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INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Town Property Address
<br /> Lexington 1 John Wilson Ln.
<br /> MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
<br /> MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
<br /> 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD 638, 639
<br /> BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
<br /> HISTORICAL NARRATIVE (continued)
<br /> Once Gleason bought the land near the observatory and built his house,however, celebrations on Mt. Independence
<br /> apparently ceased, or at least are not reported in antiquarian accounts. Gleason,who was reportedly a"remarkably brilliant
<br /> shot with the telescope rifle,"served in the Civil War as a captain of the sharpshooters. When he returned to Lexington he
<br /> continued to farm the 11 acres near the summit of Mt. Independence; after his death the farm was leased and in 1890 the
<br /> Lexington Minute-man noted that"the location is high and has been found a pleasant, retired place for summer boarders."
<br /> In 1904 Gleason's daughters Harriet Jenney and Abbie Brown sold the farm to George Wilson,a cousin of the Wilsons who
<br /> farmed the land at the corner of Pleasant St. and Massachusetts Ave. George, and later his son John A., continued to farm
<br /> at the top of the hill; until the 1950s hay was grown in the large meadow north of the house and market vegetables—squash,
<br /> cabbage,tomatoes, carrots, beets, beans,tomatoes, and lettuce—in the meadow south of the house. In 1926 John A.
<br /> Wilson deeded the farm to his wife, Daisy, but when she died in 1969 none of their children could take over the property.
<br /> Plans were made in the 1970s to develop the land into as many as 18 houselots, but a group of about 70 neighbors joined to`
<br /> form Meadowland, Inc.,bought the entire parcel in 1978, sold three house lots (including the one on which this house and
<br /> its outbuildings are located) in order to finance the venture, and in 1987 sold the remaining eight acres to the Lexington
<br /> Conservation Commission, creating the Daisy Wilson Farm conservation area on the land around this house.
<br /> The trials of the Daisy Wilson farmhouse were not over,however. A fire in the late 1970s seriously damaged the front of
<br /> the house and ell. The house was then acquired by an architect,who began renovating it, and then, in 1995 by the present
<br /> owners. These owners completely renovated the house; repaired the exterior of the ell,putting it on its present granite
<br /> foundation (it was formerly on the ground), and remodeled the interior;demolished the one-story connector between the ell
<br /> and barn, replacing it with the present connector,which is on a foundation of granite pieces found on the property; moved
<br /> an extension of the ell to its present location north of the house,where it now functions as a shed; and covered the historical
<br /> clapboards of the barn with new ones, adding insulation between the new siding and old. To the barn they also added the
<br /> large glass door and transom lights on the facade and windows on the south elevation and installed a window found on the
<br /> property in the east gable pediment. The original post-and-beam construction on the interior of the barn was left exposed.
<br /> BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES(continued)
<br /> Hinkle, Alice. "Daisy Wilson: A Cooperative Adventure." Lexington Minute-man, 18 June 1981.
<br /> Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington. Revised and continued to 1912 by the Lexington Historical Society.
<br /> Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913. 2:242, 580-81.
<br /> Lexington Valuation Lists. 1840-1848.
<br /> Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge, MA. 398: 471.
<br /> Sileo, Thomas P. Sileo.Historical Guide to Open Space in Lexington. Lexington, Mass.: Thomas P. Sileo, 1995. 275-
<br /> 78.
<br /> Smith, A. Bradford. "History of the Stone Building." Proceedings of the Lexington Historical Society 2 (1900): 146, 151.
<br /> Smith, George O. "Reminiscences of the Fur Industry."Proceedings of the Lexington Historical Society 2 (1900): 179.
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