Maple Avenue Historic District

Maple Avenue in the Dana Hill area of Cambridge is a residential street first laid out in 1841, with larger lots than other streets between Broadway and Cambridge Street. The nominated district takes in both sides of the avenue from Marie Avenue to Broadway and is known above all for its Mansard-roofed houses built between about 1860 and 1890. Italianate, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival houses are mixed among them. The houses are widely spaced and vary in height and size, and Mansard roofs and bay windows create a rhythmic pattern along the street. Examples include the Francis B. Webster House of 1861, the Lewis Hall House of 1867, the Charles B. Stevens House of 1873 and the Philip Munroe House of 1887. Most buildings contribute to the district, though a vacant lot, a heavily altered house and some later two-family buildings are noted as intrusions. Reviewers valued the street as a collection of mid-19th century homes distinct from its changed surroundings.