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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. 58 Hancock St. is one of the relatively few Second Empire cottages in Lexington and is a well-preserved example of its type. The house is composed of a two-by-two bay block combined with a one-by-one bay block to make it a front-facing L in form, is 1'/Z stories, and has a straight mansard roof and two small chimneys. The house is set on a brick foundation, clad with wood clapboards, and roofed with slates. An open rear porch has been added at the rear. The main entry is on the front arm of the"L," a secondary enclosed entry is in the reentrant angle, and windows are 2/2 double hung sash. The flat-roofed dormers have projecting molded cornices; there are paired brackets with pendant drops at the corners of the house and on the corners of the three-sided, one-story front bay; and nulled brackets with pendant drops under the entry hood. 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 built in 1872 by Lorin Wetherell,whose son in 1874 married the daughter of Brooks Batcheller,who lived in the house now at 53 Hancock St. (MHC#730). The lot on which this house stands had no buildings when Wetherell bought it in April 1871 but did when he mortgaged it in June 1872, indicating this house had been built in the intervening year. Further evidence for this construction date is Lorin Wetherell's tax assessment,which was for 3'/�acres and no house in 1871 but for 3'/z acres and a house valued at$3000 in 1872. The house is on the site of an earlier one inhabited by Jonas Parker, who was killed in the skirmish on the Lexington Common on April 19, 1775. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑ see continuation sheet Lexington Valuation Lists. 1871-1872. Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge, MA. 1181: 613; 1215: 489. Worthen, Edwin B. to John Hovorka, 18 July 1956. Worthen Collection. Cary Library, Lexington, MA. ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.