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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 2160 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2250 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. Massachusetts Avenue was established in the 17`"century as part of an early highway from Cambridge to Concord. Development of this section of the road, west of Lincoln Street and the town center, was sparse, however, until the beginning of the 20`" century. The house at 2160 Massachusetts Avenue appears on the historic maps between 1898 and 1906. Its first known occupants were Willard C. and Clara A. Hill, who moved here between 1900 and 1906. Willard Hill (1868-1943)was a partner in the insurance firm of Elmer A. Lord & Co., which was located in Boston's Financial District. An advertisement for the company in the 1936 Lexington directory announces: "For forty-three years our firm has been rendering complete Insurance Service. This experience has built up an organization which today is in a position to extend intelligent under-writing and engineering assistance to those who are interested in complete insurance protection at the lowest possible cost." (Lexington directory, 1936: 2) In 1910, Willard and Clara Hill were living in the house with their three young children and an Irish-born maid. Their son Converse was later in business with his father and had a house nearby, at 2101 Massachusetts Avenue, in 1936. Clara Hill occupied the house through at least 1945. Willard and Clara's son Stanley served as an ambulance driver in World War I and was killed in action. Local historian Sam Doran suggests contacting Shirley Stolz, a granddaughter of Willard and Clara Hill who lives across the street from this house, for more information on the Hill family. Subsequent residents included William R. McEwen, who worked in the insurance business, and his wife Priscilla L. (1955, 1965). BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Mason Membership Cards, 1733-1990 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. Original data: Massachusetts Grand Lodge of Masons Membership Cards 1733-1990. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts. Historic maps and atlases: Walling 1853; Beers 1875; Walker 1889; Stadly 1898; Walker 1906; Sanborn 1908, 1918, 1927, 1935, 1935/1950. Lexington Comprehensive Cultural Resources Survey, Period and Area Summaries. http://historicsurvey.lexingtonma.gov/index.htm Accessed Jul 23, 2015. Lexington Directories: 1899, 1906, 1908-09, 1913, 1922, 1934, 1936. Lexington List of Persons: 1935, 1945, 1955, 1965. Massachusetts Historical Commission. "MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Lexington." 1980. U.S. Census: 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930. Continuation sheet 2