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BUILDING FORM ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION ❑see continuation sheet Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. 3 Bow St. is one of the dwindling number of 19th-century post-and-beam barns remaining in Lexington and one of the few that has been converted to commercial use. The building is rectangular,two stories,three-by-five bays, and front-gabled with a side chimney. Its foundation is not visible, it is clad with wood shingles, and roofed with asphalt shingles. At the rear is a 1'/Z-story three-by-two bay gabled addition with a side exterior chimney. There are two entrances on the front gable end with a picture window between them and an additional entrance at the rear. The barn has eave returns that have been boxed in, comerboards, side frieze boards, and a hay door on the south elevation. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE ❑ see continuation sheet 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. Lexington assessors' records indicate that this barn was standing in 1831 but not exactly when it was built, for these records do not list individual buildings before 1831 or between 1831 and 1840. The barn was probably built by Micajah Locke,who lived in the house in front of it at 109 Massachusetts Ave. (MHC 4634)and had bought the property in 1812. The barn's post-and-beam framing and five-sided ridge pole are certainly characteristic of Federal period barn construction. In 1847 when the railroad,now the bikepath, was laid out behind the barn,the surveyors apparently erred, for the railroad's property line cuts through a corner of the building. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑see continuation sheet Lexington Valuation Lists. 1812-1870. Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge, MA. 199: 316. Douglas Touart, personal communication 1998. ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.