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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. 2 Hayes Ln. is one of two former fire stations in Lexington and is more intact than the other,which was built in 1857 and is now a residence at 6 Fletcher Ave. (MHC#669). This building is rectangular, one story,three-by-three bays, and front-gabled with a side chimney. It is set on a cement block foundation, clad with wood shingles, and roofed with asphalt shingles. The center entrance has a gabled hood; windows are 8/1 double hung sash. Decorative finishes are at the rear(the former facade)--a clipped gable, brackets under the eaves, and a palladian-like window with a sunburst design in lieu of a semicircular light over the middle window. On the north elevation is a small addition with a descending shed roof, presumably covering a flight of basement stairs. 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. The building that is now the Lexington V.F.W. Post was once the second story of the fire engine house in Lexington Center, located on Meriam St. This engine house was built in 1875-76 to house Lexington's new fire-fighting equipment—a"Babcock Fire Extinguisher,"a hand-drawn chemical engine in which soda and acid were mixed to form a fire retardant, and a hook and ladder wagon—and replaced the former engine house on Waltham St. (see 6 Fletcher Ave. [MHC#669] form). The town purchased land on Meriam St. for a new engine house in 1875 and hired the prominent 19th-century Lexington builder David A. Tuttle to build it. Tuttle's notes indicate the building was finished in 1876; the Town Reports say that the building was sufficiently completed in the spring of 1876 for the fire companies to move in, but the second story, i.e.,this building,was still unfinished in February 1877. A ca. 1892 photograph shows the building clad with clapboards and the clipped gable end on the front, facing Meriam St. At that time the front of the second story, i.e., now the back of the building, had, in addition to the brackets that still remain under the eaves,brackets at the corners, a window in the gable, and three single windows with tabs under the sills and highly unusual window heads with an arched scroll-like molding and prominent keyblocks. In 1911 the fire station was remodeled. At that time the wood first story was replaced with brick and the palladian-like window was installed in the center of the second story. That may also have been when the original clapboards were replaced with wood BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑see continuation sheet Kelley, Beverly Allison. Lexington:A Century of Photographs. Lexington; Mass: Lexington Historical Society, 1980. 80-81. Lexington Minute-man. 20 January, 1949. Lexington Town Reports. for Year Ending Jan. 31, 1876, 27; for Year Ending Jan. 31, 1877, 39. Sasher, F. Leonard. A History of the Lexington Massachusetts Fire Department. Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Firefighters Union, 1977. 4, 11, 14-16. Tuttle, David Ainsworth. List of buildings erected in Lexington. Presented to the Lexington Historical Society, April 4, 1904. On file at Lexington Historical Society, Lexington, MA. ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.