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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 /> 265 Lowell St., or Fairlawn, is the most elaborate English Revival style mansion in Lexington. The house, at the southwest corner
<br /> of the present building, is basically a series of 2'/2-story cross-gabled sections with pilastered ridge chimneys set on a granite
<br /> foundation, clad with wood clapboards, roofed with asphalt shingles, and ornamented with exuberant finishes, some of which
<br /> derive from the original Stick Style house. The asymmetrical facade has a large projecting front gable with finishes similar to
<br /> those on other gables and dormers: a finial,a king post truss with a carved drop,half-timbered stucco walls, a pedimented base
<br /> board outlined with bead-and-reel molding set over decorative bracket ends and rope-and-flower molding, and curved brackets at
<br /> the eaves. (Much simpler versions of this gable treatment are also on-the houses at 3 Chandler St. [MHC#3941 and 24 Oakland
<br /> St. [MHC#376]). On the facade is also a smaller gabled dormer with similar finishes and between the dormer and gable is a
<br /> small hexagonal dormer with a peaked roof. The facade has diamond-patterned windows on the second floor and small-paned on
<br /> the first—another finish characteristic of the entire house. The porch roof is supported by paired Tuscan columns with capitals of
<br /> a unique diamond design,the rail has elaborate balusters, and the front door has side-and transom lights with elaborate leaded
<br /> tracery. The south elevation has two large gables similar to those on the facade, a window with a broken pediment head,a semi-
<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 /> The original part of Fairlawn was built in 1872 by Charles R. Putnam,who in 1870 had purchased the 300-acre"Shagbark Farm"
<br /> from Benjamin Fiske. Fiske had gone to Boston in the early 19th century and become a merchant but returned to Lexington in
<br /> 1837 and acquired the various parcels that became his farm, one of which had been Samuel Downing's dairy farm. After Putnam
<br /> bought the property in 1870,he built a new house in 1872 behind the existing Greek Revival cottage, a construction date indicated
<br /> by the rise in the assessed value of Putnam's house from$1300 in 1872 to$15,000 in 1873. Historical photographs indicate that
<br /> the new house was a rather elaborate five-by-five bay Stick Style building with a hip roof surmounted by a widow's walk,a
<br /> pilastered chimney in a different location from any of the present ones, and cross gables with half-timbering over patterned
<br /> shingles or with picket-fence siding in the pediments. Some of the original features still exist, i.e., the gables on the present facade
<br /> and west elevations and the shed-roofed dormer on the west(the hexagonal dormer on the facade is in the same location as a
<br /> former gabled dormer). Putnam farmed the property, sold it in 1890, and in 1893 it was acquired in the name of Thomas B.
<br /> Morrill.
<br /> The purchaser was actually J. Reed Whipple from Boston,who had begun as a Roxbury grocer, become a buyer for the Parker
<br /> House, and had eventually bought the Parker House,Young's Hotel, and the Hotel Touraine. According to the story told by
<br /> BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ®see continuation sheet
<br /> Lexington Valuation Lists. 1870-1875, 1880, 1884, 1892-1904.
<br /> Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge, MA. 359: 269; 1116: 43; 2179: 99; 1968: 352; 2275: 476; 3714: 533; 3726:
<br /> 521.
<br /> Sileo,Thomas P. Historical Guide to Open Space in Lexington. Lexington, Mass.: Thomas P. Sileo, 1995. 241-51.
<br /> "Then &Now."Lexington Minute-man, 26 October, 1995.
<br /> "Gothic home has legacy of history, romance." Lexington Minute-man, 7 October 1993.
<br /> "Beginnings -The Story of Fairlawn." Draft article. In possession of Thomas P. Sileo, Chelmsford, 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.
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