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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 76 BLOOMFIELD STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2191 ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form. Use as much space as necessary to complete the following entries, allowing text to flow onto additional continuation sheets. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION: Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. 76 Bloomfield Street occupies a small lot near the intersection of Bloomfield Street and Highland Avenue. The building has moderate setbacks on the front and right sides, which are occupied mainly by lawn. The narrow left side setback contains a long paved driveway; the back of the lot slopes up slightly to a dry-laid fieldstone wall. Foundation plantings and scattered trees characterize the landscaping. The building consists of a 2 'h story main block and a long, one-story addition along one side that extends behind the main block. The rectangular main block rises from a fieldstone foundation to a tall hip roof with a small hip roof dormer centered on the front slope and a larger shed roofed dormer centered on the left slope. One chimney rises from the back of the hip ridge at the ridgeline. Walls are clad with wood shingles and trimmed with a narrow bed molding. Windows typically have 6/1 double hung sash with a narrow band molding; many are paired. The two-bay fagade of the main block has a recessed, off-center doorway with a decorative gabled hood, concrete steps with brick treads, and sturdy wood railings with square balusters, a heavy shaped handrail, and ball finials on the posts. The braced hood has shaped ends on its horizontal beams and exposed rafter ends. The second floor of the facade has two asymmetrical pairs of short windows. The right side elevation of the house contains a one-story screened porch with a low hip roof and a one-story angled bay window on the first floor and two asymmetrical windows on the second floor. The left side elevation includes two asymmetrical windows on the second floor of the main block, and a one-story addition with a steeply pitched shed roof across most of the first floor. The addition features exposed rafter ends, irregular square windows facing the side, and a horizontal stained and leaded glass window facing the street. Offset on the long side of the addition is a single-leaf doorway with a hood that echoes the front entrance in its braced and gabled hood and its exposed rafter ends. The back of the building has a small shed-roofed addition with modern fixed and awning sash off the main block and a low wood deck in the corner between the main block and rear addition. 76 Bloomfield Street is an early building in a predominantly much later 20th century residential subdivision. Well maintained and relatively well preserved, it is notable for its tall hip-roofed form and its unusually well detailed main entrance. It is a typical example of early 20th century, middle class housing in Lexington, near a neighborhood of much larger and high-style homes. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE Discuss the history of the building. Explain its associations with local(or state)history. Include uses of the building, and the role(s) the owners/occupants played within the community. 76 Bloomfield Street represents the early expansion of modest, affordable suburban housing in Lexington's town center. The original part of Bloomfield Street, on the opposite side of Highland Avenue, is an area of large, stylish, and expensive houses, most of which were built in the 1880s and 90s for prominent members of the community. The street was extended across Highland Avenue between 1906 and 1918, although it contained only two houses (today's#73 and 76) in the latter year. At that time, 76 Bloomfield is depicted with a full-width front porch; the fagade's fenestration may have been changed when the porch was removed. Greenhouses are depicted at the end of this short section of Bloomfield Street in 1918 and 1920, indicating continuing agricultural uses in the neighborhood. The first known resident of 76 Bloomfield Street is Arthur L. Graves, a clerk in Cambridge, and his wife Edith D., who lived here by 1915. In 1930, Graves was employed as a department manager in a department store. Members of the Graves family Continuation sheet I