bacon-street_0018 (formerly 144 Marrett)

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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 144 MARRETT ROAD MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2246 ❑ 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. 144 Marrett Road occupies a large, four-acre parcel of land that does not actually front on Marrett Road. The property is accessed by a one-lane gravel drive (known as Bacon Street) and surrounded by an extensive area of marshland and meadow. The L-shaped house consists of a main block with a large side ell; the property also contains a free-standing barn. The rectangular main block rises 1 '/2 stories to a front gable roof with gable returns and a chimney on the left slope, near the ridgeline. Walls are clad with wood shingles and trimmed with bed molding at the eaves. Windows typically have 6/6 double- hung replacement sash and no trim. The facade (facing northwesterly) has an offset entrance and one window to the side on the first floor, and two windows centered above in the half story. The single-leaf door is framed with a flat casing and a high triangular"pediment"with a flat center and perimeter molding. A 1 '/2 story addition on the left(northeast) side of the main block has a side gable roof and two windows on each floor; the upper windows are contained in flush-wall dormers with gable roofs (no returns). The right side (southwest) elevation of the main block contains one double-hung window toward the front and a triple- casement unit towards the back of the first floor. Symmetrically placed on the roof, two shed-roofed dormers each have a pair of casement windows. The partially exposed basement on this elevation has utilitarian fenestration. The rear(southeast) elevation of the main block has a single-leaf door centered between two windows on the first floor, and two windows centered in the half story above. A one-story extension to the east has another single window. A modern wood deck spans the back elevation, with square vertical balusters on its railings and wood steps. Located directly behind the house is a large barn (nearly 1000 square feet)with a broad, front-gambrel roof and three vehicle bays. One tall window is centered in its half story, flanked by two very small vertical openings. The barn is clad in wood shingles and has plain flat wood trim. 144 Marrett Road is remarkable as an isolated, relatively early set of buildings, presumably with agricultural associations. The property maintains its original landscape context, although the house has lost historic integrity through the removal of original trim and window sash (and probably siding). The buildings are notable for their vernacular character and intact simple massing, and the substantial volume of the barn. 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. Originally known as Middle Street, Marrett Road is an important cross-highway though Lexington that dates to the early 18th century. Scattered development occurred along the street through the 19th and turn of the 20th centuries: Only five houses were located between Mass. Ave. and Waltham Street in 1853, and ten in 1875 and through 1906. By 1922, there were 32 households along the whole of Middle Street, which extended westward to Lincoln Street. Early to late 201h century residential infill on relatively large lots (especially along the southern side of the road) contributes to the current, heterogeneous streetscape. 144 Marrett Road is significant as an unusually intact representative of Lexington's agricultural history since at least the 1890s. Although the house's form suggests an earlier construction date, historic maps do not show a building here until 1906. At that time, a private way(the present drive, a.k.a. Bacon Street) is shown extending from Marrett Road into the Dunback Meadow. Continuation sheet I