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INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 18 OAKMOUNT CIRCLE
<br /> MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
<br /> 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
<br /> 2159
<br /> Discuss the history of the building. Explain its associations with local(or state)history. Include uses of the building, and the role(s) the
<br /> owners/occupants played within the community.
<br /> On the 1906 map, this area of Merriam Hill was still part of the Hayes Estate, with buildings only along the perimeter roads
<br /> (Adams and Grant streets). The land had been surveyed and laid out in house lots in 1903, however, as part of the Oakmount
<br /> Park subdivision. Six houses were constructed around Oakmount Circle by 1935, but this property was still undeveloped. The
<br /> present building first appears on the town maps in 1950. Assessors' records for this house show a construction date of 1938,
<br /> which matches the town directory entries for residents at this address.
<br /> The house appears to have been built in 1938 for Mrs. Lulu M. Blake, widow of Hallie C. Blake. The Blakes moved from
<br /> Winthrop to Lexington between 1910 and 1920, occupying Francis B. Hayes's Victorian mansion, Oakmount, at 50 Meriam
<br /> Street (bounded by Meriam Street, Franklin Road, and Castle Road) until 1937. (It was demolished in 1941.)
<br /> In 1887, Hallie C. Blake (1870-1936)joined the piano dealer and music publishing business of Charles D. Blake & Co. that was
<br /> established by his father in 1869. An 1885 business history reported that"There are few music and piano houses in this city
<br /> better known or more appreciated than that of Messrs. Charles D. Blake & Co." (Leading Manufacturers: 327). Hallie Blake
<br /> took charge of the business in 1898; by 1916, the company had 57 stores throughout New England.
<br /> Blake was a member of the Lexington School Committee and served as a selectman in the town; was a member of the Old
<br /> Belfry Club of Lexington, the Boston Chamber of Commerce, Bostonian Society, Boston Atheneum, Mass. Horticultural Society,
<br /> and Masons; and at one point described his recreations as "farming" (Who's Who: 124). He was also president of the
<br /> Lexington Cooperative Bank and vice president of the Lexington Trust Company. After his death in 1936, Hallie's widow Lulu
<br /> Blake (1875-1958) assumed the presidency of Charles D. Blake & Co. and moved to a new house built for her at 18 Oakmount
<br /> Circle. (She is identified at this address in 1938, and at 50 Merriam Street in 1937.) Hallie C. and Lulu Blake had three children,
<br /> who were grown by this time; Mrs. Blake lived here with only a chauffeur and cook through at least 1945.
<br /> Subsequent residents of the property included Lan Jen Chu, a professor, his wife Grace, and at least two children (1955, 1965).
<br /> Further research is recommended on the significance of the Charles D. Blake Company, the history and significance of the
<br /> Blake family in Lexington, and possible associations with the Olmsted firm in landscape design for one or both of their houses in
<br /> Lexington. (A Mr. and Mrs. Blake in Lexington are identified in the Olmsted archives as clients for Job Number 10559, under
<br /> private estates and homesteads.)
<br /> BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
<br /> Daily Boston Globe. Obituary for Hallie C. Blake. Feb 2, 1936, p. 15.
<br /> Historic maps and atlases: Walling 1853; Beers 1875; Walker 1889; Stadly 1898; Walker 1906; Sanborn 1908, 1918, 1927,
<br /> 1935, 1935/1950.
<br /> Leading Manufactures and Merchants of the City of Boston. Boston: International Publishing Co., 1885.
<br /> Lexington Directories: 1899, 1908-09, 1922, 1934, 1936.
<br /> Lexington Historical Commission (Anne Grady). Form A, LEKH update, Merriam Hill Area (draft). 2015.
<br /> Lexington List of Persons: 1935, 1945, 1955, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1965.
<br /> Marquis, Albert Nelson, ed. Who's Who in New England, Vol 2, 2nd ed. Chicago: A. N. Marquis &Co., 1916.
<br /> Massachusetts Historical Commission. "MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Lexington." 1980.
<br /> Middlesex Registry of Deeds, South District. "Plan of Oakmount Park, Lexington, Mass." Recorded Jul 15, 1903
<br /> Wright, Thomas. "The Wright Family Genealogy." Rootsweb, May 30, 2013. http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-
<br /> bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=tcwlmo&id=169323Accessed July 28, 2015.
<br /> Continuation sheet 2
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