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INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Town Property Address
<br /> LEXINGTON 50 PERCY ROAD
<br /> MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
<br /> MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
<br /> 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD 500
<br /> BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
<br /> HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE:
<br /> Several articles appearing in the Lexington Minute-Man in the early 1900s offer additional information on the property
<br /> and its owners. The following article entitled"A Modest but Artistic Home"was published on August 16, 1902.
<br /> One is hardly prepared by the extreme simplicity and even severity of the exterior of the house, for the artistic
<br /> and picturesque, as well as convenient and roomy, interior of the new home which has just been finished for the
<br /> occupancy of Mr.Albin R. Reed's family, off the extension of Highland avenue, on Munroe Hill, Lexington. It
<br /> is a rather remarkable house in several respects, not the least being the fact that the architect was Mr. Reed's son,
<br /> Edward Goodwin by name, a lad of sixteen years and a pupil in Lexington High school. The boy has a natural
<br /> aptitude for architectural design and gained his first experience in remodeling the home of his grandmother,the
<br /> late Mrs. Chas. E. Goodwin(formerly of Arlington)at Kennebunkport,which the family and builders deemed a
<br /> great success.
<br /> There are always limitations in building and considering these and the other difficulties which naturally follow,
<br /> young Reed has put up a house which would be a credit to a matured man experienced in the profession. All the
<br /> money and taste at his command was expended on the interior,which is exceptionally artistic,the latter fact
<br /> owing largely to the auxiliary assistance given by the boy's father, Mr. Reed, who besides being a musician of
<br /> high standing in Boston, also has a taste for the artistic and a fad for collecting valuable antiquities in the line of
<br /> household furnishings.
<br /> One enters the house into a square hall,not large, but with a nicely proportioned stairway. Just out of the hall is a
<br /> reception room with a French window. Turning to the left is the living room, beautifully proportioned, (28 x 16
<br /> feet), and paneled as high as the chair rail. The windows are square in shape and look out on a beautiful and
<br /> extensive woodland view. A striking feature of this room is a very beautiful mantel of unusual width, in a
<br /> charming proportioned colonial design. A similar mantel is in the dining room but much smaller. Out of the
<br /> dining room, is a nice china closet and other convenient quarters for domestic purposes. The chambers are of
<br /> good size, light and airy, and splendid closet room has been provided for all over the house.
<br /> But the charm of the house is the woodwork on the first floor, much of which was culled by Mr. Reed, Sr., from
<br /> old houses which,with the unusual number of antique pieces of furniture, some of which are heirlooms of Mrs.
<br /> Reed,whose family has for many years been identified with Arlington and where the homestead there on
<br /> Pleasant street is now occupied by her uncle, Mr. Geo. W. Lane. Others have been collected from time to time by
<br /> Mr. Reed. The woodwork including the paneling in the reception room came from a room in the famous Daggett
<br /> house was planned in revolutionary days. Some in Boston,where the "tea party"episode of the other paneling
<br /> was taken from the old Springfield Tavern, now torn down, where Washington made one of his memorable
<br /> sojourns. The mantels and mahogany chair rails were from the well known Parkman house of tragic fame in
<br /> Bowdoin Sq., Boston, of which Bulfinch,the famous architect who built the State House and other fine edifices,
<br /> was the designer. The carved lintels over the doors in the hall,reception, dining and living rooms, is
<br /> exceptionally ornate and beautiful in design,being patterned somewhat after the Egyptian forms and was taken,
<br /> we understand, from the Ronalds house on Beacon Hill. Of course such features as these give the house a value
<br /> way beyond any money estimate and makes it almost a museum and epitome of colonial days.
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