BlockThe nomination, in full
Bibliography, boundary description, and the people who prepared and reviewed the nomination.
1S16 AREA FORM NO. 31 FORM B - BUILDING MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 80 BOYLSTON STREET BOSTON, MA 02116 AUG 2 1 1989 NATIONAL REGISTEFOwn Address Historic Name WALTHAM, MA MRA Waltham, Massachusetts 337 Crescent Street Charles Byam House Photo (3"x 3" or 3"x5", black and white) Indicate address of property on back of photo. Staple to left side of form. Use Present private residential - Original private residential DESCRIPTION Date 1883 - 1886 Source Maps, Atlases Style Queen Anne Architect . -unknown Exterior Wall Fabric. clapboards Outbuildings _ garage NC Sketch Map: Draw map showing property's location in relation to nearest cross streets and/or geographical features. Indicate all buildings between inventoried property and nearest intersection(s). Indicate north Sce attached sheet Major Alterations (with dates) -none Condition good Moved no - Date n/a Acreage Setting 0.23 A.
9,925 sq. ft. 76-8-3 Overlooks Charles River, part of Crescent St's collection of wel1-crafted Queen Anne houses. UTM REFERENCE 19/315280/4692290 USGS QUADRANGLE - NEWTON SCALE 1:25,000 Recorded by Edward W. Gordon Organization Waltham Historical Comm. Date June, 1986 revised by C. Jenkins 3/88 NATIONAL REGISTER CRITERIA STATEMENT (if applicable) 337 Crescent Street is part of Crescent Street's collection of well-crafted and well-detailed Queen Anne houses. It provides an unspoiled glimpse of the home of a late 19th century, skilled, American Waltham Watch Company worker and department foreman. For many years, it was the home of Charles C. Byman, department foreman of the American Waltham Watch Company's escapement department. The Byam House possesses integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association.
As a representative of the de- velopment of the South Side's development by the "Watch" and as a well detailed ex- ample ARCHITECTURAL L SIGNYFICANEE stbescribetcortant architedtthaNatieaturegistar. evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community. This house exemplifies the type of substantial housing built for the upper echelon of American Waltham Watch Company. employees along Crescent Street during the 1880's and 1890's. Architecturally, it represents a variation on a Queen Anne theme - its (as yet unidentified) house-builder constructed several similarly rendered houses in the Crescent Street/Adams Street section of the South Side. #337 Crescent Street is a compact, essentially rectangular plan house, which retains its clapboard sheathing.
Its 3-bay main facade features a projecting center-pavilion, an open front porch with chinese fret-work railings, turned posts, and curvilinear brackets. The porch's entrance is marked by a broad gable.Projecting from its south wall is a 1-story oriel, which is surmounted by an open porch. The projecting center pavilion features a 2nd floor (cont) HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE Explain the role owners played in local or state history and how the building relates to the development of the community. #337 Crescent Street was build ca. 1883-1886 for American Waltham Watch Company foreman, Charles C. Byam. During the early 1880's, he lived at 27 Maple Street and "Cherry Street next to the Common" - both South Side addresses. The 1886 Atlas clearly shows that 337 Crescent was built by 1886 - it appears labeled C.C. Byam on the 1886 Atlas.
During the mid-1880's, he was the assistant foreman of the American Waltham Watch Company's escapement department. He was foreman of the department by 1890. Evidently he rose through the ranks as a skilled watch-machinery worker. Members of the Byam family owned this house until at least the late 1920's. This house's lot was part of the 160 acres purchased from the Benis family by the Waltham Improvement Company (W.I.C.) in 1854. Most of W.I.C.'s investors were from Waltham, with many fron the Boston Manufacturing Company and Newton Chymical. It was formed in 1853 to purchase the Bemis fanilv's farm. A large riverside parcel fronted by a wide dust-buffer zone was resold to the Watch Company, and it soon became a park. W.I.C.
was also beginning to lay out streets (which would be gas-lit), transforming the remainder of its one-sixth portion of the South Side, by its use of both a grid-system, and restrictive covenants. In force until the 1880's, these covenants (cont) BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Maps/Atlases - 1854, 1875, 1881, 1883, 1886, 1900, 1923 Waltham Directories - 1870's, 1880's, 1890's Seymour, Nancy - "The Emergence of Waltham's South Side from the Seventeenth 8/85 Century to the Mid-Twentieth" , 1986 Charles C. Byam House 337 Crescent Street #31 ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE, 357 Crescent Street, continued double-window, which is surmounted by a pointed, arched, attic window - this type of widow is evidently a sort of house builder's signature, as it appears on - other houses in the area - most notably at 215 Adams Street (see Form). This house is enclosed by a slate-shingled hip-roof.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE, continued established the predominantly residential and Protestant character of the W.I.C's holding in the western section of the South Side. Crescent Street was lined with trees and seventeen houses within three or four years of the Watch Company's arrival. NPS Form 10-900-e - (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number. Page OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 AUG 2 1 1989 Multiple Resource Area Thematic Group Name State Waltham MRA Middlesex County, MASSACHUSETTS Nomination/Type of Review Date/Signature 11. Boston Manufacturing Company Housing (153--165 River St.) tered in the Stomed. Repts Entered in the 12. Brigham House jatilonad Register Leeper Zhlmusbgun Attest 4/8/4 L Keeper AeluuBgua 9/28/89 Attest 13. Building at 202--204 Charles Street 1.
Keeper +10cled the National Register Attest AlmuBzun 9/28/89 14. Buttrick, Francis, Housentered in the National Register /Keeper HelmuByu 9/28/09 Attest Sur 15. Buttrick, Francis, Library Jo Keeper Substantive Review Bokt-Sauge Attest 9/28/89 16. Byam, Charles, Houseintered in tha datiunad Regtator /Keeper AueueBun 1/22/89 Attest 17. Central Square Historic District Entered in the National Register Keeper Auloesya 9/26/59 Attest 18. Charles Street Workers' Housing Historic District intered in ths Rattonad 20 /Keeper ( ThlaDye 9/25/59 SP 19. Christ Episcopal Church 20.
Clough, Benjamin F., House Attest Substantive Review Soriceper porif Sange v2oleg Attest {Keeper Tearußgu 9/28/59 rod 1r tho Rogintoz Attest UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET REQUESTED ACTION: NOMINATION PROPERTY Byam, Charles, House NAME: MULTIPLE NAME: Waltham MRA STATE & COUNTY: MASSACHUSETTS, Middlesex DATE RECEIVED: 8/21/89 DATE OF 16TH DAY: DATE OF WEEKLY LIST: 9/21/89 DATE OF PENDING LIST: 9/05/89 DATE OF 45TH DAY: 10/05/89 REFERENCE NUMBER: 89001576 NOMINATOR: STATE REASONS FOR REVIEW: APPEAL: N DATA PROBLEM: N LANDSCAPE: N LESS THAN 50 YEARS: N OTHER: N PDIL: N PERIOD: N PROGRAM UNAPPROVED: N REQUEST: N SAMPLE: N SLR DRAFT: N NATIONAL: N COMMENT WAIVER: N ACCEPT RETURN REJECT 9/28/59 _DATE Entered in the National Register ABSTRACT/SUMMARY COMMENTS: RECOM./CRITERIA REVIEWER DISCIPLINE DATE DOCUMENTATION see attached comments Y/N see attached SLR Y/N CLASSIFICATION count _resource type STATE/FEDERAL AGENCY CERTIFICATION FUNCTION historic current DESCRIPTION architectural classification materials descriptive text SIGNIFICANCE Period Areas of Significance--Check and justify below Specific dates Builder/Architect Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) summary paragraph completeness clarity applicable criteria Justification of areas checked relating significance to the resource context relationship of integrity to significance justification of exception other BIBLIOGRAPHY GEOGRAPHICAL DATA acreage UTMS verbal boundary description boundary justification ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTATION/PRESENTATION sketch maps USGS maps photographs OTHER COMMENTS Questions concerning this nomination may be directed to Phone Signed Date presentation By en, chorles, Huse MHC #31 337 Crescent s0.
MRt- waltham, uk. Byan Cherles, Htece MHC#31 watham. Ha 337 crescent st. 49 131.98 38.11 13.65 *50338 T9 18 /17 *27 N 37.41 16 6-8 53,25/ 10-12 4g s 65:56 14-18 45 2 52.07 3 65.86 53 4 31 65 9 Lox 10h 5298 54.63; 218 29.5. 3020 314 CRESCENT -* 182.4 80-121 T125(e)<145(s) 145.54 133.41 1.83 39.67 38.12 25 49 125 49 75 100 15 49/ 14 50 185-183 187 0=188 219 05 73 150 100 10 3 150 71.21 3g 15 8105 320-3225 6 326-328 331-333 337 50 13 : 12 26=28 50 -30-32 40 29-31- 40-42 25 33-35 32 40 6 7 11.23 Q 6 31-18 64.56 40 90.41 31-18 36.05 56 31-18 ,10 78. 120 75 1.337 12 6 -50.98 25 126.7 334 3 67.435 83.7 343 40 362 80 5 8 90 120 r- 780 9 193 BO 40 10 60 80_. 199-197 80 8 3-18 8 80 207-205 208:206 75 9 73.91 150 39.09 100 67 4 60 75 80 23 1.91~ 2-1) 7 00-234 62 41 50 60 ST 100 57 53 60-52 50 -57-59- - 100 4 75 64-66 83 -75 2/1.
215 ADAMS 220:218)-216:2105 50 4 75 12 150 5 TOd 100.03 1La, 5 50 100 8 P1.2T 75 337 10,r+8 9 80 1 4,8 40 -48.2 S CHESTER 41.0 18 60 60 :15-17. 24 160 60 3 129.17 -Sanoa 20 95 -19-21 2AYE27-29 *50 145 15 25.025 10d 4 60.99 4 x--140. 140 64.21 (73744 67.62 60.99 114 -101.47- 4 13- 50.82)45.75 60 5g 7 14809 WALTHAM, MA MRA Charles Byam House #31 64.07 176.82 337 Crescent Street 1" =100' 1975; updated to 1987 Waltham Engineering Dept. lot #76-8-3 7 N COVE Please refer to the map in the Multiple Property Cover Sheet for this property Multiple Property Cover Sheet Reference Number: 64000301