lowell-street_0072 Enhanced Building Form

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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 72 LOWELL ST. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 1 LEX.658 Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION: Based on fieldwork by Neil Larson & Walter R. Wheeler The Reed Homestead was built for Reuben Reed (1747-ca. 1800) after he acquired the property in 1785. It is a large two-story timber-frame house with a symmetrical fenestration and a double-pile center-hall plan with fireplaces in the partitions between front and rear rooms. This plan was introduced to Lexington in the late 1700s and was very popular there, effectively replacing the traditional center-chimney plan in the better houses in the town. On the exterior, the change is expressed by two brick chimneys positioned on the ridge inboard from the ends. A five-bay front façade faces south and is perpendicular to the street; the orientation was meant to improve solar gain and became an alternative siting in the period. It also served to provide privacy from the road. The main entrance is centered on the façade in the usual fashion; the door and sidelights are mid-19th-century additions as are the six-over-six sash contained in original window frames with moldings around the top and sides. A flat-roof porch spanning the front with Tuscan columns and a tall frieze at the eave line represents a recent restoration of a mid-19th-century feature. First-floor windows were lengthened at that time, while intact second-story windows are tight against a shallow cornice in the 18th-century manner. Single windows are located near the corners of the first story of the gable ends, one each centered on the interior walls of the rooms, with the wide central spaces occupied by back-to-back fireplaces and flanking closets or passageways. Second-story windows are aligned with those below, although an additional one on the east end is located in a passageway between rooms. (A historic photograph shows one beneath it on the first floor.) Pairs of smaller attic windows are centered in the gables. The raking edge of the gables are distinguished by shallow cornices that make short returns at the eave line, a modest nod to Neoclassicism. The rear elevation is imbalanced due to alterations made in various periods, particularly by the intersection of a later wing on the northwest corner. The current door is off center with a window at the back of the center hall; a window centered in the second story is in a room behind the upper stair hall. Around 1880 a large two-story, flat-roof wing was added to the house, connected to its northwest corner. This utilitarian annex was constructed for boarding workers on the Reed family’s large dairy farm and retail milk business. There were common spaces on the main floor: kitchen, dining room and living room and bed chambers on the upper floor off a double-loaded hallway. The room pattern and finishes of this wing have been altered. The entrance is located on the east wall where the two sections join and once opened on a lobby with a stair. A porch was built over this entrance and across the portion of the original house where it is exposed. The basement on the north side of the wing is at grade and likely had a business function; it is now used for a garage. The interior plan has rooms in the corners, each with a fireplace on interior walls and opening on a center passage. The front of the passage has plaster walls and ceiling and contains a staircase that quarter-turns on a landing. The best parlor, the room with the highest level of finish, is located in the southeast corner of the plan. It has plastered walls and ceiling with a wood cornice and flush-board wainscot; corner posts are expressed in the front corners. The fireplace is distinguished by a chimneybreast with crosseted corners on both the fireplace surround and paneled overmantel. The second parlor or dining room is opposite in the southwest corner of the plan. It has plastered walls and ceiling with a wood cornice less elaborate than that in the best parlor, and a chairrail (the paneled wainscot is a recent addition); corner posts are expressed in the front corners. The fireplace is distinguished by a simple trabeated mantle that was added later, as was a china closet to one side. On the other side, a short passageway bypasses the chimney space and connects with the kitchen in the northwest corner of the house. The cooking fireplace in the kitchen has been altered but original paneled cabinetry around is survives. The room in the northeast corner was converted for use as a second kitchen early in the history of the house; however, it originally would have served as a bed chamber, office or another domestic function as is the case in analogous houses of this type. The divisions between the rear rooms and the rear of the center passage have been removed. An enclosed rear staircase located in-line with the main stair in the north range, was an original component of the plan. The second floor generally repeats the first-floor room arrangement, with the best chamber being located over the best parlor, in the southeast corner of the plan. The rear of the plan was less formal and varied with space occupied by the rear stairs. The