marrett-road_0118 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 118 MARRETT ROAD MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2245 ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. ff 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. 118 Marrett Road occupies an unusual, U-shaped lot containing nearly an acre of land, most of which is located behind the house. The parcel wraps around 122 Marrett Road; both parcels were probably subdivided from what is now 114 Marrett Road, the 15-acre Dailey Farm. The house stands in the wider, eastern leg of the U, with a moderate front setback and modest side backs. Generally flat, this portion of the property is lined with a low fieldstone wall at the street edge. A semi-circular paved driveway occupies most of the front setback here, with an extension leading back to the garage. Shrubbery lines most of the right side of the house. The building is roughly H-shaped, with its front wing parallel to the street and a garage in the rear wing, also parallel to the street. Behind the house, the land slopes gently down to the south. The building rises 2 stories from a brick foundation (at the front wing; others not visible)to an array of gabled roofs with gable returns. One interior chimney projects from the back slope of the rear wing. Walls are sheathed with wood clapboards and trimmed with a sill board (with cap) and narrow fascia board with a heavily molded cornice. Windows typically have 6/1 double- hung replacement sash with plain flat casings. At the first floor, the wall surface directly above the window sash is flared out slightly. The 4 by 2 bay front wing has a side gable roof; its rightmost bay steps back slightly. Facing north, the front (Marrett Road) fagade has four regularly arrayed windows on each floor. The left side gable end has two windows at the first floor and one centered at the second floor. The right side gable end is asymmetrical, with one set of paired windows and one single window on the first floor and an offset window at the second floor. A formal entrance may be located in the corner between the front and middle wings, but is not visible from the public way. The middle (connector wing), perpendicular to the street, has on its left(east) side elevation a cladding of stone veneer and a segmentally arched window on its first floor, a slightly overhanging second story, and a small four-pane window visible at the second floor. On the middle wing's right (west) side, a large arched window on the second floor projects above the roofline, surmounted by a correspondingly curved roof supported on decoratively sawn brackets. The rear wing has a gable roof parallel to the street, but is dominated by a large, asymmetrical cross gable facing Marrett Road. The street-facing fagade includes two individual garage bays with segmentally-arched openings, a slightly-recessed offset doorway, and a pair of windows centered in under the ridgeline in the half-story. A small bay window with one small four-light sash projects from the right end of the half-story, as well. The left (east)side of the rear wing has a shed-roofed dormer across most of its length and two windows on each floor. The right(west) side of the rear wing contains a variety of single, paired, double-hung, and casement windows, along with a polygonal bay that wraps around the back corner of the first floor. 118 Marrett Road has experienced extensive remodeling and/or rebuilding, and the nature of the original design is not clear at this time. In 1996, a two-story addition with a garage, valued at$200,000, was constructed. Building permit records suggest that everything behind the front wing may date to this period. Additional renovations of unknown scale and character were made early in 2015. The present house is a handsome building in an historically-informed design, but appears to be a thoroughly modern metamorphosis. Continuation sheet I