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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 24 CEDAR STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2201 ❑ 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. 24 Cedar Street is positioned towards the back of a moderately sized lot. Maintained chiefly in lawn, the land slopes up gradually from the street. Foundation plantings line the front of the house. A large paved driveway and parking area occupy the center of the unusually deep front setback. The rectangular, 1/12 story house rises above a granite rubble foundation and raised basement to a front gable roof with a shallow pitch and no gable returns. A chimney is situated on the left slope of the roof, near the center and the ridgeline. The facade contains a full-length front porch with a hip roof and modern wood columns, railing, and stairway. The offset doorway is comprised of a single leaf wood door with a modern Colonial Revival surround. A large picture window unit is located to its left on the first floor. Two windows are centered above in the half story. The left side elevation is distinguished by a large cross gable towards the front; the back section is slightly recessed. Two narrow windows are centered in the half story of the cross gable, with two variously sized windows below. The recessed portion of this elevation contains a single leaf door and one small window to its left. The door opens onto a large, contemporary wood deck. The right side elevation is highly irregular, with three double-hung windows and a small octagonal window near the front on the first floor, and one small window near the center of the half story. Well maintained, 24 Cedar Street displays significant contemporary alterations. The building is notable for its very simple form, large cross gable on the side elevation, and unusual siting, which contrasts with the more suburban streetscape that surrounds it. Further research is recommended to determine whether this structure had any agricultural functions to which its utilitarian appearance can be attributed. 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. Cedar Street is an old country road, appearing on the town maps by 1853 (and perhaps as early as 1830), when it extended from what is known today as Massachusetts Avenue (a 17th century highway)to the Tophet Swamp in northwestern Lexington. The town almshouse and poor farm were established on a twenty-acre site at the corner of Hill and Cedar Streets in 1845, where they remained until 1930. Aside from a house at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Cedar Street, until 1875 there was only one house on Cedar before its intersection with Hill Street. The late 19th century saw a flurry of construction on this block, however. By 1898, at least six houses were built on the west side and one on the east side of the road between Mass. Ave. and Columbus Street. Also by 1898, the Boston Female Asylum (an orphanage) occupied a cluster of buildings east of Cedar Street, off Mass. Ave., likely deterring nearby residential development. Early street numbers along Cedar Street are difficult to correlate to present buildings, as they appear to have changed during the 1930s. The building at 24 Cedar Street appears on the 1898 town map, conspicuous by its deep set back. The owner in that year is not clear. It may have been associated with the building next door(now#20)that was owned by John M. Ryan, who worked as a janitor, gardener, and farm laborer, and lived there at least through 1920. As late as 1950, the property belonging to 24 Cedar Street extended through to Lake Street. The first known residents of 24 Cedar Street were Thomas H. Robinson, a gardener for the Edison electric company(born in Northern Ireland), his wife Jessie F. (born in Canada), and their three children, who lived here from at least 1918 through 1955. In 1965, the house was occupied by Henry E. Cronier, who worked for the gas company, and his wife Laura F. Continuation sheet I