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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 1575 MASS. AVENUE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 �A 632 Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION: Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. The Police Station building at 1575 Massachusetts Avenue is the last of the three constructed in the municipal complex and was designed to be a mirror image of the original Town Office building at 1625 Massachusetts Avenue. Like the town office building,it is a two-story brick building set on a raised basement and consists of a central section with two wings extending to the west. The brick is laid in a bond alternating three courses of stretchers to a course alternating headers and stretchers and a molded brick watertable wraps around the building below the first floor openings. The main entrance is centered on the west fagade of the south wing which is three bays wide, defined by two-story brick pilasters with wooden Doric caps. The six-panel door is framed by full sidelights and transom lights with fluted pilasters and a frieze of rosettes and inscribed lines. The entrance is fronted by granite steps with wrought iron railings and a more recent handicapped-accessible ramp. Above the entrance is a double-hung 6/6 window with sidelights and lower panel, fronted by a wrought iron balconet. Other windows contain 8/8 sash and are capped by flat arch brick lintels. In the brick pediment is a decorative wooden plaque reading"POLICE"with the town seal in gold above. A simpler entrance consisting of a six panel door with transom is located further north on the west fagade. A large,brick-paneled chimney rises from the slate roof as do two other, less decorative chimneys. At the north end of the building is a garage addition, constructed in 1971. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE 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 at 1575 Massachusetts Avenue was the third building to be constructed in the municipal complex and was constructed about thirty years later than the other two(Cary Memorial Hall at 1605 Massachusetts Avenue and the Town Offices at 1625 Massachusetts Avenue). In 1955 a building committee was established by town meeting to investigate construction of an additional town office building. Funds for the construction were appropriated at the March town meeting the following year. The architects were Kilham, Hopkins, Greeley and Brodie,the successors of the firm that designed Cary Memorial Hall and the original town offices in 1927. When the building was completed in 1957 it was occupied by the Police,Assessors, Building and Health Departments. The departments remaining within the original town office building were moved within the building to provide them with greatly needed space. Minor renovations provided quarters for additional departments that were moved from the Barnes building(Town Report 1957,p. 40). An open house was held at the new Town Offices/Police Station in February 1958. A garage addition was constructed to the rear of the building in 1971. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Lexington Minute-man,January 30, 1958. Lexington Town Reports. Massachusetts State Archives,Building Inspector Plans (plans dated July 23, 1956). Continuation sheet 1