adams-street_0004 (formerly 8 Adams)

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INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Town Property Address Lexington 8 Adams St. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD 697 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION(continued) the door itself and at the tops of the sidelights, and flanked by square engaged pilastered columns. The design and massing of the rear elevation is, according to architectural historian Anne Grady, influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright, especially the projecting hip-roofed center bay with tall windows on the second level and a band of shorter windows on the third. This bay also has a distinctive applied latticework on the stucco. The three-car stuccoed garage is hip-roofed. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE (continued) Willard Dalrymple Brown(1871-1944)grew up in Lexington,youngest son of a father who was a successful insurance agent, and graduated from Harvard in 1892 and from M.I.T. in architecture in 1894. From 1894 to 1902 Brown worked in the office of Boston architects Dwight and Chandler. In 1902 he set up his own office at 3 Park St. in Boston, moving it by 1906 to 15 Beacon St., where he remained for the rest of his career. The Whiting house was one of his first commissions. According to Anne Grady, an architectural historian who has studied Brown's work,he was influenced by the prevailing architectural theory of eclecticism, which, in his case, meant it was acceptable to build in any of a number of historical styles or to combine several styles in one building, and by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright(see Architectural Description above). The house was apparently completed in 1903 and was later occupied for many years by Whiting's daughter Jessie and her husband George Gilmore, which is the reason why it is sometimes known as the Gilmore House. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (continued) Schoenhut, Sarah Emily Brown to Anne A. Grady, 13 March 1984. In possession of Anne A. Grady, Lexington, MA. Worthen, Edwin B. to Mrs. Bruce Currie, 16 February 1951. Worthen Collection. Cary Library, Lexington, MA. . A Calendar History of Lexington, Massachusetts, 1620-1946. Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Savings Bank, 1946. 101