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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 135 CEDAR STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2202 ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form. Use as much space as necessary to complete the following entries, allowing text to flow onto additional continuation sheets. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION: Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. 135 Cedar Street occupies a large, narrow lot that slopes down slightly from the street. The house is set towards the right front corner of its lot, with a deep front setback that is traversed by a semi-circular paved driveway across most of its street frontage. The front of the property is maintained chiefly in lawn, with scattered trees and shrubs. Paved walkways lead from the driveway to the front and side entrances. The building consists of an L-shaped main block with a large side addition. The main block rises two stories from a fieldstone foundation to two gabled wings with low pitched roofs and gable returns. The front-gabled wing has two chimneys: one exterior chimney near the center of its left side and one interior chimney on its left slope near the center and the ridgeline. Walls are clad with wood clapboards and trimmed with flat corner boards and a flat fascia board with bed molding. Windows typically have 6/6 double hung sash with plain flat casings. The fagade (street) elevation of the front-gabled wing has two windows on each floor(no attic window). On the street fagade of the side-gable wing, a one-story porch supported by square posts spans the first floor, its hip roof sheltering an offset single-leaf door and single window; two windows are set above. The right side elevation of the side-gabled wing of the house features a set of paired windows at the second floor and a small square window in the attic; the first floor is not visible from the street. On the left side of the main block is a one-story, side gabled addition set on a poured concrete foundation; its clapboards and trim echo the main block. The street facade of this addition has three asymmetrical windows of two different sizes; its gable end has an offset single-leaf door, a wood porch with wood steps, railing, and square posts, and a low shed roof. In back and to the left of the house is a small wood-frame shed with a side-gabled saltbox roof, shiplap siding, and narrow flat corner boards. Its long fagade (facing the house) has an offset door with horizontal panels and a horizontal window to the left. Well maintained, 135 Cedar Street is representative of early, rural buildings in Lexington. The modest house is notable for its large lot, L-shape, low pitched gable roofs with returns, simple front porch, and possibly early shed. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE 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. Cedar Street is an old country road, appearing on the town maps by 1853 (and perhaps as early as 1830), when it extended from what is known today as Massachusetts Avenue (a 17th century highway)to the Tophet Swamp in northwestern Lexington. The town almshouse and poor farm were established on a twenty-acre site at the corner of Hill and Cedar Streets in 1845, where they remained until 1930. Residential construction along the road was slow until the early 20th century; there were only three houses along the stretch of Cedar Street north of the almshouse throughout the 19th century. A building is depicted in this location on the 1853 town map under the name of Robinson, and in 1875 with the name of Patrick Powers. In both 1898 and 1906, unfortunately, the maps show the building but do not identify the owner/occupant. Patrick Powers was married in 1865 to Margaret Woods Mclnrae (also spelled McEnroe). They appear to have moved to this location between 1870 and 1875. By 1880, Patrick was identified as a farmer and was living here with his wife, three of her children from a previous marriage (the two sons worked on the farm), and two young boarders—five-year-old Ella McCue and four-year-old Hattie McCue. The federal agricultural census of that year lists him as owning 18 acres of tilled land, 20 acres of"improved" Continuation sheet 2