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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. The 170 Wood St. property includes three 20th-century eclectic buildings that are unique in Lexington. The main building,built as a residence and still used as one, is rectangular with a side porch,three stories on the front and one at back(it is built into the side of a hill), six-by-three bays, and side-gabled with a rear chimney. The upper story is clad with wood shingles and the lower ones with cut fieldstones set in concrete. On the facade,the top story has two sets of triple double hung windows, the middle story six evenly-spaced casement windows, and the lower story louvered windows. The asymmetrical roof slopes down further at the back than at the front,the rear chimney is in a dormer-like structure, and on the north elevation is a one-story side-gabled enclosed porch. The middle building,originally a garage, is stuccoed, rectangular,one story,two-by-three bays, and side-gabled with a very low-pitched roof and an end chimney. The third building, once a barn, is rectangular, 2'/2 stories in front and V2 in back (again built into the side of a hill),three-by-three bays, and front-gabled with exposed rafter ends. The gables are clad with clapboards and the rest of the structure with fieldstones set in concrete. On the facade are paired windows in the gable,three window openings on the second story, and a garage door flanked by windows on the first. There are long windows on either side and a hay door in the rear gable. 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. Although these buildings are thought to have been built about 1940, Lexington assessors' records indicate that the house was actually built in 1918 and the garage and barn in 1923 at a time when the property was owned by Essie J. Earle. Mrs. Earle owned a large amount of land on both sides of Wood St.; she lived in the farmhouse on the east side of the street and may have built these buildings for farm employees. In 1938 this property was acquired by Gail and Helen Smith and became known as the Old Smith Farm. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑ see continuation sheet Lexington Valuation Lists. 1919-1929. Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds, Plans. Cambridge, MA. 4116: 156 (1917); 4844: 381 (1925); 4878: 151 (1925); 5034: 241 (1926); 5293: 64 (1928); 5473: 61 (1930); 5629: 476 (1932); 5729: 358 1933); 6251: 174 (1938); Pl. Bk. 198, Pl. 12. ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.