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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 /> 15 Belfry Terr. is one of several ells of 18th-and 19th-century houses in Lexington that has been separated from its original house <br /> and moved to its present location; other examples of moved ells are at 29 Hayes Ln. (MHC#668), 40 Forest St. (MHC#681), <br /> and 9-11 Cedar St. (MHC#688). The main block of this house is rectangular,two stories, five(irregularly-spaced)-by-one <br /> bays, and side-gabled with a rear chimney. It is set on a fieldstone foundation, clad with wood clapboards, and roofed with asphalt <br /> shingles. There is a one-story oriel on the south elevation, a front-gabled two-story one-by-one bay rear addition, and a one-story <br /> flat-roofed sunporch with a very tall chimney in the reentrant angle. The off-center entry has a front porch with small Tuscan <br /> posts; windows are 6/6 double hung sash. - <br /> HISTORICAL NARRATIVE ® 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 is the former rear ell of the house now at 6 Belfry Terr. (MHC 9682) once attached at the south end of this house. <br /> The entire house, known as the Hudson house,was originally located on Massachusetts Ave. opposite the Common approximately <br /> where the driveway of the Hancock Church is today. The house, and presumably the ell,were built in 1848 by Isaac C.Wright,a <br /> Lexington house painter, as evidenced by the fact that in May 1848 Wright bought the half-acre parcel on which the house <br /> originally stood for$600 and in April 1849 sold the lot"with the building"for$2500, indicating that the house had been built in <br /> the interim. <br /> The purchaser in 1849 was Charles Hudson (1795-1881),who moved to Lexington from Westminster, where he had been a <br /> Unitarian minister from 1819 to 1841, a state representative from 1828 to 1833, a state senator from 1833 to 1839, member of the <br /> Governor's Council from 1839 to 1841,and a U. S. Representative from 1839 to 1849. After moving to Lexington,he became a <br /> naval officer and served four year at the Custom House in Boston. He also served eight years on the state board of education, four <br /> years as a federal tax assessor, and reportedly was a personal friend of President Lincoln. Hudson was involved with many <br /> railroads, serving as president of the Lexington and West Cambridge Branch Railroad, a state director of the Boston and Albany, <br /> and a commissioner of the Hoosac Tunnel. He published histories of Marlborough,Westminster, and, in 1868, of <br /> BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑see continuation sheet <br /> DeSimone, Frank. "The Story of Charles Hudson." Hudson News-Enterprise, 8 June 1966. <br /> Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington. Revised and continued to 1912 by the Lexington Historical Society. <br /> Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913. 2: 313. <br /> Lexington,Town of. Board of Selectmen. Letter to Sarah E. Robinson, 26 April 1915. In possession of S. Lawrence Whipple, <br /> Lexington, MA. <br /> . Board of Selectmen. Letter to Sydney R. Wrightington, 28 May 1828. In possession of S. Lawrence Whipple, <br /> Lexington, MA. <br /> Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge, MA. 528: 564; 554: 165. <br /> ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National <br /> Register Criteria Statement form. <br />