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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 /> 56 Hancock St. is a Greek Revival house that was moved from its original site across the street to its present location and then <br /> given some Colonial Revival finishes; it is thus the only house of its type in Lexington. The house is rectangular in plan, 2%: <br /> stories, five-by-two bays, side-gabled with two gabled dormers on the front slope of the roof, and has a large pilastered off-center <br /> ridge chimney. It is set on a fieldstone foundation, clad with wood clapboards, and roofed with asphalt shingles. A rear addition <br /> extends behind just the first story of the main block but is two stories in height because the land drops off behind the house. The <br /> main entry is in the center of the facade and the windows are 6/1 double hung sash. Greek Revival finishes include the frieze <br /> board across the facade,pilastered comerboards, and a pilastered door surround with full-length sidelights. Colonial Revival <br /> details include the full-width porch hood with wide cornice molding and the flattened-arch-with-keyblock doors on the garage <br /> attached to the north elevation. <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 the other side of Hancock St. on the lot where 55 Hancock St. (MHC#732) is now located. The <br /> house was built in 1849 by Warren Duren,a Woburn cordwainer who in 1848 had married Mary Chandler(1819-1892)of <br /> Lexington, daughter of the William Chandler from whom Duren bought the land. The house is dated by a mention in the deed for <br /> the land, which Duren purchased in November 1849, of"the house said Duren is now erecting on said lot." The Durens owned <br /> this house for the rest of the 19th century, selling it in July 1899 to George O. Whiting, who lived at what is now 8 Adams St. <br /> (MHC#697). Whiting then moved this house across Hancock St. to its present location and,on the lot it had occupied, built the <br /> house now at 55 Hancock St. for his daughter and her husband. It is thus likely that the Colonial Revival alterations to this house <br /> were made at the time it was moved. <br /> BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑ see continuation sheet <br /> Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington. Revised and continued to 1912 by the Lexington Historical Society. <br /> Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913. 2: 183-84. <br /> Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge, MA. 638: 279; 2751: 71. <br /> Worthen, Edwin B. to Mrs. Bruce Currie, 16 February 1951. Worthen Collection. Cary Library,Lexington, MA. <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 />