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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 17 HANCOCK STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 0 2132 ❑ 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. The house at 17 Hancock Street occupies most of its narrow, deep lot on the main thoroughfare of Hancock Street. The building is set close to Hancock Street and to the left side property line, affording a wide setback on the right side of the lot, which the building faces. A straight paved driveway extends between the back of the house and the left side property line. Rising gradually up to the rear, the lot is maintained chiefly in lawn at the front of the house, with a variety of plantings in the setback between the street and the side elevation of the house. A brick walkway leads from the sidewalk to the front entrance. The building consists of a 2 '/2 story main block and one story side additions. The substantial, three by five bay main block rises from a fieldstone foundation to a side gable roof with two interior chimneys on the ridgeline. Walls are sheathed with wood clapboards and trimmed with sill boards, corner boards, and fascia boards. The second story overhangs the first story of the facade and the half-story overhangs the floors below on the left side (street) elevation. Both of these projections are elaborated with chunky pendants at the building corners and thick sawn brackets between the window bays. Windows typically have 6/6 double hung sash with band molding and hinged wood shutters. The five-bay fagade has a single-leaf center door accessed by a raised brick patio and brick steps. The left (street)side elevation contains three slightly asymmetrical windows on each floor, and a smaller window centered in the pedimented gable end. The rear elevation displays a center entrance with a single leaf door and a shed-roofed hood and a shed roofed projection to its left on the first floor; five asymmetrically placed windows on the second floor, and a shed dormer with two pairs of smaller windows. A one-story addition with a hip roof extends towards the back of the lot and is barely visible from the street. Well maintained and well preserved, 17 Hancock Street is a handsome, creative example of the mid-20th century Colonial Revival style. It is notable for the boldness of its scale and detailing, including the pendants and brackets at its wall overhangs, and for its siting perpendicular to a busy street. 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. Established by the early 18th century, Hancock Street is one of the radial roads leading outward from the meeting house in the town center. Numerous houses were already in place along the street by 1853, and by 1875 fashionable residences occupied most of the western side of the street. The eastern side of Hancock Street borders Merriam Hill and was more sparsely developed. By 1898, this property was part of a small, planned development known as Colonial Park, which consisted of 10 lots laid out around the loop road now called Goodwin Drive on what had been the estate of M. H. Merriam. Merriam moved to Oakland Street and left his house standing in the center of the loop road. 17 Hancock Street was built between 1927 and 1930. Its first known occupants were Walker L. Chamberlain (1891-1967), treasurer of a bank in the latter year, his wife Florence B., and his parents, Winston and Katie Chamberlain. (Winston, age 76, was still working as a gardener.) The Chamberlains remained in the house at least through 1945. Subsequent residents included Theodore E. Lannefeld, a chemist, and his wife Margaretha (1955) and Robert L. Seaman, a businessman ("ass't comptr.")and his wife Jacqueline B. (1965). BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Continuation sheet I