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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 171 GRANT STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2226 ® 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. 171 Grant Street occupies a sizeable lot on a main thoroughfare in eastern Lexington. Centered between its side property lines, the commanding house is set well back from the street, with a large back yard. Maintained chiefly in lawn, the land slopes up gently from the street in front of the house. A low brick retaining wall with a bluestone cap and low brick piers spans the street frontage and extends past the adjacent lots on either side of 171 Grant Street. A U-shaped paved driveway traverses the front yard, and large trees are scattered throughout the site. The building consists of a 2 '/2 story main block with various appendages on each side. The five by two bay main block measures approximately 50 by 30 feet, rising to a steeply pitched, side gable roof with interior end wall chimneys. The building is clad with brick and trimmed with a small molded cornice at the fagade and raking eaves. Windows typically have 6/6 double hung sash with flared brick lintels, cast stone or limestone sills, and hinged, louvered wood shutters secured with S-shaped catches. The monumental facade contains a two-story high portico with a flat roof, paneled Tuscan piers, a high entablature, and geometric-design roof balustrade. The front wall of the house has five bays. Its center entrance has an arched opening, which encloses a 6-panel wood door, % height leaded glass sidelights, a small semi-circular fanlight, and a semi-circular wood panel above. A large copper and glass lantern hangs from the ceiling at the entrance bay. Above the doorway is a paired window unit. The asymmetrical right side elevation contains two windows on each floor, including the attic story. A one-story, flat roofed entry porch is set at the back corner of this elevation, featuring Tuscan posts, a molded entablature, and a triplet of modern casement windows. A small brick appendage extends beyond that entrance; it displays a large modern picture window. The left side elevation is symmetrical, dominated by a large, one-story porch across the full width. It features a flat roof, Tuscan posts, a molded entablature, and screened openings. Two windows are set on each of the second and half stories. Well preserved and well maintained, 171 Grant Street is an extraordinary example of high-style, traditional Colonial Revival design in Lexington, prominently located on a major thoroughfare. It is notable for its size and scale, academic detailing, monumental portico, and imposing setting. 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. Today's Grant Street is an accumulation of several roadways. The base of the street, between Massachusetts Avenue and Sheridan Street, appears between 1875 and 1889, when it provided convenient access to the Hayes estate on Meriam Hill. The short section between Sheridan and Hayes Lane appears between 1898 and 1906. The then-discontinuous stretch from Hayes Lane to Granny's Hill was established as part of Hayes Lane by 1853. Grant Street was extended between Granny's Hill and East Street between 1875 and 1898. By the third quarter of the 19th century, however, only a few buildings clustered near the base of Grant Street, near the important intersection with Vine and Woburn streets; two buildings were located north of Vine Brook, near Granny's Hill, in 1875. North of Vine Brook, development along Grant Street was extremely sparse through the 19th and turn of the 20th centuries. Continuation sheet I