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ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE (describe important architectural features and <br /> evaluate in terms of other buildings within community) <br /> This house, built by the eldest son of a successful insurance agent on <br /> family land, is suitably ample. Prominent features are the entrance portico <br /> with paired Ionic columns, bell cast roof and an unusual dormer with polygonal <br /> peaked roof and angled window arrangement which conveys the sense almost of a <br /> turret emerging through the roof. <br /> HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE (explain the role owners played in local or state history <br /> and how the building relates to the development of the community) <br /> Edgewood Road was laid out before 1898 by the Benjamin F. Brown family <br /> extending across their property from Hancock to Meriam streets in a gentle bow. <br /> Benjamin F. Brown had a successful insurance agency in Charlestown and had <br /> moved to Lexington in 1876. Franklin D. Brown (b. 1860) , the eldest son of <br /> his four sons, joined him in the business. F.D. Brown was the first to build <br /> on the new street. In all three more houses were built on or adjacent to the <br /> street by members of the Brown family. The houses, including a second one for <br /> Frank D. Brown (at 28 Meriam Street) built in 1906, were designed by B.F. <br /> Brown's youngest son Willard. <br /> BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES <br /> Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexinqton, revised and continued to <br /> 1912 by the Lexington Historical Society, Volume II, p. 71. Boston: <br /> Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913. <br /> Personal communication from Sarah Emily Brown Shoenhut. <br /> 1889 atlas <br /> 1894 Directory 20M-2/80 <br /> 1898 map <br />