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ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE (Describe important architectural features and <br /> evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community.) <br /> An historic photograph shows this house to have been a substantial late <br /> nineteenth century structure with elements of Shingle and Queen Anne styles, <br /> including a balustraded porch, bay windows and a palladian window. All <br /> original finish and trim has been replaced with artificial siding or metalwork. <br /> HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE (Explain the role owners played in local or state <br /> history and how the building relates to the development of the community.) <br /> The local paper reports that this house was built in 1892 by "Theodore <br /> Munroe, a Lexington boy." The paper called the house "quite pretentious" and <br /> further stated, "Mr. Munroe bought a large tract of land as a speculative <br /> scheme and has had it cut up into house lots . . . several of which are already <br /> sold. " (Note: there is no reference to Theodore Munroe in the local genealogy.) <br /> The development was laid out with 52 tiny lots, averaging 6,000 square <br /> feet, adjoining Hillside Avenue, Lisbeth Street, Clelland Road. People were <br /> enticed to see the lots by offer of a free train ticket, but few lots sold, <br /> evidently, and most have proved unbuildable because of the precipitous slope <br /> and rock ledge. <br /> Lexington resident, Dorothy Foster's, grandfather, Willard Cooke, a <br /> journalist, was one of those who accepted the train ticket and bought a lot, <br /> but soon afterward (in 1893) bought Munroe's house. <br /> The Hillside Avenue development was one of two early 1890s development <br /> schemes which offered free transportation to potential buyers. The other was <br /> Meagherville in North Lexington. There too many of the lots proved unbuildable <br /> being wetlands. Munroe does not appear in the Lexington directories by 1894. <br /> BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (name of publication, author, date and publisher) <br /> Lexington Minute Man, December 9, 1892. <br /> Historic photograph in the possession of Dorothy Foster. <br /> 1906 atlas <br /> 1894 Directory <br /> 1899 Directory <br /> 1906 Directory <br /> Personal communication from Dorothy Foster. <br /> 10M - 7/82 <br />