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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 294 MARRETT ROAD MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2247 ❑ 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. 294 Marrett Road occupies a small lot that slopes up slightly from the street. The building has narrow front and right side setbacks maintained in lawn, and a narrow paved driveway on the left side. A low fieldstone retaining wall lines the sidewalk edge of the property. The simple, rectangular house rises two stories from a fieldstone and poured concrete foundation to a very low-pitched, front gable roof with exposed rafter ends at all eaves. Walls are clad with wood shingles. Windows typically have 6/1 double-hung replacement sash and flat casings with narrow band molding. The front facade contains a recessed entrance porch in the front left corner and a rectangular bay window with a shed roof in the right bay. The recessed entry comprises a Tuscan post and pilaster supporting a flat fascia board, a single-leaf door with half-height sidelights, and wood steps. The bay window contains four banded windows with transoms. On the second floor of the fagade, one window is centered above the entry porch and a pair of windows is centered above the bay window. Three angled wood braces ornament the eaves. On the right side elevation, a one-story, side-gabled appendage projects at the first floor and presents paired windows at both visible faces. The flat wall of the main block has smaller paired windows towards the back of the first floor and two small individual windows on the second floor. The left side elevation has irregular fenestration, including two windows on the first floor, one mid-level at a stairway, and two single windows and a trio of small, square windows on the second floor. Well preserved and well maintained, 294 Marrett Road is a modest yet spirited example of early 20th century suburban housing in Lexington. The house is notable for its Craftsman style, the recessed entry porch and projecting appendages that enliven the simple facades, and its articulated eaves. 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. Both Waltham Street and Marrett Road were established by the early 18th century as secondary radial highways from the center of Lexington to surrounding towns. Present-day Marrett Road between Massachusetts Avenue and Spring Street was known as Middle Street until at least the early 20th century, and the area was primarily agricultural up until that time. New transportation systems established in the early 20th century opened up large areas of rural land in Lexington for residential and commercial development. Street railway service began in Lexington in 1900 (including a railway line down Waltham Street by 1906), replaced by bus lines in 1924. Two state roadways were designated in the town, including Marrett and Middle streets as the Route 2A bypass in the 1920s, and parts of Mass. Ave., Woburn Street, and Waltham Street as components of an early Route 128 in the 1920s and 30s. By 1921, 35 new residential subdivisions were being developed in Lexington. Small commercial centers were established to service the expanding population at various cross roads, including what was known as Grape Vine Corner at the intersection of Waltham Street and Marrett Road. Modest, affordable housing sprang up rapidly in this outlying area of Lexington, meriting a plate in the Sanborn map in 1927, by which time the land bounded by Grapevine Avenue, Stedman Road, Brookside Avenue, and Waltham Street was platted into a multitude of small, regular lots and about one-third were developed. A building is shown at 294 Marrett Road (then Middle Street) in 1927, although it is drawn with a full-length front porch and is indicated to be only 1 story high. These may be inaccuracies of the mapmaker, as the date is consistent with the building's Continuation sheet I