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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. 290 Wood St. is one of a number of three-bay side-gabled center entrance Italianate farmhouses in Lexington although a very retardetaire example and one whose integrity has been compromised by its siding and setting. The house is rectangular with a rear ell, 2%z stories,three-by-one bays, and side-gabled with a ridge chimney. The front-gabled rear ell is one-by-two bays and also 2'/: stories. The house is set on a fieldstone foundation, clad with vinyl siding, and roofed with asphalt shingles. At the rear is a one- story,one-by-one bay side-gabled addition on a fieldstone foundation. The center entrance is under a front porch, also on a fieldstone foundation and now enclosed;windows are generally 1/1 double hung sash although on the north elevation there is a small one with plain glass halfway between the first and second stories. 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 this house looks like many other Italianate farmhouses in Lexington that were built in the 1870s, it was actually built in 1898. It was constructed by Hugh J. Maguire Jr.,who had come Ireland with his family in 1863 and grew up on the former Cutler farm,originally at 307 Wood St. and now at 289 Wood St. (MHC#601)which his father had purchased in 1864. After his father's death,Hugh purchased the part of the farm on the west side of Wood St. from his brother Francis in 1897 and built this house in 1898. In 1961 the house was acquired by M.I.T. and is now part of Lincoln Laboratory. 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: 402. Lexington Valuation Lists. 1896-1899. Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds, Plans. Cambridge, MA. 935: 151; 2569: 271; 9845: 16; Pl. Bk. 104, Pl. 24. Sileo, Thomas P. Sileo.Historical Guide to Open Space in Lexington. Lexington, Mass.: Thomas P. Sileo, 1995. 48-49. ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.