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INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Town Property Address LEXINGTON 1403 MASS. AVENUE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD 137 BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: A description of the new(then un-named) school appeared in the Lexington Minute-man on July 16, 1904: The new Lexington primary school building on Mass. avenue, nearly opposite Pelham road, displays quite an imposing structure from the perspective plans of the architect,Mr. Willard D. Brown. The structures is somewhat after the Italian Renaissance style—plain and dignified and of excellent proportions,rather than ornate. The windows are numerous and arranged to as to add to the pleasing effect of the fagade and redeem the design from monotomy or commonplaceness. The contractor,E.W. Pitman of Lawrence,promises to complete the structure by Oct. 1 s`. We should judge this to be an impossible feat of accomplishment,with less than three months to do it in. There will be six class rooms, each well lighted. Beside the ordinary school room equipment,they will have wide shelves for plants and roomy book closets. There are two front entrances leading through covered porches into entrance vestibules,whence two staircases lead up and down. A transverse hall runs the entire width of the building. In this are placed the ventilated wardrobes,the footwarmers and drinking fountains. In front of this hall between the entrances is the teachers' room, and at the rear are large class rooms, each connected with the hall by two doors opening outward and also communicating with each other. The second floor is planned like the first, except that in place of a teachers' room there is an emergency room and a supply room. In the basement are the boys' and girls' play rooms and the heating and ventilating plant, consisting of furnaces for the class rooms and an auxiliary steam boiler for heating the ventilating ducts, for furnishing direct heat to the corridors and coat rooms, and for heating auxiliary heating coils in the class rooms. There are separate coal pockets for the furnaces and boiler, each holding a season's supply of coal. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The new Lexington primary school opened in October 1904. The wooden structure was built at a cost of$28,000. It was named the Munroe School in March 1905. In 1915 the town voted$60,000 to enlarge the Munroe School and the front and side walls were faced with brick. Beginning in 1923 the building was used for a Junior High School. The Munroe School was closed in 1979. A few years later it became the Munroe Center for the Arts. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hinkle,Alice and Andrea Cleghorn. Life in Lexington: 1946-1995. Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington. Kelley, Beverly Allison. Lexington: A Century of Photographs. Lexington Historical Society, 1980, p. 56. Lexington Directories,various dates. Lexington Minute-man, July 16, 1904. Worthen, Edwin B. A Calendar History of Lexington, Massachusetts. Lexington: 1946. Supplement prepared by: Lisa Mausolf June 2009