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ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE (Describe important architectural features and evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community.) This is one of the most modest farm cottages to survive as a residence in Lexington. Constructed like the more substantial Federal/Greek Revival jernacular houses which dot East Lexington with small stair hall at the front .entrance, chimneys at the rear of right and left hand rooms, and roof construc- tion of principal rafters nailed to a one-foot by six-foot board at the ridge, this house is distinguished from the others by its modest scale and less-than- two story height. The current owners have opened up the interior of the house and remodeled it in a contemporary manner. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE (Explain the role owners played in local or state history and how the building relates to the development of the community.) According to the maps, the house was built between 1830 and 1853. It was occupied in 1853 by Edmund Munroe Brown, grandson of Francis Brown who kept a tavern nearby at 620 Massachusetts Avenue in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. By 1875 John Irwin, a farmer, lived here. By 1898 the house was part of the dairy farm of Sidney Myron Lawrence, who built the house adjacent at 52 Pleasant Street in the 18905. At some point, this house was moved to the rear of the lot.. The current house on the front of the lot (50 Pleasant Street) was constructed c. 1934 for a daughter of the farm's owner. The barn of the Lawrence farm now belongs to the owners of 48 Pleasant Street. It was built c. 1905 as a "Grade A" dairy barn and included such features as a manure track. It replaced an earlier barn on the site, and was converted to a garage in the 1950s. y BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (name of publication, author, date and publisher) Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington, revised and continued to 1921 by the Lexington Historical Society, Volume II, pp. 66, 69. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913. Personal communication from John Shanahan. 1830 map 1853 map 1875 atlas 1887 Directory 1889 atlas 1894 Directory 1898 atlas 1899 Directory 1906 atlas 1906 Directory 10M - 7/82