GrandviewAve_25.html

<p><strong>FORM B − BUILDING</strong></p>
<p><span class="smallcaps">Massachusetts Historical Commission</span></p>
<p><span class="smallcaps">Massachusetts Archives Building</span></p>
<p><span class="smallcaps">220 Morrissey Boulevard</span></p>
<p><span class="smallcaps">Boston, Massachusetts 02125</span></p>
<p>Photograph</p>
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<p><strong>Locus Map</strong> (<em>North is up</em>)</p>
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<td><strong>Recorded by: Jennifer B. Doherty</strong></td>
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<td><strong>Organization: Medford Historical Commission</strong></td>
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<td><strong>Date:</strong> <em>April, 2015</em></td>
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<p>Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number</p>
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<td>L – 08 – 41</td>
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<td>Boston North</td>
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<td>MDF.M</td>
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<td>MDF.1105</td>
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<p>LHD 2002</p>
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<td><strong>Town/City:</strong> Medford</td>
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<td><strong>Place:</strong> Medford Square</td>
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<td><strong>Address:</strong> 25 Grandview Avenue</td>
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<td><strong>Historic Name:</strong> Mary B. Held House</td>
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<td><strong>Uses:</strong> <strong>Present: Single-family Residential</strong></td>
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<p><strong>Original: Single-family Residential</strong></p>
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<td><strong>Date of</strong> <strong>Construction:</strong> 2003</td>
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<td><strong>Source:</strong> Assessor’s records, deeds</td>
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<td><strong>Style/Form:</strong> Early 21<sup>st</sup> century vernacular</td>
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<td><strong>Architect/Builder:</strong> Unknown</td>
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<td><strong>Exterior Material:</strong></td>
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<p><strong>Foundation: Poured concrete</strong></p>
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<p><strong>Wall/Trim: Painted wood clapboard</strong></p>
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<p><strong>Roof: Asphalt shingle</strong></p>
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<td><strong>Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:</strong> None</td>
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<td><strong>Major Alterations:</strong> Unknown</td>
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<td><strong>Condition:</strong> Excellent</td>
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<td><strong>Moved: no</strong>  <strong>yes</strong>  <strong>Date:</strong></td>
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<td><strong>Acreage:</strong> 0.23 A</td>
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<td><strong>Setting: In a neighborhood of older, larger Queen Anne style houses. One of the few infill buildings in a neighborhood of single-family houses mostly built in the 1890s.</strong></td>
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<p> Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.</p>
<p><em>If checked, you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.</em></p>
<p><em><strong>Use as much space as necessary to complete the following entries, allowing text to flow onto additional continuation sheets.</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION:</strong></p>
<p><em>Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community.</em></p>
<p><em>The Mary B. Held House is typical of suburban construction from the early 21<sup>st</sup> century. It is a simply massed two-story, double-pile, five-bay building. The left half of the facade is embellished by a three-bay, full-height gable upon which a centrally located, projecting, gabled entrance bay is superimposed. A shallow hipped door hood that provides protection from the elements covers the main entry, and the solid entry door is framed by full-height sidelights. The building’s right elevation is given visual interest by a projecting full-height cross-gable Because of the hillside location of the Held House, the basement is exposed on the south elevation, leaving space for a two-bay garage incorporated into the building. The garage is split into two sections, because of the cross-gable, with a single-bay, single-car garage beneath each pile of the house. The house sits on a poured concrete foundation, is covered in painted wood clapboard siding, and has an asphalt shingle roof. The shuttered windows are modern one-over-one sash, although a false muntin in the top sash gives the appearance of two-over-one sash. On the south elevation are larger three-part windows composed of a large picture window framed by two narrow one-over-one sash. These allow the homeowners to take advantage of views into Medford and Boston.</em></p>
<p><em>The Mary B. Held House has perhaps some of the best views in Medford. Sited on the east side of Grandview Avenue, its steep hillside location looks out over Medford and down into Boston. The house has landscaping and grass in the front yard and to the north, while the space to the south is mostly paved. The rear of the house is visible from Governors Avenue; the lot slopes away from the house quickly.</em></p>
<p><strong>HISTORICAL NARRATIVE</strong></p>
<p><em>Discuss the history of the building. Explain its associations with local (or state) history. Include uses of the building, and the role(s) the owners/occupants played within the community.</em></p>
<p><em>The Mary B. Held House is a recent addition to the neighborhood, built on land that until recently belonged to the city of Medford. As early as 1855 the city had a high school at the base of Pasture Hill, and by 1875 had acquired more land in the area. Over the years, in addition to the school (later converted from a high school to a grammar school), the city added a central telephone exchange building, and a polling place. Another small lot on this city-owned parcel was sold or leased to the Medford Historical Society for their headquarters a century before c. 1916 (MDF.119). This piece of land in the heart of Medford Square essentially served multiple utilitarian purposes for the city.</em></p>
<p><em>In the 1950s the land to the north of the historical society building was split into two parcels, a smaller parcel of 5,300 square feet surrounded by a larger parcel of 13,605 square feet (see plan, below). The reason for this odd division is unclear, but the smaller parcel was sold by the city first, in 1957. By the 1970s Mary B. Held and her husband Richard C. Held had inherited the smaller lot, and in 1977 they sold it to their son Ronald J. Held. In 1981 Mrs. Held acquired the larger 13,605 square foot parcel from the city of Medford, and that same year her son sold her the smaller parcel, leaving her in sole control of the two pieces of formerly city-owned land. Mrs. Held appears to have done nothing with the land, and in 2002 sold both parcels to TR Recovery Corporation. TR Recovery was registered in 1994 with an address in Middleton, although Anthony Centrella, the listed president, treasurer, and secretary, gives a Medford address; the company was involuntarily dissolved in 2012. No further information is available about the company.</em></p>
<p><em>TR Recovery filed a plan with the Middlesex South Registry of Deeds in 2004 showing new lot lines for the land they purchased from Mrs. Held. This plan divided the land into two lots, one of about 10,000 square feet and the second a little less than 8,000 square feet. TR Recovery appears to have built the houses on both lots, the Held House in 2003 and 12 Governors Avenue in 2005. After the houses were built, TR Recovery sold the properties to their current owners.</em></p>
<p><em>Even though it was recently constructed, the Mary B. Held House is part of the Hillside Avenue Historic District because it was built on land included in the district. The district was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on April 21, 1975 and was made a local historic district on February 15, 1985.</em></p>
<p><strong>BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES</strong></p>
<p><em><span class="underline">Maps</span></em></p>
<p>1855 Henry F. Walling, <em>Map of the Town of Medford, Middlesex County, Mass.</em></p>
<p>1900 Geo. W. Stadly &amp; Co., <em>Atlas of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Volume 1</em>.</p>
<p>Sanborn Insurance Atlas 1910, 1936, 1950</p>
<p><em><span class="underline">Published Sources</span></em></p>
<p>"Mary B. (Zamparelli) Held," <em>Boston Globe</em>. 10 August 2013.</p>
<p><em><span class="underline">Unpublished Sources</span></em></p>
<p><em>Middlesex South Registry of Deeds Book 9044, Page 32; 13126/79; 14482/327; 14482/328; 37057/309; 42918/531; Plan Book 1981, Plan 1341; Plan Book 2004, Plan 432</em></p>
<p><img src="media/image3.png" style="width:5.97361in;height:3.98194in" /></p>
<p><em>The main façade and south elevation of the Mary B. Held House</em></p>
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