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BUILDING FORM ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION ❑ see continuation sheet Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. 52 Hancock St. is a more modest house than its immediate high-style neighbors; it contributes, however,to the group of 19th-and early 20th-century houses on Hancock St. and is one of the relatively few known examples in Lexington of a shop that was converted into a house. The house is rectangular with a rear ell,two stories,five-by-two bays, and side-gabled with a rear off- center chimney;the ell is two stories and front-gabled with a ridge chimney. The house is set on a brick foundation,clad with wood clapboards, and roofed with asphalt shingles. On the north elevation is a two-story shed-roofed addition with a small ridge chimney, and in the reentrant angle is a one-story hip-roofed addition. There is also an attached garage on the north end. The center entrance is enclosed by a gable-roofed entry whose Colonial Revival features—modillions under the gable cornice and leaded tracery in the sidelights—suggest it may have been added at the turn of the century. Most of the windows are 6/6 double hung sash, although some are 2/2, 4/1, or 8/1. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE ❑ see continuation sheet 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. This house was originally a shop. It was remodeled into a house in 1874, as evidenced by the fact that Albert Fletcher Spaulding, the then owner of the lot on which it stands,was assessed in 1874 for the house he had just built at 54 Hancock St. (MHC#731) and a barn, but in 1875 for another house(this one)and no barn. When this house was remodeled it may also have been moved forward on the lot, but that is not clear. This house was purchased in 1903 by George O.Whiting, who lived in the house at 8 Adams St. (MHC#697)and also owned the houses at 54,56, and 58 Hancock St. (MHC#731, 733, 734) and it may have at that time that the enclosed front entry was added. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑see continuation sheet Lexington Valuation Lists. 1872-1875. Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge, MA. 3022: 513. Worthen, Edwin B.to Mrs. Bruce Currie, 16 February 1951. Worthen Collection. Cary Library, Lexington, MA. i ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.