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INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Town Property Address <br /> Lexington 42 Adams St. <br /> MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. <br /> MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING <br /> 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD 704, 705 <br /> BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 <br /> HISTORICAL NARRATIVE (continued) <br /> In 1920 Maplemere Farm was purchased by Giovanni (John) D. Chiesa. John Chiesa had been born in Boston's North End <br /> in 1880 and, with his father Andrew, had established the A&J Chiesa grocery store there. He also worked as a motorman <br /> for the Boston Street Railway Company,whose electric trolleys began service to Lexington in 1900. In 1913 John Chiesa <br /> and his wife bought land in Arlington but, drawn to Lexington by the wide open land he had seen and liked when a <br /> motorman, acquired Maplemere Farm in 1920. The Chiesas bought about 20 cows and ran a dairy farm, selling the milk to <br /> others dairies in town,which pasteurized, bottled, and delivered it in the Lexington area. John Chiesa Jr. took over the farm <br /> in 1944 before his father's death in 1947. John Jr. continued dairy farming into the 1960s and then began to board horses. <br /> He also ran a small market garden business and made jelly,wine, and cider from the farm's grapes and apples. In 1976 <br /> John Chiesa sold 9.25 acres to the town for conservation land and in 1985 another 13 acres with the condition that he could <br /> remain on the farm during his lifetime. <br /> BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (continued) <br /> Sileo, Thomas P.Historical Guide to Open Space in Lexington. Lexington, Mass.: Thomas P. Sileo, 1995. 116-21. <br /> "Chiesa Farm: A dream, reality, changes." Lexington Minute-man, 26 October 1995. <br /> Notes on the Chiesa Farmhouse. In possession of Thomas P. Sileo, Chelmsford, MA. <br /> Roll#7,Negative#28 <br />