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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 2-4 GRANT PLACE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2224 ❑ 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. 2-4 Grant Place occupies a small, almost triangular lot at the corner of Grant Place and Grant Street, adjacent to the Minuteman Bikeway rail trail. The lot slopes down to the back, affording a fully exposed basement level at the rear of the building. The site is bordered by a random ashlar retaining wall with a granite cap at the street corner and a wall of massive granite blocks at the former railroad abutment. The building is set very close to both its adjacent streets. Its narrow front setback is occupied mainly by small shrubs and trees, which extend around the right side of the house as well. The slender left side setback is planted with perennials, while the small back yard is maintained in lawn. Most of the right side yard is occupied by a broad, gravel driveway. The building consists of a 1 3/4 story main block and a one-story rear addition above a raised basement level. The modest main block rises from a random ashlar foundation with grapevine mortar joints to a front gable roof with no gable returns and decoratively sawn brackets at the wall corners. Walls are clad with wood clapboards and trimmed with sill boards, flat corner boards, and a plain flat fascia with a narrow bed molding. Windows typically have 6/1 or 8/1 double hung replacement sash. Some casement and awnings windows are located towards the back of the main block and at the addition. The two-bay fagade has an offset door and small angled bay on the first floor,joined by a continuous flat hood with decoratively sawn and paneled brackets and a geometric railing above. The single-leaf, original or early entry door has wood and glass panels. A dentil course and crown molding trim the plain flat casing of the front door, the continuous header joining the two second floor windows, and the small window centered in the attic story. The right side elevation contains two square windows with geometrically-gridded Queen Anne-style sash and a hip roof porch with square posts. At the back, a modest perpendicular ell rises 1 'h stories above a fully-exposed basement to a gabled roof, with a single window centered in the first floor and half story. The basement level on this side contains sliding glass doors and a pair of casement windows. The left side elevation displays a narrow shed-roofed wall dormer towards the front and a modest cross-gable dormer at the back, each with a single window. The first floor has two pairs of windows generally aligning with the dormers above. The basement contains single and paired windows. The back elevation of the main block has two narrow shed-roofed wall dormers. The gabled rear addition is utilitarian in design, with sliding windows on the main floor, a single-leaf door on the lower level on the right side, and sliding doors from its main floor to a contemporary wood deck on the back elevation. 2-4 Grant Place is an unusually well-detailed example of late 19th century workers' housing in Lexington. Well preserved and maintained, it is notable for its decorative fagade details, corner eave brackets, lively roofline, prominent corner location, and carefully detailed granite retaining wall. 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. Grant Place extends from the intersection of Grant and Sherman streets, parallel to the old Boston & Maine railroad tracks (now the Minuteman Bikeway), and ends just short of Oakland Street. The history of this piece of land is not well known at present, but seems closely related to Lexington's industrial history. The railroad arrived in Lexington in 1845-46, and the area now traversed by Grant Place was part of a large rail yard at least through 1906, including a turntable and locomotive house. A wood footbridge connected the depot and Oakland Street, crossing the tracks just south of M. H. Merriam &Co.'s shoe findings factory (1918, 1927, and 1935; NR 2009). Between 1927 and 1935, most of the railroad buildings were removed from the area. Continuation sheet I