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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 5 MEADow BROOK Ave. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2254 ❑ 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. 5 Meadow Brook Avenue occupies a moderately sized lot that is raised above street level, contained by a fieldstone retaining wall along the street edge. The house is set in the front left corner of its lot, with a minimal front setback. Maintained chiefly in lawn, the property also contains scattered shrubs and small trees. Poured concrete steps at the left end of the retaining wall lead to a paved path to the back of the house. These steps are technically located on the adjacent parcel, under the same ownership as the house and with continuous landscaping. A free-standing garage stands at the right front corner of 5 Meadow Brook Ave., with pavement in front and along its right side. A concrete walkway leads from the paved area in front of the garage to the front entrance of the house. The building consists of a rectangular main block with a rear appendage. The small main block rises 1 'h stories from a poured concrete foundation to a front gable roof with no returns and one chimney on the left slope, at the center near the ridgeline. Walls are clad with asbestos siding. Windows typically have 2/1 double hung sash with band molding. The front fagade has a one-story projection (possibly original) spanning its full length, comprised of a low hip roof, two symmetrical triplets of 2/1 windows at the front, and a single-leaf door with a metal awning and poured concrete steps on the right end. Above this enclosed sun porch, two closely spaced windows are centered in the half story. The right side elevation has four windows, loosely grouped in pairs, and a small half-story dormer with a gable roof, no returns, one 2/1 window, and artificial siding. The left side elevation has two sets of paired 2/1 windows on the main block. A small, one- story addition with a shed roof projects from the back left corner of the main block, also rising from a poured concrete foundation. The addition has one center window facing the street and two symmetrical windows facing the left side of the property. The small garage at the front right corner of the property has a front gable roof without returns, ship lap clapboards on the sides and gable peak, plywood flanking the door, and plain flat trim. On square window and an offset pedestrian door punctuate the right side elevation of the garage. The left side has one square window, asymmetrically placed. Well preserved with the exception of its replacement siding, 5 Meadow Brook Avenue is a very modest, vernacular example of relatively early housing in outlying areas of Lexington. The house is notable for its remote location in a neighborhood of much later development, simple massing, front sun porch, and original or early garage. 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. 5 Meadow Brook Avenue represents Lexington's evolution from an agricultural community to a residential suburb. South Lexington was primarily an agricultural area until the mid 201h century, well connected to Lexington Center and nearby towns. Narrow, winding Allen Street formed the main road to Boston in the 17th and 18th centuries, until replaced by the straighter and more direct Waltham Street in the second quarter of the 19th century. Blossomcrest Road (then Blossom Street)joined Waltham and Allen streets by 1853, turning south at Allen Street to join Concord Avenue, which was established as the Concord Turnpike in 1806. By 1906, a street railway line ran down Waltham Street. The eastward extension of present-day Blossomcrest Road to Meadow Brook Avenue and Wellington Lane Avenue occurred in the early 20th century. 5 Meadow Brook Avenue is located at the southern end of Dunback Meadow, an extensive area of meadows, swamps, and farms that is today preserved as a 170-acre conservation property. Meadow Brook Avenue is first depicted and labeled on the Continuation sheet I