Professional Documents
Culture Documents
I 6,7, 17,
8, 19, 30, 3
II USGS Quad
Marlborough
Area Letter
II AP
Form Numbers in Area
I 1284-1290
Town Marlborough
fair
Major Intrusions and Alterations mjd- to late-
Streets included:
Algosi Street
Amory Road
Cullinane Drive
Lakeshore Drive
Longfellow Street
Meadow Street
SEE ATTACHED SHEET Oak Road
Paquin Drive
Pembroke Street
Red Spring Road
Reservoir Street
Spring Lane
Upland Road
Western View Road
Whittier Road
Follow ""'f{/~~~'achusetts
Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form
AREA FORM
Like most neighborhoods of its type, the lakeside-cottage community at Fort Meadow Reservoir in
Marlborough gives only a general impression of what it looked like when built in the 1930's and 1940's.
Still, it is significant as a rare survival of an intrinsically fragile neighborhood of low-cost, rustic
waterfront, often unweatherized houses. Most of the small cottages, cabins, and "camps" that were built
here, especially the ones for summer use, have been enlarged, winterized, and updated with new
windows, doors, etc. Still, the general scale and layout of much of the neighborhood remains intact,
as do a few of the buildings. Red Spring Road is still a long dirt road with its line of cottages widely
scattered between it and the shoreline, and the later cluster of streets in the area to its east, off Stevens
Street, still includes some relatively intact cottages, as well.
Typically, all the buildings here are wood-frame, and most are small, one-story structures on concrete-
block foundations. Surviving original details include 2-over-l or 6-over-l-sash windows, a few of which
retain either the vertical-board shutters that closed them up tight for the winter, or paneled shutters
decorated with pierced or applied designs. Cladding in wood shakes or shingles is common, as are low-
pitched or hipped overhanging roofs. A few fieldstone chimneys add to the rustic atmosphere. (Cont.)
The neighborhood along the shores of Fort Meadow Reservoir is significant as an illustration of a
rapidly vanishing type of residential area of the second quarter of the twentieth century in
Massachusetts--the lakeside cottage community. Between the two world wars entrepreneurs and realty
companies began dividing lake-front land in interior towns and cities to sell to low- or middle-income
families for small summer cottages, or "camps." The buyers were often city dwellers looking for
affordable summer homes; others were local residents who wanted to get away from the center city in ,i
the warm weather. Still others were buyers of limited means seeking to own permanent homes. Many
cottages and cabins were put up by the developers, while others were "home-built" designs constructed
by individual owners. It was fashionable to link these properties with natural features and with the
rustic life style of the Indians who once lived in the area. Here, that spirit is reflected in the names
associated with the development, such as "Indian Lake Shores" and Red Spring Road, named for a
nearby spring known to the early settlers.
The community here in Marlborough developed fairly late in the course of the lakeside "camp"
movement, which by the mid-'30's was declining in some communities as a result of new local zoning
and health laws that required minimum lot sizes, more stringent septic disposal procedures, etc. The
first few true "camps" at Fort Meadow were built in about 1938, and the area's major development took
place over the 1940's, extending into the early 1950's. Over 140 small lots were laid out on the south
side of the reservoir in the 1930's and '40's, and just after World War II about the same number were
subdivided on the north shore, where the earliest cottages appeared in about 1947. (Cont.)
The eastern section on the south shore, denser, later, and generally more altered and less wooded than
Red Spring Road, has a few relatively intact examples of cottages of other types. For eample, 137
Cullinane Drive is a 1 1/2-stOlY,three-bay gable-end, and 48 Westernview Road is a four-bay cottage
with 6-over-1 windows, overhanging pitched roof, and a small brick ridge chimney.
The buildings discussed above and listed 011 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.
INVI!:NTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community Property
1284 30~10 Red Spring Road Intercolonial Club ca. 1940 1 112-stol)', side-
gabled building