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BUILDING FORM ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION ❑see continuation sheet Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. 2173 Massachusetts Ave. appears to be one of Lexington's few high-style Second Empire houses but is actually a Georgian that acquired a mansard roof in 1869-1871—the only such house in Lexington. The house is square, 2'/:stories, five-by-three bays, and has a concave mansard roof with two tall side chimneys. It is set on a fieldstone foundation, clad with wood clapboards, and roofed with asphalt shingles. At the rear is a one-story hip-roofed addition. Second Empire finishes include a square hip-roofed cupola, segmental-roofed dormers, paired brackets under the cornice, and molded projecting window heads on all windows on the second-story and in the rear two bays on the first story. The only remaining Georgian exterior finish is the molded heads on the first-story windows on the facade and in the first bay on either side, for the pediment above the doorway and the righthand(east) fluted pilaster are replacements. On the interior,however,many original finishes remain, notably the late Georgian paneling with a broad plain dado and heavily molded and projecting chair rail and baseboard molding in the east front room. In addition there are substantial chimneys with fireplaces (the latter now covered over), four-paneled doors, and a cellar door with nicely planed vertical boards. Only the east half of the house has a basement;the west half is on the ground. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE ® see continuation sheet 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. This house is known to have been built by John Parkhurst(1741-1812), although it is not clear exactly when. The house is listed in the Direct Tax of 1798, so was obviously built before then. In the late 18th century John Parkhurst had bought two parcels of land that seem to be located on the Concord, or County, road, as Massachusetts Ave. was then called. The most likely of these parcels was purchased in December 1766 and the other in July 1770, suggesting that the house might have been constructed about 1770. But Parkhurst's real estate assessment in 1775 was too low to include a house of this size, and he was apparently too busy to build a house during the early years of the Revolution, for he was a member of Capt. Parker's company on April 19, 1775, fought in the battle of White Plains, and was a member of the Committee of Correspondence in 1777. Parkhurst, a housewright, probably built the house himself and his use of late Georgian paneling,which came into vogue just before the war and was used only into the 1780s, suggests a ca. 1780 construction date. After the death of Parkhurst and his wife,the house was sold to John Parkhurst Merriam (1791-1859), apparently a namesake rather than a relative. After Merriam's death the house was acquired in 1869 by George M. Rogers, who evidently was quite wealthy, for he owned a great deal of real estate in the mid-19th century, and Lexington assessors' records indicate that it BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ®see continuation sheet Direct Tax of 1798. Myra Hart, personal communication 1998. Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington. Revised and continued to 1912 by the Lexington Historical Society. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913. 2: 518, 431. Lexington Valuation Lists. 1775, 1868-1873. Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge, MA. 122: 15, 20; 253: 377; 1065: 337. ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.