil War. (Cont.)

HISTORICAL NARRATIVE [X] see continuation sheet

Explain historical development of the area. Discuss how this area relates to the historical development of
the community.

After the Civil War, coinciding with a period of rapid expansion in Marlborough's shoe industry during
the last third of the nineteenth century, residential neighborhoods filled with modest, mostly single-
family houses grew up on many of the former farms in the billy areas north of Main and Lincoln
Streets. The linear development here along upper Mechanic and lower Hudson Streets was facilitated
by the close proximity of the railroad and the shoe factories to the west on Elm Street, as well as other
industries, such as the Manning Box Factory, just to the south.

TIle oldest and largest farm in this area, (in fact, one of the largest in town), was the venerable home
of several generations of descendants of original settler Abraham Howe. Mechanic Street originally
ended at its farmstead, which at one time included two large barns, a carriage house, wood shed, and
cider mill. The Joseph Howe House, a classic 2 l/2-story, five-bay, center-chimney Colonial farmhouse,
(which incorporated the frame of the house of John Ruddock, one of Marlborough's original settlers)
stood on the site of 184 Mechanic Street until the early part of this century. Other colonial-era farms
in the area included the John Gleason farm, which flanked Hudson Street north of Elm, and the Barnes
family farm at the east end of Ash Street. Both the eighteenth-century John Gleason House and a later
Gleason family cottage are gone, but the late-eighteenth-century Solomon Barnes residence still stands
at 19 Ash Street. (Form #11.) In association with the farms, and possibly with the cattle business of
Joseph Howe, Jr. (1775-1851) in particular, a pound was located on the north side of the intersection
of Hudson and Union Street in the early part of the nineteenth century. (Cont.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES [ ] see continuation sheet

Maps, 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 tax valuations.

[] Recommended as a National Register District. If checked, you must attach a completed

National Register Criteria Statement form.
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property

Marlborough ~echanicniudson/A£h
Area
Massachusetts Historical Commission
J Boylston Street Area(s) Form Nos.
Boston, Massachusetts 02116 X 11, 766 -788, 923

ARCHITECfURAL DESCRIPTION, cont.

As with most of the late-nineteenth-century neighborhoods in Marlborough, however, this area is
dominated by the side-hall-entry, "gable-end" houses that conformed so well to the narrow lots of these
fairly dense residential areas. The earlier examples, whether of the tall, 2 1/2-story, three-bay type, or
of smaller two-story, two- or three-bay design, display some lingering Greek Revival detail mixed with
the vernacular Italianate features that were typical of the years around 1870. Several houses on
Mechanic Street, for instance, including #s 200, 201, 230, and 244, have echinus-molded cornices.
#130 Hudson Street, built in the early 1870's, has a typical heavy-bracketed Italianate door hood, as
does a later house of the 1880's, #8 Hudson Street. One little side-gabled cottage dating to this era,
at #176 Mechanic Street, was built in the early 1870's.

Several vernacular Queen Anne gable-ends, some very large, were built here in the late 1880's and
1890's. They later ones stand on rubble foundations. In spite of considerable alteration, many of these
still display the bracketed porches on turned posts, glass-and-panel doors, pedimented gables with
corner brackets and decorated verge boards that were popular on modest, yet stylish, houses of the
period. #209 Mechanic Street, for instance, has most of these features, as well as a double-leaf glass-
and-panel door and a bracketed and pedimented, polygonal bay on the south side. #183 Mechanic
Street has the overhanging, spandrel-bracketed second-story bay that was typical of the style, and a
dipped, or "jerkin-head" facade gable. A group of nine small gable-ends (and one mansard-roofed
cottage) built after the extension of Mechanic Street in the 1890's is highly altered, but still presents
coherent streetscape to the north end of the street. 134 Hudson Street has a well-preserved
wraparound porch on turned posts with turned balustrade, and a porch in the angle of the "upright-and-
wing" house at #170 Hudson retains both its turned posts and lacy. sawcut brackets.

A simple 1890's, side-gabled, 2 112-story double-house at 19 Hudson Street is one of the better
preserved buildings from the Queen Anne period, retaining its 2-over-2-sash windows, paired glass-and-
panel doors and polygonal bay windows, turned-posted. bracketed porch on the facade, and shed-
roofed, braced door hoods on the rear wing. One of the most stylish Queen Anne residences, #104
Hudson Street, has a tall wall gable on the facade, clipped side gables, and a well-preserved double-leaf
door under a hipped hood on square, chamfered posts.

Only a few buildings in this area postdate 1900. One, the largest residence in the neighborhood, is a
six-unit "double three-decker" at 184 Mechanic Street, which replaced the colonial Joseph Howe
farmhouse in about 1915. One Dutch Colonial Revival house was built at 294 Mechanic Street in the
late 1920·s. All the other early-twentieth-century houses here, including three American Four-Squares,
a two-story, side-gabled houses, and three gable-end bungalows, have been highly altered.

In the island at the intersection of Union and Hudson Streets is one of the memorial plaques that
appear at scattered locations in Marlborough. This is a 1919 bronze plaque, set into a rectangular
dressed granite slab, in honor of Allen H. Howe. who was killed at Belleau Woods in the First World
War.
INVE~TORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property

Marlborough Mechanic/Hudson/Ash
Area
Massachusetts Historical Commission
80 Boylston Street Area(s) Form Nos.
Boston, Massachusetts 02116 X 11, 766 -788, 923

HISTORICAL NARRATIVE, cont.

In 1855, the Marlborough branch (or "North Branch") of the Fitchburg Railroad was extended south
through the area from Feltonville (Hudson) to its terminus at lower Prospect Street. It cut a north-
south swath just west of, and paralleling, Hudson Street, and its presence, especially with the
construction of an early depot on Hudson Street, sparked some of the early house-building in the area.
Soon afterward Mechanic Street was extended north along the west side of the railroad through the
southern part of the Howe farm, setting the stage for the more rapid development that was to come.

By 1875, fourteen houses stood on lower Mechanic Street, and eight on Hudson Street between Union
and Ash. By that time, shoe-manufacturer S.H. Howe, who was Joseph Howe's great-grandson, had
acquired both the old farmstead on the west side of Mechanic and about two acres on the east side of
its intersection with Elm and Hudson Streets. East of the the railroad, Joseph Manning, who had
previously developed Manning Street and several lots on Prospect Hill, subdivided twelve small house
lots and planned a side street extending north from the bend of Hudson Street. The rear section was
never developed, but four houses, (two of which have been demolished,) were built on the lots facing
the street in the 1880's. By 1889, #58, 12, and 16 Hudson Street had been built on the Howe parcel.
By that same year, the depot had been removed, and builder George N. Cate, who undoubtedly put
up #s 20 and 24 soon afterward, had bought the depot lot. Mechanic Street was extended all the way
north to Ash in the 1890's, and fifteen houses were built there, as well as ten more on the west side
of Hudson, by the tum of the century.

Most of the houses in this area were occupied, and many of them owned, by employees in the local
shoe factories. Many were first- or second-generation Irish Americans, among them families by the
name of Donohue, Dunn, Gallagher, and Rafferty.

After 1900, three small industries took advantage of the presence of the railroad by building facilities
here. The large John A. Frye Boot and Shoe Company, which processed its own leather at the main
factory at Chestnut and Pleasant Streets (see Form #116), built a subsidiary facility here behind the
houses on Mechanic Street, next to the tracks, which was later used by the Koehler Manufacturing
Company as a storage for parts of its kitchen ranges. The large altered concrete building at 303
Mechanic Street was built between 1931 and 1945 as a battery factory. A smaller business, the
gravestone/monument works of Timothy Sullivan, who Jived at 24 Hudson Street, was located by 1897
in a building to the rear of the house (demolished), where it operated until 1936.

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 FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property

Marlborough Mechanic/Hudson/ Ash

Area
Massachusetts Historical Commission
~O Boylston Street Area(s) Form Nos.
rloston, Massacbusetts 02116 X 11, 766 -788, 923

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iNVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property

Marlborough Mechanic/Hudson/ Ash

Area
M.assachusetts Historical Commission
80 Boylston Street Area(s) Form Nos.
Boston, Massachusetts 02116 X 11, 766 -788, 923

AREA DATA SHEET

NOTE: Although the inventory includes the entire area outlined on the Area Sketch Map, only
resources which are mentioned in text of the Area Form 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 forms.

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

*11 43-29 19 Ash Street Solomon Barnes House late 18th C. late Georgian
farmhouse

766 56-107 8 Hudson S1, Barry House 1880's vernac. Italianate

767 56-106 12 Hudson St. O'Donnell House 1880's vernac. Victorian

gable-end

768 56-105 16 Hudson St. Kirby House 1880's vernac. Victorian

gable-end

769 56-102 19 Hudson St. 1890's Q. Anne vernac.

double-house

770 56-104 20 Hudson St. 1880's vemac. Victorian

gable-end

771 56-103 24 Hudson St. 1880's vernac. Victorian

gable-end

923 Hudson at Union St. Allen Howe Monument 1919 bronze/granite

memorial

772 56-138 104 Hudson St. E. Howe House 1890's Queen Anne

773 56-134 130 Hudson St. early 1870's Italianate

774 56-133 134 Hudson St. 1890's Queen Anne

775 43-20 146 Hudson St. mid-19th C. story-and-a-half

cottage

776 43-21 156 Hudson St. Barry House mid-19th C. story-and-a-half

cottage
(continued)
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property

Marlborough Mechanic/Hudson/Ash
Area
Massachusetts Historical Commission
) Boylston Street Area(s) FOIm Nos .
.soston, Massachusetts 02116 X 11, 766 -788, 919

AREA DATA SHEET, cont.

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

777 34-22 170 Hudson St. 1890's Queen Anne

778 56-20 176 Mechanic St. Doyle House early 1870's side-gabled
cottage

779 56-110 183 Mechanic St. 1890's Queen Anne

780 56-19 184 Mechanic St. ca. 1915 double 3-decker

781 56-13 200 Mechanic St. Stanley House ca. 1870 gable-end Greco-
Italianate

782 56-114 201 Mechanic St. J. Hartnet House ca. 1870 gable-end Greco-
Italianate
..>3 56-11.5 209 Mechanic St. 1890's Queen Anne

784 56-8 230 Mechanic St. C. Toohy House early 1870's gable-end Greco-
Italianate

785 56-6 244 Mechanic St. Barlow House eraly 1870's gable-end Greco-
Italianate

786 56-125 269 Mechanic St. Frye leather factory ca. 1910 utilitarian

787 43-93 294 Mechanic St. ca. 1927 Dutch Col. Revival

788 43-19 303 Mechanic St. battery factory ca. 1940 utilitarian
 INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property

Marlborough ~echanicnludson/Asb
Area
Massachusetts Historical Commission
80 Boylston Street Area(s) Form Nos.
Boston, Massachusetts 02116 X 11, 766 -788, 923

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INvENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property

Marlborough Mechanic~udson/Ash
Area
"1assachusetts Historical Commission
J Boylston Street Area(s) Form Nos.
Boston, Massachusetts 02116 X 11, 766 -788, 923
·INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property

Marlborough MechanicnHudsonlAsh
Area
Massachusetts Historical Commission
80 Boylston Street Area(s) Form Nos.
Boston, Massachusetts 02116 X H, 766 -788, 923
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property

Marlborough ~echanicfliudson/J\sh
Area
(assachusetts Historical Com.mission
J Boylston Street Areats) Form Nos.
Boston, Massachusetts 02116 X 11, 766 -788, 923

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INvE~rORY FOAAI CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property

Marlborough ~echanic/lfudson/Ash
Area
Massachusetts Historical Commission
80 Boylston Street Area(s) Form Nos.
Boston, Massachusetts 02116 X 11, 766 -788, 923

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II'.VEN'tORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property

Marlborough Mechanic/Hudson/ Ash

Area
~assachusetts Historical Commission
/ Boylston Street Area(s) Form Nos.
Boston, Massachusetts 02116 X 11, 766 -788, 923
 INvENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property

Marlborough Mechanic/Hudson/ Ash

Area
Massachusetts Historical Commission
80 Boylston Street Area(s) Form Nos.
Boston, Massachusetts 02116 X 11, 766 -788, 923

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