massachusetts-avenue_0109 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

BUILDING FORM ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION ❑see continuation sheet Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. 109 Massachusetts Ave. is a Georgian house that retains its center chimney but has lost most of its architectural integrity. The house is rectangular,two stories, five-by-two bays, and hip roofed with a center chimney. It is set on a granite foundation, clad with aluminum siding, and roofed with asphalt shingles. A one-story three-by-one bay gabled rear addition is set on a concrete block and fieldstone foundation. The center entrance is under a gabled hood supported by turned posts with curved brackets; there is a separate entrance in the rear addition. Windows are 6/6 double hung sash. A projecting second-story porch supported by posts is on the west elevation. In the basement massive beams and large floor joists are visible as is the brick arch that supports the center chimney. On either side of this arch are a number of brick piers with wooden shelves set into the bricks, suggesting that these shelves date from the original construction of the house. No other original interior finishes appear to have survived. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE ® see continuation sheet 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. It is not clear when this house was built nor by whom. Deed research indicates that Joshua Russell owned it in 1809 when he sold a half interest in the property to a Job Hill, but it is not clear if this is the house listed for Joshua Russell in the Direct Tax of 1798. In any event,the arch under the center chimney strongly suggests the house was built in the 18th century, and historical photographs show that it originally had a side-gabled roof. In 1812 Russell and Hill sold the property to Micajah Locke(1786- 1842), who came to Lexington from a part of West Cambridge that is now in Winchester. Locke acquired a large farm along what is now Massachusetts Ave. in East Lexington and Arlington and was also in the"meal business." Meal dealers reportedly delivered ground corn meal on a regular route in Boston, much as "milk men"delivered their milk. After distributing the day's load of meal, the dealers would buy unground corn at the docks in Boston and take it to one of the three grist mills in West Cambridge (now Arlington)to be ground for the next day's deliveries. After Micajah Locke's death, the house was owned by his widow and then sold in 1858 to a Timothy Eaton of West Cambridge. It may have been Eaton who"Italianated"the house, for its assessed value almost doubled between 1867 and 1870 and a ca. 1923 photograph shows it with a center gable. (The 1923 photo also shows the present gabled entry hood with its turned posts and brackets.) In 1871 Eaton sold the house to Franklin Alderman (1829-1900),who had come to Lexington about 1858 and first BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ® see continuation sheet Bryant, Albert W. "Lexington Sixty Years Ago." Proceedings of Lexington Historical Society 2 (1900): 21-22.Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge, MA. 199: 151, 316; 797: 587; 1166: 584. Church, Burr. Photograph Collection. Lexington Historical Society, Lexington, MA. Direct Tax of 1798. Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington. Revised and continued to 1912 by the Lexington Historical Society. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913. 2: 378, 11. Lexington Valuation Lists. 1862-1870. ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.