BUILDING FORM
<br /> ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION ® see continuation sheet
<br /> Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community.
<br /> 8 Adams St. is one of the earliest examples of Willard Brown's work and one of the largest high-style Craftsman houses in
<br /> Lexington. According to an architectural historian who has studied Brown's work,this house displays features that became
<br /> characteristic of Brown's domestic architecture: a hillside site with a view(contemporary accounts say that Mt. Wachusett and the
<br /> southern New Hampshire mountains could be seen on clear days,although the view is now obscured by trees), a circular drive, a
<br /> house of substantial size with spacious rooms and ample service areas and servants' quarters,natural-color woodwork with simple
<br /> Colonial Revival or Arts and Crafts detailing, Grueby tiles on the fireplace surrounds, and an hexagonal dining room.
<br /> This house is built on the foundation of an earlier Queen Anne house which burned(see Historical Narrative),but, in contrast to
<br /> the vertical massing of that house,this one has strong horizontal lines. It is 2'/2 stories and basically rectangular in plan with many
<br /> projecting bays and a large semi-circular porch at the south end, a hip roof with flared eaves, hip-roofed dormers, and two large
<br /> interior chimneys. The walls, which flare outward at the base of the second story, are shingled up to the second story window sills
<br /> and then stuccoed above with wooden timbers dividing the stucco into rectangular panels. The front entry porch is supported by
<br /> square pilastered posts and surmounted by a balustrade. The doorway is topped by a segmental arch, a line repeated at the top of
<br /> HISTORICAL NARRATIVE N see continuation sheet
<br /> Discuss the history of the building. Explain its associations with local(or state) history. Include uses of the building, and the
<br /> role(s) the owners/occupants played within the community.
<br /> This house was built ca. 1903 to replace an earlier house on the site, which had been built in 1888 and burned on December 9,
<br /> 1902. The earlier house, a large Queen Anne, had been started by Freeborn Raymond, a Lexington developer who lived on
<br /> Massachusetts Avenue opposite what is now Grant St. When the house was almost finished, however, Mrs. Raymond decided she
<br /> wouldn't live so far"out in the county,"so the unfinished house was sold to George 0. Whiting, who had previously lived at 22
<br /> Hancock St. Whiting became a wealthy man, president of the Wilton(N.H.) Railroad, C. Brigham Milk Co., and Elm Farm Milk
<br /> Co. He was also a prominent citizen, serving in the early 20th century as president of the Lexington Savings Bank, chairman of
<br /> the Cary Library Building Committee, president of the Lexington Field and Garden Club, and president of the Lexington
<br /> Historical Society. The 1902 fire, which began in the framing behind the plaster walls and eventually consumed the entire house
<br /> because inadequate pressure in the water mains prevented the fire department from extinguishing it, burned so slowly that almost
<br /> all the contents was saved. Whiting decided to rebuild on the same site and gave the commission to Lexington architect Willard D.
<br /> Brom.
<br /> BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES IR see continuation sheet
<br /> Grady, Anne A. "The Architecture of Willard D. Brown." Paper submitted to AM 785, Boston University, 1986. On file at
<br /> Lexington Historical Society, Lexington, MA.
<br /> Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington. Revised and continued to 1912 by the Lexington Historical Society..
<br /> Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913. 1: 295, 408, 484, 496; 2: 70-71.
<br /> Lexington Historical Society. Lexington. A Hand-book oflts Points oflnterest, Historical and Picturesque. Lexington, Mass.:
<br /> Lexington Historical Society, 1891. 50
<br /> Lexington Minute-man, 21 October, 1887, 17 Aug. 1888, 13 December 1902.
<br /> Lexington Valuation Lists. 1902-1904.
<br /> N Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National
<br /> Register Criteria Statement form.
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