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BUILDING FORM <br /> ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION ❑ see continuation sheet <br /> Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. <br /> 2 Sherman St. is one of the most elaborate and intact vernacular Queen Anne houses in Lexington. The house is basically cross- <br /> shaped with arms of uneven lengths and a rear ell, 2'/s stories, and cross-gabled with a chimney at the intersection of the roof lines. <br /> It is set on a fieldstone foundation, clad with wood clapboards and wood shingles, and roofed with asphalt shingles. Many of the <br /> Queen Anne finishes are repeated throughout the house: a raised block detail on the verge boards, scrollwork in the gable <br /> pediments, decorative brackets at the corners of the eaves, staggered shingles in the gables (the front gable also has butted and <br /> diamond-patterned shingles), and a serrated finish at the base of the gables. The wraparound porch has turned posts with cut-out <br /> brackets and turned balusters; a rear porch on the east elevation has similar finishes as well as verge boards that match those <br /> elsewhere in the house. There is a canted two-story gabled bay on the southwest corner;the west arm has a second story overhang <br /> under which are curved brackets;the east arm has a small window cut across the frieze board and a one-story shed-roofed <br /> overhanging bay with curved brackets under the overhang. The gable at the north end of the 2'/2-story two-by-one bay rear ell has <br /> the same finishes as other gables in the house. <br /> HISTORICAL NARRATIVE ❑ see continuation sheet <br /> Discuss the history of the building. Explain its associations with local(or state) history. Include uses of the building, and the <br /> role(s) the owners/occupants played within the community. <br /> This house was built in 1893-1894 by the DeVeau Brothers, who, according to their advertisement in the 1894 Directory,were: <br /> "Carpenters and Builders. Jobbing of all kinds promptly attend to. Contractors for erecting residences or any building." Charles <br /> and Stephen DeVeau had come to Lexington from Nova Scotia in the early 1880s. They established their business near the <br /> railroad tracks on the newly-laid out Grant St. in the area where David W. Muzzey was subdividing his land into house lots (see <br /> Arra Form G). In 1889 the DeVeaus built a house for themselves at southeast corner of Grant and Sherman streets and in March <br /> 1893 purchased the lot across the street and began erecting a house on it. The Lexington Minute-man noted on August 4 of that <br /> year that the cellar was being dug and commented: "The house being built to sell will make a desirable home for someone." It is <br /> not known where the DeVeaus got the plan for the house,which has more elaborate finishes that most others in the neighborhood. <br /> Lexington assessors' records indicate that the house was still unfinished in 1894, but in 1895 the DeVeaus sold it to a Sarah <br /> Thurston. Mrs. Thurston's husband George is listed as a janitor in Lexington Directory's but she seems to have been quite well- <br /> off,for she owned several houses in Lexington, apparently renting them all including this one at 2 Sherman St. The Thurston <br /> themselves lived two doors down in the house now at 10 Sherman St. <br /> BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑see continuation sheet <br /> Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington. Revised and continued to 1912 by the Lexington Historical Society. <br /> Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913. 2: 170. <br /> Lexington Directory. 1894, 1899, 1902-03, 1906, 1908-09, 1913. <br /> Lexington Minute-man, 4 August 1893. <br /> Lexington Valuations Lists. 1889-1890, 1893-1896. <br /> Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds, Plans. 2361: 236; PI. Bk. 65, PI. 12. <br /> ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National <br /> Register Criteria Statement form. <br />