lowell-street_0072 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

BUILDING FORM ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION ❑see continuation sheet Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. 72 Lowell St. is one of only 21 Georgian houses still standing in Lexington but has lost most of its original exterior finishes. The house is rectangular with a rear ell, 2'/z stories, five-by-three bays, and side-gabled with two large ridge chimneys. It is set on a granite foundation, clad with vinyl siding, and roofed with asphalt shingles. The offset five-by-one bay Federal rear ell has a very low hip roof, a side chimney, and is on a foundation that is partly granite and partly brick. The house has two facades;the one on the north,probably originally the main one, has a full-width porch with square posts;the south facade has Greek Revival finishes: fluted columns supporting the full-width porch roof, full-length sidelights flanking the center entrance, and long first-floor windows. There is a two-car garage underneath the north side of the ell. 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. Although it is known that this house was the Reed Homestead and that it was probably built in the 1780s, it is not clear exactly when it was built nor by whom. The construction date has been variously reported as 1782 (Sileo), 1786 (assessors' list), and 1789 (Worthen). Worthen says it was built by Isaac Reed(1756-1848),but Isaac only lived in Lexington for a few years in the early 1780s before returning to Woburn. Lexington assessors' records do not list Isaac Reed as an owner of real estate in the 1780s nor does the Direct Tax list him as the owner of a house in Lexington or in Woburn in 1798. The only Reed listed in the Direct Tax of 1798 who seems a possible owner of this house in Lexington is Reuben Reed(b. 1747), a brother of the Isaac. Perhaps Reuben Reed built the house. In any event, it is clear that by 1830 the house was owned by Isaac's son Reuben Reed (1792-1864). After this Reuben's death his two sons, Reuben W. and Josiah Haskell Reed (1827-1890), owned the property together. Josiah eventually built the house now at 51 Lowell St. (MHC#655) in 1872 and then, after he had sold that house in 1882 and Reuben had moved to Somerville, came back to live in this one. The house was then inherited by Josiah's son Frank Haskell Reed(b. 1862),who ran what was called Reed's Dairy Farm,a business that was eventually sold in 1935 to the David Buttrick Company of Arlington. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑ see continuation sheet Direct Tax of 1798. Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington. Revised and continued to 1912 by the Lexington Historical Society. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913. 2: 560, 563-64, 566, 568, 569. Kelley, Beverly Allison. Lexington:A Century of Photographs. Lexington, Mass: Lexington Historical Society, 1980. 4. Lexington Valuation Lists. 1780-1790. Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge, MA. 1327: 455; 1411: 214; 1497: 425; 1582: 27. Sileo, Thomas P. Research on Monahan House, Lowell St. In possession of Thomas P. Sileo, Chelmsford, MA. Worthen, Edwin B. Notes on back of photograph of 72 Lowell St. 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.