HomeMy WebLinkAboutwood-street_0148 FORM B - BUILDING
Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 1005900058E Maynard 693
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Place(neighborhood or village)
J;r
to
Address 148 Wood St.
+F
7 Historic Name Ballard Place/Schumacher Farm
s Uses: Present Multi-Family Residential
Original Residential
r� Date of Construction 1876
} Source Lexington Valuation lists
_. Style/Form Italianate
Architect/Builder
t
i Exterior Material:
=i Foundation Brick
; o.
o Wall/Trim Vinyl Siding
Roof Asphalt Shingle
1 I
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures Garage,converted
r 1 . barn,tool shed
_ Major Alterations(with dates)
'i aeAddition to side ell, rear addition(1900-1910), barn
/ \
� converted to residence(date unknown)
1 \ O• 61
'Ion. Condition Fair
Moved ® no Dyes Date
—� o \�
- Acreage 1.5 A.
Recorded by Nancy S. Seasholes Setting Off a heavily-trafficked street with woods behind
the house and garage
Organization Lexington Historical Commission
Date (month/year) March 1998
Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.
BUILDING FORM
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION ❑ see continuation sheet
Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community.
148 Wood St. is one of a number of three-bay side-gabled center entrance Italianate farmhouses in Lexington,though because it
has been sided and had many additions,has less integrity than most other examples. The original house is rectangular with a side
ell, 2'/z stories,three-by-two bays, and side-gabled with two rear chimneys. It is set on a brick foundation, clad with vinyl siding,
and roofed with asphalt shingles. The large side ell begins on a brick foundation but is primarily on fieldstone. It is also 2'/2
stories, side-gabled with a rear chimney, four-by-two bays, and has a double entrance. At the rear are two more additions: a shed-
roofed one-story and a front-gabled I f�-story. The main entry is under a pedimented roof supported by Tuscan posts;windows
are 2/2 double hung sash. Behind the house is an L-shaped nine-bay garage,a recent gambrel-roofed tool shed, and,across the
driveway, a 1'/Z-story barn also clad with vinyl siding that has been converted to a residence. The large, architecturally significant
"Schumacher Barn"on a hill behind the house is now on a separate lot with the address 160 Wood St. (MHC#694).
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.
The Schumacher farmhouse was built in 1876 by a Daniel Mullen, for Mullen purchased the land with no buildings on it in 1875
but in 1877 was assessed for a house as well as the land. Mullen lost the property in a mortgage foreclosure in 1879, however,
and it was then acquired by Joseph Ballard(1823-1895). After Joseph's death the farm was acquired by his son Ernest K.
Ballard. The latter put the additions on the house, increased the size of the farm from 15 to 44 acres, and built many of the
outbuildings including a piggery for the swine he began to raise at the turn of the century. In 1941 Ballard sold the farm to August
Schumacher, the father of the present owner.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑ see continuation sheet
Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington. Revised and continued to 1912 by the Lexington Historical Society.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913. 2: 20-21.
Lexington Valuation Lists. 1875-1900, 1910.
Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge, MA. 1358: 295; 1502: 332; 1502: 335; 1507: 326; 1658: 473; 2626: 130;
3339: 156;4185: 138; 6514: 23, plan.
❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National
Register Criteria Statement form.