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<br /> ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE (Describe important architectural features and
<br /> evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community.)
<br /> This 1840s one-and-a-half story cottage set with its gable end perpendi-
<br /> cular to the street has been all but obscured by subsequent additions. None-
<br /> theless, its original five-bay wide, two-bay deep profile and gable roof are
<br /> still discernible. This property also has a history of many outbuildings, of
<br /> which those remaining are a large, five by three bay barn with butted rafters
<br /> and a ventilating cupola, thus probably dating it in the second half of the
<br /> nineteenth century, and a small fieldstone house, known as the "milk house,"
<br /> immediately northwest of the barn and perhaps built in the twentieth century.
<br /> HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE (Explain the role owners played in local or state
<br /> history and how the building relates to the development of the community.)
<br /> A signboard hanging from a tree next to the driveway reads, "The Parker
<br /> Homestead. Here lived John Parker, born July 15, 1729, died Sept 17, 1775,
<br /> Captain, Lexington Minute Men, and his grandson Theodore Parker, born Aug. 24,
<br /> 1810, died at Florence, Italy, May 10, 1860," and this says it all in terms of
<br /> historical significance of the site. Both Captain John of April 19, 1775 fame
<br /> and his famous grandson, the transcendentalist, reformer, and abolitionist,
<br /> lived, however, in the original Parker homestead, which was taken down in 1843
<br /> and whose foundation is under the Parker monument north of the house (see
<br /> Parker monument and Historic Archaeologic Site forms) .
<br /> This house, however, was built soon after the other one was taken down
<br /> by Isaac Parker (1798-1872) , a brother of Theodore. He was a farmer, a
<br /> selectman for four years between 1846 and 1850, and reportedly very interested
<br /> in the public schools. After his death the farm was owned by his sons Charles
<br /> 1% (1835- ? ) and Theodore J. Parker (1841-1892) ; the former 'served in the
<br /> Civil War and was a selectman in 1872. By 1906 the farm had passed out of the
<br /> Parker family and was owned by John B. Quinn, the owner of the
<br /> Hotel Essex, Boston.
<br /> As for the house itself, its history is certainly one of change. An
<br /> 1880s painting in the Lexington Historical Society and a c. 1905 photo in the
<br /> Parker house both show that before the latter date it was a five by-two bay
<br /> one-and-a-half story cottage with two dormers in front, two thin rear chimneys,
<br /> and a three-by-two bay, one-and-a-half story, gable-roofed ell on the south
<br /> BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (name of publication, author, date and publisher)
<br /> Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington II, pp. 512, 515-517.
<br /> j Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913.
<br /> r
<br /> Lexington Historical Society Archives
<br /> Smith, A. Bradford. "Kite End"(1891) . Proceedings of the Lexington Historical
<br /> Society II(1900) :101-103.
<br /> 1906 man
<br /> 1906 Directory
<br /> 10M - 7/82
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