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ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE (Describe important architectural features and evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community.) This house and the one at 643 Waltham Street appear to have been built as a pair and are the only farmhouses dating from the third quarter of the nineteenth century on Waltham Street between Marrett Road and Concord Avenue. Both houses are distinguished by the identical ornate brackets under the front door hood that are of a style popular from 1865 to 1875. Both houses also have an identical three-sided bay window on the front and a similar gable-end profile, butthis house is twice as long as the one at 645 Waltham Street. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE (Explain the role owners played in local or state history and how the building relates to the development of the community.) This house first appears on the 1876 map. At that time. it was owned by an A. Bullock and the "twin" house at 643 Waltham Street by an A.E. Bullock, making it very likely that the two houses were constructed at the same time for members of the same family. Sometime between 1876 and 1889 the house was bought by David Ray, a ropemaker from Revere, and became the site of Lexington's only ropewalk. According to a later account, Ray built a shed 350 feet long with a head house 30 by 40 feet; the factory also included a tar kettle 12 feet in diameter and 6 feet deep supported by a brick wall with a 12 to 15 foot brick chimney on one side. The rope made there was sold to a firm in Boston and was mostly used on ships. By the end of the century, however, machine-made rope had become cheaper than that made by hand and horsepower, so Pay discontin- ued the ropewalk; in the 1894 Directory he is listed as a farmer. By 1906 the property had been sold to Charles S. Bruce, a real estate agent; the ropewalk. was torn down and a recent walkover failed to locate any remains. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (name of publication, author, date and publisher) Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington, Volume II. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913. 1852 map 1876 map 1889 map 1906 map "Rope Made in Huge Walk, During Last Century." Lexington 1,1inute Man, December 30, 1971, reprinted from July 25, 1935. 10M - 7/8?