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BUILDING FORM (52 North Hancock Street) ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of the building in terms of other buildings within the community. Located at the corner of North Hancock Street and Bertwell Road and setback from the road by a large, sloping front yard, 52 North Hancock Street is a 1 1/2-story, side-gabled, wood-shingled dwelling set above a rubble foundation. The building displays pent gable ends while on the facade the overhanging eaves of the steeply-pitched roof are decorated by short beams and provide cover for the shallow front porch. Centered on the south-facing facade is a vertical board door with large iron strapwork. The entrance is fronted by a concrete and stone platform. On either side is a three-sided bay window restimg on a stone foundation. Each of the windows displays multi-paned transoms over a single-pane. Centered on the front roof slope is a shed dormer with a set of three 8/8 windows at the center and an individual window of the same configuration on each end. The west end, facing Bertwell, displays an oriel window on the first floor with individual 12/1 and 8/1 windows punctuating the triangular gable above. A modern carport roof projects from the lower level. The front yard is shaded by a huge, old tree and a long driveway extends along the west side of the house,terminating at a hip-roofed,wood-shingled garage to the rear, accessed by a double-wide, overhead door on the west side. HIVORICAL NARRATIVE Deribe the history of the building. Explain its associations with local(or state) history. Include uses of the building and the—T, le (s) the owners/occupants played within the community. The early history of this house is not known with certainty owing to confusion in historic records between Hancock and North Hancock Streets as well as the changing acreage of the property. It appears that the house was constructed in 1905 for Richard McNulty. A brief mention in the Lexington Minute-man on April 15, 1905 noted that the foundations are going in for"a house the McNultys are to build at the further end of Hancock Street, in the neighborhood of the Bertwell place"(see 36 North Hancock Street, MHC#1099). McNulty is listed in the 1906 directory as a draftsman in Boston, living on Hancock Street. The 1905 Valuation List indicates that McNulty owned a lot but was living in Boston. In 1906 he was assessed for a house valued at$4500 on five acres of land. By 1909 the assessment had risen to $5500. McNulty appears to have sold the property to Carrie Cutting in 1909 although the acreage of the property was reduced to a half acre. Cutting appears to have married William C. White about 1920 as future directories list the occupants as Came and William White. The Whites continued to own the property into the 1930s. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Lexington Assessors Records. Lexington Directories, various dates. Lexington Minute-man, April 15, 1905. Le*gton Valuation Lists, various dates. Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attached a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.