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BUILDING FORM <br /> ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION ❑ see continuation sheet <br /> Describe architectural features. Evaluate the charac!eristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. <br /> 6 Fletcher Ave. has lost most of its architectural integrity but is significant as one of two former fire stations in Lexington(the <br /> other one is now the V.F.W. post at 2 Hayes Ln. [MHC#667])and the only one built in the 1850s. The house is rectangular, 1'/2 <br /> stories,two-by-three bays, and front-gabled with a small ridge chimney. It is set on a brick foundation,clad with asbestos <br /> shingles, and roofed with asphalt shingles. The entry is on the facade in an enclosed porch;windows are 6/6 double hung sash. In <br /> addition to the porch, other additions are shed dormers and a projecting three-sided bay on the south elevation. The only original <br /> exterior finish is the very simple molding at the cornice and on the cornice returns. The fire engine door must have been on the <br /> front, for the 1875 map indicates that when this building was on Waltham St. it was set with its gable end toward the street. <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 cottage was built in 1857 as the new fire "engine house"in Lexington Center, located in the yard of the Hancock School on <br /> Waltham Street. It replaced an engine house built in 1829 on the Common for one of Lexington's first"hand tubs,"a hand-drawn <br /> wooden water tub on wheels with a foot-operated pump (an engine house was also built in 1829 in East Lexington for the other <br /> hand tub). In 1852 the engine house on the Common was moved to the schoolyard on Waltham Street after the new Hancock <br /> School had been built there in 1851. (The Hancock School was on the west side of Waltham Street approximately where the <br /> entrance to the town parking lot is now located. The engine house was on the north side of the school and both buildings were at <br /> the back of the lot, probably in the area of the present parking lot and not next to the building in the adjacent lot on the north—the <br /> Greek Revival house now at 55 Waltham St. (MHC#22). <br /> In 1856 the town decided to purchase two hand-drawn "suction"fire engines, which sucked water up from some nearby source, <br /> and to house them by expanding the East Lexington engine house and building a new one in the center. The latter was constructed <br /> in 1857 on the site of the old one for$452.11, which, after the old engine house was sold for$15.00, cost the town a total of <br /> $437.11. The new center engine house, manned by the newly-formed Hancock Engine Company Number Two,was used for 20 <br /> BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ® see continuation sheet <br /> Beers, F. W. County Atlas of Middlesex Massachusetts. New York: J.B. Beers &Co., 1875. Lexington Center plate. <br /> Clippings book. Scrapbook of late 1940s–early 1950s clippings from Lexington Minute-man. "Fire Dept." In possession of <br /> Nancy S. Seasholes,Lexington, Mass. <br /> Lexington Town Reports. 1852-53, 20; 1856-57,21-23; 1857-58, 18; for Year Ending Jan. 31, 1875,40, 44-45; for Year <br /> Ending Jan. 31, 1876, 27, 29; for Year Ending Jan. 31, 1877, 39; for Year Ending Jan. 31, 1878, 19. <br /> Rosenthal, Eric. "A History of the Lexington Fire Department in the 19th Century." Paper submitted to the Lexington Savings <br /> Bank Essay Contest 100th Anniversary, 1 May 1971. Cary Library, Lexington, Mass. Photocopy. <br /> "A History of the Lexington Fire Department in the 19th Century." Lexington Minute-man, 30 December 1971. 26B <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 />