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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 1834 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2249 ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form. Use as much space as necessary to complete the following entries, allowing text to flow onto additional continuation sheets. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION: Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. 1834 Massachusetts Avenue is a substantial commercial building in the midst of Lexington's business district. Part of a continuous block of structures, the building occupies a flat lot, set between Massachusetts Avenue and a large paved parking area accessed from Muzzey Street. The wide brick sidewalk in front of the building contains benches and small planting beds. The two story building is constructed of brick in a Flemish bond pattern, with a concrete belt course above the second story. The flat roof is bordered by a parapet and accented by a gabled pavilion on the fagade. Windows typically have 8/8 double-hung sash with cast concrete sills, and flared brick lintels and paneled wood shutters on the upper story of the facade. The 7-bay facade is divided into three roughly equal-width parts. The gabled and pedimented center pavilion projects slightly. It has a molded wood entablature, flushboard tympanum, and recessed center entrance with double-leaf doors and a decorative classical frame. Single 12-light windows flank the main entrance, and three 8/8 double-hung windows are arrayed across the second floor. The outer bays of the fagade each contain a large multi-light storefront window trimmed with a wood fascia and cornice molding; the right bay has a single-leaf center doorway accessing a separate retail space. The left side elevation has thirteen irregularly set windows on the second floor, loosely grouped in pairs. The back of the building has varied extensions and appendages, with 8/8 windows symmetrically arranged on the discrete parts of the second floor and several single-leaf doors on the ground floor. The main rear entrance, offset in a re-entrant corner of a wide projecting wing, has a single-leaf door with wood bolection molding and a high wood entablature. Well preserved and well maintained, 1834 Massachusetts Avenue is an attractive and unusually well-crafted example of Colonial Revival commercial architecture in Lexington. It is notable for its comparatively large size, fine proportions, pedimented facade pavilion, and attentive, academically-influenced detailing at doors and windows. 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. At the turn of the 20th century, Lexington's central business district was still housed almost entirely in detached wood-frame buildings. The electric streetcar railway arrived on Massachusetts Avenue in the first decade of the 20th century, both encouraging and responding to suburban development. As Lexington's residential population soared between the two world wars, the town center was transformed by the construction of many new one and two-story masonry commercial blocks, which lined both sides of Massachusetts Avenue. A large number of new civic buildings were also constructed downtown during this period, including the Town Offices, Cary Memorial Hall, and Post Office. The present building at 1834 Massachusetts Avenue was constructed in the 1960s for the Leader Federal Savings and Loan Association. It replaced two earlier commercial buildings at 1832-1834 and 1836-1840 Massachusetts Avenue. The previous building at 1832-1834 Mass. Avenue was one of Lexington's oldest commercial structures: a two-story, hip-roofed, wood frame building that had housed B. C.Whitcher's store, Spaulding's general store, an automobile dealership, Foster's Sporting Goods and Stationery Supplies store, Lexington Ski and Sport Shop, and S. J. Ingalls' Stationery store. That building was moved to this location for construction of the Cary Library nearby. Continuation sheet I