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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. 31 and 29 Sherman St. (MHC#674)were clearly built as a pair—perhaps the only instance in Lexington of paired Queen Anne houses. The houses are almost exact mirror images,but with subtle differences. Both are rectangular with a rear ell, 2'/2 stories, three-by-three bays, and front-gabled with side chimneys and projecting 2'/2-story gabled bays facing each other. Both houses are set on fieldstone foundations, clad with wood clapboards and wood shingles, and roofed with asphalt shingles. Both also have a two-story octagonal tower with a peaked roof with flared eaves surmounted by a ball finial,a frieze of rectangular panels, and similar though larger panels under the first-story windows;both houses have a front porch with turned posts and a square-stick frieze;and both have diamond-pattered shingles in the gables. Some finishes are echoes rather than mirrors,however: the sunburst used in the pediment of the front gable at 29 Sherman is used in the side gable at 31 Sherman, and the band of rectangular panels at the base of the front gable at 31 Sherman is seen in the side gable at 29 Sherman. And some original finishes are unique to just one house: the triple window in the front gable and oculus window in the side gable at 29 Sherman;the segmental window head in the front gable at 31 Sherman;the canted one-story rear bay with a frieze of rectangular panels at 29 Sherman. The rear additions and alterations also differ. In the case of 31 Sherman,there are turned posts and a frieze and balusters similar to those on the front porch both on an entry on the west elevation and on a rear porch, and one-story shed-roofed additions on both sides of the ell. 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. Lexington assessors' records indicate that 31 Sherman St. was built in 1902 in the name of Emma L. Hovey, the wife of Robert H. Hovey, an engineer on the Boston and Maine Railroad, whose tracks ran right behind this house. Before building this house the Hoveys had lived on Fletcher St. as had Justus Morse, the baggage master at the Lexington station, who built the twin of this house next door at 29 Sherman St. (MHC#674). Presumably the two men,who must have known each other through work and as neighbors, had decided to build adjoining matching houses. It is not known,however, where they acquired the plans for the houses. Although the Sherman/Sheridan/Grant Street area was developed as one of rental houses (see Area form G),the Hoveys apparently lived in this house themselves and were still there in 1924. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑see continuation sheet Lexington Directory. 1902-03, 1906, 1908-09, 1924. Lexington Valuation Lists. 1902-1903. ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.