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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 16 BRIDLE PATH MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION: Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. Located at the top of the hill, setback from a small,residential lane, 16 Bridle Path is a 1 1/2-story cottage which apparently dates to the late 18th or early 19th century. Sheathed in clapboards,the 18'x 34' structure has a five-bay fagade which is fronted by a single-story porch supported by thin posts. The center entrance is flanked by partial sidelights and the windows contain 6/6 sash. The front roof slope has seen the addition of a shed dormer and there are later additions to the east and rear. Little additional information concerning the structure can be discerned from the public way although the house's relationship to prominent East Lexington resident Eli Robbins,may make it worthy of additional investigation. 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. According to Worthen, "Bridle Path"or the Mountain Road as it was earlier known,was built by Eli Robbins(d.1856). This house probably also built by Robbins. This and several other buildings on Massachusetts Avenue remained in the family for many years and was rental property. The 1875, 1889 and 1906 maps indicate that it was still owned by Robbins descendants (Mrs. Stone). The 1853 map labels the house as"Sanderson". In 1852 Worthen reports that Mrs. Mary Sanderson died in this house, at the age of 104 years old. She was at the time living with her daughter-in-law, Esther Sanderson. On April 19, 1775 Mary was living with her husband Samuel at what is now 1314 Massachusetts Avenue,next to the Munroe Tavern. (The story of her encounter with a British soldier she found in her house on that day is well documented in vol. 1 of the Proceedings of the Lexington Historical Society.) She had left Lexington in 1776 and returned to East Lexington in 1837. In the late 19th and early 20th century Worthen indicates that the house was occupied by Otis Harrington(1834-1922), a stonemason who immigrated from Ireland in the 1850s. He lived here with his wife Ann and children. His son Bart was also a stonemason. By the 1920s the house was occupied by Frank Krantz. Clara Farnham was living here in 1942. Later owners included Richard &Martha Schriefer(1965-1983). BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Hudson, Charles. History of Lexington, Massachusetts,vol. 2,p. 286. Lexington Directories,various dates. Middlesex County Registry of Deeds, Cambridge,Mass. U.S. Census,various years. Worthen, Edwin B. Tracing the Past in Lexington, Massachusetts. New York: Vantage Press, 1998. 1853, 1875, 1889, 1906 maps Continuation sheet 1