I FORM B - BUILDING Assessor's number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number

Massachusetts Historical Commission80 Boylston StreetBoston, Massachusetts 02116

I 93-89-A I IMarlborough I

Sketch MapDraw a map of the area indicating properties withinit. Number each property for which individualinventory forms have been completed. Label streets,including route numbers, if any. Attach a separatesheet if space is not sufficient here. Indicate north.

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1ecorded by Anne Forbes

Organization for Marlboro His! Comm

Date 119/95,

AE 647

Town Ma rIborough

Place (neighborhood or village) _

Marlborough Iunction

Address 56 Framingham Road

Michael Burke HouseHistoric Name

Uses: Present dweJ1ing

Original dwe]]jng

Date of Construction ca 1895

Source maps; visual assessment

Style/Form Federal Revival

Architect/Builder unknown

Exterior Material:

Foundation granite block

WaUffrim wood dapboa rd

Roof asphalt shingle

Outbuildings/Secondary Structures _

former gambrel-roofed carriage house, nowon adjacent lot

Major Alterations (with dates) enclosed

porch and wooden fire escape on north end,

a few windmys replaced

Condition good

Moved [X] no [ ] yes Date __ N•...•.•••./A"'-- __

Acreage

Setting

1 89 acres

On large, open lot with stone wall

along front A few mature trees In residen-tial area with many modern houses, a few19th-centuTV residences..

BUILDING FORM

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION [] see continuation sheetDescribe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildingswithin the community.

Although at least one source claims that this house was built in 1887, it does not appear on the mapof 1889. Its style, in fact, would indicate a construction date in the mid-1890's. It is a massive two-story, three-bay building with a hipped roof. On the facade, a pair of full-height rounded bays flankthe center entry. Another semi-circular bay projects from the rear southeast comer. Three tall brickchimneys rise from the roof, which is also pierced by a three-part dormer over the center facade, anda round-headed dormer over each side. Typical of the Federal Revival, the facade is dominated bya Palladian window at the center of the second story, and by a tall, divided-light, round-headedwindow in the upper part of each facade bay. There is a variety of other windows, including largethree-part l-over-l-sash (replacements for at the first story in the bays, and several single l-over-I's.The main entry has a wide paneled door surrounded by oversized leaded sidelights and transom.It is sheltered by an entry porch and balcony with elaborately fumed posts and balustrades,supported on paired Tuscan columns. An open, hip-roofed porch on the south end of the houseis also supported on Tuscan columns.

HISTORICAL NARRATIVE [ ] see continuation sheetExplain history of the building. Explain its associations with local (or state) history. Include uses of thebuilding, and the role(s) the owners/occupants pla..ved within the community.

At the end of the nineteenth century, several wealthy Marlborough businessmen built large countryestates on the former farmland at Marlborough Junction. Oren P. Walker built a mansion(demolished) on Maple Street opposite the factory he founded to make carriages, and laterautomobiles, and entrepreneur and leather-dealer Frank Billings built his residence just to the south,at 93 Framingham Road. (See Form #648.)

This house was built for liquor-dealer Michael Burke, whose store was located on Main Street. Theson of an Irish immigrant, Michael Burke, Sr., in spite of his profession as a liquor dealer at a timewhen temperance-minded residents were still closely regulating the sale of alcohol, Michael Burkedeveloped a reputation as a civic-minded citizen. He donated $1,000 for the building of the library,served on the City Hall Building Commission, and gave the city a five-acre playground, complete withbenches and a fountain.

After the death of Mr. Burke and his wife, Florence, his nephew, Carroll Daly (Daley) became theowner of the house.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES [] see continuation sheetMaps and atlases: 1900.Bigelow, Ella. Historical Reminiscences of Marlborough, Mass. 1910.Marlborough Directories.The Marlborough Enterplise. 1O/31n7.Marlborough Historical Society: Moineau Photo Collection

[J Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, a completedNational Register Criteria Statement form is attached.

I FORM B - BUILDING Assessor's number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number

I I Marlborough IMassachusetts Historical Commission80 Boylston StreetBoston, Massachusetts 02116

AE 648

Marlborough

lace (neighborhood or village) _

Marlborough Junction

93 Framingham Road

Frank Billings House

Present c1we1ljng

Original dweJ]jng

Date of Construction __ .....•.1L.L89..t...S""""- _

< , :... )'0.·. " ~;Marlborough Enterprise

Queen Anne/Colonial Revival.~y .. ,

., unknown

Exterior Material:

Sketch MapDraw a map of the area indicating properties withinit. Number each property for which individualinventory forms have been completed. Label streets,including route numbers, if any. Attach a separatesheet if space is not sufficient here. Indicate north.

Foundation DIbble

Wanrrrim synthetic siding

Roof asphalt shingle

Outbuildings/Secondary Structures _

none

Major Alterations (with dates) some IDmor

changes to pottjes and windows

Condition fair

Moved [X] no [ 1 yes Date __ N_I_A _

Acreage 49 acres

"ecorded by Anoe Forbes Setting On large lot with wide, open front

Organization

Date 7/9/95

yard; mature trees jn front of house along cir-cular drive. Residential area with manymodem houses, a few 19th-C residences

for Marlboro His! Camm

BUILDING FORM

ARCIDTECfURAL DESCRIPTION [] see continuation sheetDescribe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildingswithin the community.

One of Marlborough's largest houses of the 1890's, the Billings House is also the only example ofits type in the city. It is a very long 2 1/2-story residence, 9 by 4 bays, with a combination hippedand gabled roof. (The upper gable ends stop short of the first and second story end walls, which are \thus covered with a short section of hipped roof.) A tall chimney pierces the lower roof plane of (the north end. Abutting the southwest rear comer of the house is a gable-end carriage house witha facade that repeats the stepped-back gable motif. Its diagonal-board, strapped door is typical ofthe 1890's.

Although the style and form of the house are consistent with the Queen Anne era of the 1890's, thehouse is not ornate, and what detail there is shows a combination of Queen Anne interest in textureand form, and the classical vocabulary of the early Colonial Revival. There are two main facadeentries-the southernmost has a pedimented hood supported on a pair of Tuscan columns, andanother near the north end has a glassed-in vestibule. A screened sunporch on doubled squarecolumns extends from the north end of the house. The windows are 6-over-6-sash, with shutters.A horizontal band rings the building between first and second stories, and, in a reference to theShingle Style, a curved, shingled hood appears over a double shuttered window in the north gable.

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)HISTORICAL NARRATIVE [ ] see continuation sheet )Explain history of the building. Explain its associations with local (or state) history. Include uses of thebuilding, and the role(s) the owners/occupants played within the community.

At the end of the nineteenth century, several wealthy Marlborough businessmen built large countryestates on the former farmland at Marlborough Junction. In 1891 Oren P. Walker built a mansion(demolished) on Maple Street opposite the factory he founded to make carriages, and laterautomobiles, and liquor-dealer Michael Burke followied with an elegant residence at 56 FraminghamRoad (see Form #647.) This large house was the home of entrepreneur and leather-dealer FrankBillings. In 1881 he had capitalized on the need for Marlborough's shoe-manufacturers to bothacquire and dispose of surplus leather, and founded the Marlborough Leather Exchange. It eventuallybecame a facility for trading in surplus stock, machinery, and supplies, as well.

Over the years Mr. Billings was also involved in other enterprises. He built a bleaching works nearbyat Marlborough Junction in the 1890's, manufactured women's shoes for a time, and in the first decadeof the twentieth century, undertook the production of shoe heels in the Wood-Willard Building onLincoln Street. (See Area Form H.)

In later years this house was the home of a mayor of Marlborough, Frank Walker.

BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES [] see continuation sheetMaps and atlases: 1900.Bigelow, Ella. Historical Reminiscences of Marlborough, Mass. 1910.Marlborough Directories.Hurd, D.H. History of Middlesex County. 1890.

[] Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, a completedNational Register Criteria Statement form is attached.