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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 2 OAKMOUNT CIRCLE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 0 2157 ❑ 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. 2 Oakmount Circle occupies a spacious lot on a residential side street on Merriam Hill, at the intersection of Oakmount Circle and Meriam and York streets. The vicinity includes a variety of mostly early 20th century revival homes (Colonial Revival, Spanish Colonial, and Medieval Revival). The building has wide setbacks from the surrounding streets. The lot slopes gradually down from Oakmount Circle to the front of the house, and then drops off steeply in the back to York Street. A straight paved driveway leads up to the garage from Oakmount Circle. Most of the lot is wooded, although a narrow strip of lawn borders the front, back, and right side of the house. A bluestone stairway and walk leads from the driveway to the main front entrance. The compact house consists of three rectangular volumes: a 1 'h story main block with gambrel roof and two 1-story, gabled side wings. An attached garage is set at a diagonal at the left side of this composition. The building rises from a poured concrete foundation with a raised basement at the rear. Walls on the main block and left wing are clad with wood clapboards and trimmed with corner boards and a narrow fascia with slender bed molding. The right wing and garage are sheathed with vertical flush boards. Windows typically comprise 12/12 double hung sash with flat casings and functional louvered wood shutters. A large interior chimney is centered at the ridgeline of the main block. An interior chimney rises from the end wall of the right wing, and an exterior chimney rises from the left side of the left wing at its intersection with the garage. The fagade of the central main block has four bays with an off-enter entrance accented by plain pilasters; its traditional door consists of wood and glass panes. The asymmetrical fagade of the right wing has a plain central doorway with flat casings, flanked by a single window to its left and projecting bay window with picture window unit to its right. The wing to the left of the main block is distinguished by two asymmetrically set windows and simple sawn brackets at the eaves. The right side elevations consist of an off-set, single window at the partially-exposed half-story of the main block, and two widely spaced windows on the saltbox side of the right wing. The main block's partially-exposed left side elevation feature a single window centered in the gable peak of the main block and a small polygonal bay window on the first floor. The left wing's partially-exposed left elevation contains a single window towards the back of the first floor. The rear elevation is irregular and informal, with a multi-light picture window and long shed dormer on the main block, and a narrow angled bay window and simple sawn eave brackets at the left wing. A large wood deck with rectangular vertical balusters extends from the back of the right wing of the house. The attached garage has two vehicle bays with solid wood doors, a side gable roof, and simple sawn brackets at the roof eaves. Its exposed gable end has a single 12/12 window centered on the main floor; the rear elevation contains an offset doorway with plain flat casing. Well-preserved and well-maintained, 2 Oakmount Circle is a good example of mid 20th century Colonial Revival residential design in Lexington. It is notable for its varied and informal massing, variety of roof forms, dominant center chimney, and careful attention to proportions and details. 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. In 1906, this area of Merriam Hill was still part of the Hayes Estate, with buildings only along the perimeter roads (Adams and Grant streets). The land had been surveyed and laid out in house lots in 1903, however, as part of the Oakmount Park Continuation sheet I