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BUILDING FORM <br /> ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION ❑see continuation sheet <br /> Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. <br /> 15 Cummings Ave. may be an early Federal house and, if so, it is one of several three-bay houses from this period in Lexington; <br /> other examples are at 321 Concord Ave. (MHC#558), 168 East St. (MHC#717), and 176 Cedar St. (MHC#692). This <br /> house has less integrity than the others,however,because it has been moved and lost more of its original finishes. The house is <br /> rectangular, 1'/z stories,three-by-one bays, and side-gabled with a front stove pipe. It is set on a fieldstone foundation, clad with <br /> asbestos shingles, and roofed with asphalt shingles. On the east elevation the roofline has been extended to meet a two-story, shed- <br /> roofed, one-by-one bay rear addition on cement posts. The enclosed main entry is at the southeast corner of the facade;windows <br /> are 1/1 double hung sash. There are two gabled dormers on the front-slope of the roof and a shed-roofed dormer on the west end <br /> of the rear slope. <br /> HISTORICAL NARRATIVE ❑see continuation sheet <br /> Discuss the history of the building. Explain its associations with local(or state) history. Include uses of the building, and the <br /> role(s) the owners/occupants played within the community. <br /> This house was originally on Bow St. near the present intersection with Cliffe Ave. facing the mill that was once located on a mill <br /> pond there. Worthen assumes that this is the same house that was described in an antiquarian account of Lexington in 1830 as <br /> "ancient looking . . . two stories in front with a long, slanting roof." A recent interior inspection,however, revealed little that <br /> would suggest an 18th-century construction date, although the new roof construction made it impossible to see the framing of the <br /> old roof. But this inspection did find features consistent with early 19th-century construction: post and beam framing, a reused <br /> summer beam, floor joists about the same depth as width, and cut nails. Because the massing of this house is similar to that of <br /> several early three-bay Federal houses in Lexington, it seems likely that this one,too,dates from the early Federal period. The <br /> house was moved to its present location about 1917 when J. W. Wilbur was developing the Bow St. area. <br /> BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑ see continuation sheet <br /> Bryant,Albert W. "Lexington Sixty Years Ago." Proceedings of Lexington Historical Society 2 (1900): 22. <br /> Campbell, Eva M. to Edwin B. Worthen, 12 April 1944. Worthen Collection, Cary Library, Lexington, MA. <br /> Worthen, Edwin B. Notes on buildings burned,torn down, and moved. "Houses"file,Worthen Collection. Cary Library, <br /> Lexington, Mass. #76, East Lex. <br /> Tracing the Past in Lexington, Massachusetts. New York: Vantage Press, 1998. 69. <br /> ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National <br /> Register Criteria Statement form. <br />