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INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community: Form No:
<br /> MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL CC"d SSION Lexington 563
<br /> Office of the Secretary, Boston
<br /> Property Name: 503 Concord Avenue
<br /> Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below.
<br /> ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
<br /> section, and set on the diagonal; and the original brick ends, visible in the
<br /> attic and the west ell basement. The house has had many additions or alterations:
<br /> the west ell was added in 1837, the bracketed hood over the front door and the
<br /> east porch during an extensive 1874 remodeling (the trellis over the front door
<br /> is undoubtedly a later addition) , and the garage before 1923.
<br /> HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
<br /> betterments on the house" (Burgess 1965:85) , and in 1842 Nathaniel Cutler deeded
<br /> the farm to his son Thomas in return for the right to live in the west ell. The
<br /> ell has subsequently almost always been occupied by a separate household; it is
<br /> now a rental apartment.
<br /> Thomas Cutler (1801-1890) was also a successful farmer, but not active in
<br /> town affairs. He ran the farm with his son Thomas Everett Cutler (1830-1875) ;
<br /> under the latter the farm began to specialize in apples and milk and its holdings
<br /> were increased, especially in the area north of Shade and east of Spring streets,
<br /> in what is now the Woodhaven area (1875 map) . In 1874 the original house was
<br /> completely remodeled: the roof was raised, the house was made two rooms deep, the
<br /> brick ends covered with clapboards, and the bracketed front doorway and east
<br /> porch added. Thomas E. Cutler died in 1875 and his inventory lists the rooms
<br /> then existing in the main house: kitchen, dining room, sitting room (east front) ,
<br /> front hall, parlor (west front) , parlor chamber, chamber over front hall, sitting
<br /> room chamber, bath room, dining room chamber, north chamber, attic, workmen's
<br /> chamber, wardrobe (Burgess 1964:8-9) . This inventory also mentions improvements
<br /> to a barn and outbuildings; the former, at least, was located on the south side
<br /> of Concord Avenue (site of present 502 Concord Avenue) . Thomas Cutler died in
<br /> 1890 and his inventory cites the house, barn, and three outbuildings (Burgess
<br /> 1965:54) .
<br /> Thomas Cutler left the 150 acre farm to his son's widow and children. It
<br /> was purchased in 1898 by Clarence H. Cutler (1869-1933) , a son of Thomas E.
<br /> Cutler. Like his great-grandfather, Clarence Cutler was very active in town
<br /> affairs, serving as a town meeting member, on the finance committee, planning
<br /> board, as a fence viewer, and a delegate to Republican conventions. He was also
<br /> a member of the Lexington Grange, Minutemen, Rotary Club, and First Parish Church.
<br /> During his ownership of the Cutler farm he continued to specialize in apples and
<br /> - milk and many outbuildings were added, all of which have since disappeared: a
<br /> wagon shed (late 1890s) next to the barn; a summer house (c. 1915) at the Parker
<br /> pine (see Concord Avenue area form) ; a cottage (1920) on the east side of the
<br /> property (site of present 501 Concord Avenue) ; workmen's housing (before 1920)
<br /> above the wagon shed (Burgess 1964:5, 1965:85-86) . Clarence Cutler apparently
<br /> wanted the farm to remain in the Cutler family, but he left it to his wife who,
<br /> on her death in 1938, had left it to a niece, so the farm, which had been owned
<br /> and operated by the same family for over 100 years, ceased to be owned by the
<br /> Cutlers. After World War II the Cutler farmland was divided up and sold off for
<br /> residential developments: Woodhaven in the late 1940s, Benjamin Road in the 1950s,
<br /> and Five Fields, on the south side of Concord Avenue, in the early 1950s (see
<br /> Five Fields area form) . The Cutler barn and workmen's house were torn down in
<br /> 1953 as part of the latter development.
<br /> Staple to Inventory form at bottom
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