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BUILDING FORM ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION ❑see continuation sheet Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. 79 Reed St. is one of the few examples in Lexington of a very small post-and-beam house. It is rectangular with a side ell, 1'/2 stories,two-by-one bays, and side-gabled with a rear chimney. The one-story two-by-one bay side-gabled ell is attached to a gabled carport. At the rear of both house and ell is a one-story shed-roofed addition. The house is set on a concrete foundation, clad with wood clapboards, and roofed with asphalt shingles. The main entry is now in the west gable end;windows are 6/6 double hung sash. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE ❑ see continuation sheet 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. This house was originally at 54 Bedford St.,that is,just west of the present intersection of Bedford St. and Worthen Rd. at the front of what is now Walgreen's parking lot. It faced Bedford St. and was just west of a stream, now underground,that crosses the street at the Worthen Rd. intersection. The house was reportedly built ca. 1750 but Lexington assessors' records suggest that it was built in 1849, for William Woods, who then owned the land on which it stands,was first assessed for it in 1850. Its post and beam framing is,however, consistent with an earlier date of construction, so it is possible that it is an earlier house that was moved to Woods' property in 1849. In the early 1870s the house was acquired by Mary W. Harrington Swan and was eventually inherited by her niece May(Mary Swan)Harrington (b. 1876), who lived in the Harrington house at 5 Harrington Rd. (MHC#55) and in the 1940s rented the Bedford St. house to the Edgar R. and Mary G. McLallan family. Mr. McLallan fixed up the house and installed indoor plumbing,which it had not had previously(the outhouse had been near the stream). May Harrington died in the 1940s and reportedly willed the house to the McLallan's. In 1952,when construction of the A&P supermarket(now Walgreen's)was planned(Worthen Rd. was not built until 1955),the McLallan's decided to move the house. They bought a lot on Reed St. and the house with its ell was transported to its new location on the back of a flatbed truck. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑see continuation sheet Barbara Church, personal communication 1998. Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington. Revised and continued to 1912 by the Lexington Historical Society. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913. 2: 284-85, 286, 688. Lexington Directory. 1922-1942. Lexington Valuation Lists. 1840-1915, 1919-1924, 1942. Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge, MA. 506: 54; 753: 564, 566; 945: 323; 1033: 528; 7943: 243. Sanborn Map Company. Lexington, Middlesex County,Massachusetts. New York: Sanborn Map Co., 1927, Pl. 8; 1935, Pl. 9. ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.