Laserfiche WebLink
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 /> 5-7 Curve St. is one of several Georgian houses in Lexington that have been moved,but although the move was over 50 years <br /> ago,the house has since been sided and has lost most of its architectural integrity. The house is rectangular, 2'/z stories, five-by- <br /> three bays, and side-gabled with two front end and one rear off-center chimneys. It is set on a fieldstone foundation, clad with <br /> vinyl siding and roofed with asphalt shingles. It now has a double center entrance and two small enclosed rear entries;windows <br /> are 2/2 double hung sash. <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 Massachusetts Ave. around the corner from Curve St. where the one-story brick office building at <br /> 789 Massachusetts Ave. is now located. Although it has not been possible to establish exactly when the house was built or by <br /> whom, deed research indicates that it was owned in the early 19th century by the widow of John Williams. Since the Direct Tax of <br /> 1798 lists a house owned by John Williams and this house has a Georgian profile, it was very likely built in the 18th century. An <br /> antiquarian account of this part of Massachusetts Ave. in 1830 says the land had been part of the Thomas Fessenden estate but <br /> does not discuss this house specifically. Worthen describes it as the"Munroe-Fiske"or the"Fiske-Clapp"house, and it was <br /> owned by a Clapp and a Munroe. In 1829 John Williams' widow sold the house,then on eight acres, to Eli Robbins, an important <br /> businessman in East Lexington. Robbins built anew house just east of this one—the house now at 773 Massachusetts Ave. <br /> (MHC#219)—and in 1831 sold this house to William Clapp, a trader who died in 1842 and whose widow then sold it to <br /> Thaddeus Munroe. Thaddeus died in 1846 and this house was inherited by his son George, who built the large house now at 344 <br /> Lowell St. (MHC#662)and rented this one out. Beginning in 1854 the lefthand side was occupied by James Fiske and his <br /> daughters Emma and Carrie,the latter for many years a teacher at the Adams School in East Lexington. The righthand side had <br /> BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑ see continuation sheet <br /> Bryant, Albert W. "Lexington Sixty Years Ago." Proceedings of Lexington Historical Society 2 (1900): 39-41. <br /> Direct Tax of 1798. Microfilm. Cary Library, Lexington, MA. <br /> Lexington Directory. 1913, 1916, 1918, 1924, 1926. <br /> Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge, MA. 294: 20; 304: 536;428: 514. <br /> Worthen, Edwin B. Notes on buildings burned,torn down,and moved. "Houses"file,Worthen Collection. Cary Library, <br /> Lexington, Mass. #65, East Lex. 7. <br /> A Calendar History of Lexington,Massachusetts, 1620-1946. Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Savings Bank, 1946. 116. <br /> Tracing the Past in Lexington, Massachusetts. New York: Vantage Press, 1998. 50. <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 />