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BUILDING FORM <br /> ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION ❑see continuation sheet <br /> Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. <br /> 29 and 31 Sherman St. (MHC#673)were clearly built as a pair—perhaps the only instance in Lexington of paired Queen Anne <br /> houses. The houses are almost exact mirror images,but with subtle differences. Both are rectangular with a rear ell, 2'/s stories, <br /> three-by-three bays, and front-gabled with side chimneys and projecting 2%-story gabled bays facing each other. Both houses are <br /> set on fieldstone foundations,clad with wood clapboards and wood shingles, and roofed with asphalt shingles. Both also have a <br /> two-story octagonal tower with a peaked roof with flared eaves surmounted by a ball finial,a frieze of rectangular panels,and <br /> similar though larger panels under the first-story windows;both houses have a front porch with turned posts and a square-stick <br /> frieze; and both have diamond-pattered shingles in the gables. Some finishes are echoes rather than mirrors,however: the sunburst <br /> used in the pediment of the front gable at 29 Sherman is used in the side gable at 31 Sherman, and the band of rectangular panels <br /> at the base of the front gable at 31 Sherman is seen in the side gable at 29 Sherman. And some original finishes are unique to just <br /> one house: the triple window in the front gable and oculus window in the side gable at 29 Sherman;the segmental window head in <br /> the front gable at 31 Sherman;the canted one-story rear bay with a frieze of rectangular panels at 29 Sherman. The rear additions <br /> and alterations also differ. In the case of 29 Sherman, there is a P/2-story two-by-one bay gabled rear ell with a cross gable on the <br /> east elevation, a screen porch on the east elevation, and shed-roofed entries at the rear. <br /> HISTORICAL NARRATIVE ❑see continuation sheet <br /> Discuss the history of the building. Explain its associations with local(or state) history. Include uses of the building, and the <br /> role(s) the owners/occupants played within the community. <br /> 29 Sherman St. was built in 1902 by Justus P. Morse. Morse had purchased the lot in September 1901,was assessed in 1902 for <br /> just the lot, but in 1903 was also assessed for a house, indicating it had been built the previous year. Morse was the baggage <br /> master at the Lexington station and, before building this house,had lived on Fletcher St. as had the Hoveys,who built the twin of <br /> this house next door at 31 Sherman St. (MHC#673). Mr. Hovey was an engineer on the railroad and presumably the two men, <br /> who must have known each other through work and as neighbors, decided to build adjoining matching houses. It is not known, <br /> however,where they acquired the plans. Although the Sherman/Sheridan/Grant Street area was developed as one of rental <br /> houses (see Area form G),the Morses apparently lived in this house themselves and were still there in 1922. <br /> BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑see continuation sheet <br /> Lexington Directory. 1902-03, 1906, 1908-09, 1913, 1916, 1918, 1922. <br /> Lexington Valuation Lists. 1902-1903. <br /> Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge, MA. 2920: 41. <br /> F] Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National <br /> Register Criteria Statement form. <br />