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Home My WebLink Aboutarea-tFORM A - AREA WA. 1.1 ...71111.144 1,4 1 4 Form numbers in this area 552-553, 556-563, 572 Town Lexington L. Area letter T Name of area (if any) Concord Avenue General date or period early nineteenth century -present ea indicating properties within it. inventory forms have been completed. any) and indicate north. (Attach a --. ,---cient) 4 Recorded by LE% 11061-0,4) I Nancy S. Seasholes Organization Lexington Historical Commission Date February, 1984 (Staple additional sheets here) ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE of area. (Describe physical setting, general character, and architecturally significant structures). Originally the Cambridge -Concord Turnpike, Concord Avenue, except for a short section near Spring Street, is still in exactly the same location as it was when built in 1804. It also preserves much of its historic character: although it has been widened and much of it built up since World War II, the section near the site of the Parker pine, shown in the photoi,still 8eems like a country road om- plete with the stone walls that once bordered / rnumber of the farmhouses that were built along the highway in its early years remain, enhancing the sense of an historic roadway. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE of area. (Explain development of area, what caused it, and how it affected community; be specific). The Cambridge -Concord Turnpike is one of the many such turnpikes built in the nation as well as in Massachusetts during the first years of the nineteenth century. Despite opposition from Lexington for reasons unspecified (Worthen t946:50), the Cambridge -Concord Turnpike Association was incorporated in 1803 to wild a road between Cambridge and Concord straighter than the circuitous one then existing through Lexington (see Old Shade Street and Ricci's Lane area forms). The Lexington section was laid out on virtually the same route Concord Avenue follows today and was apparently completed in 1804. Two tollgates were erected, one in Cambridge and one in Lincoln, and a system of tolls established, the amount determined by the type of vehicle and size of team or the number of animals driven. The turnpike was not very profitable: because it was built in a straight line it went over many hills (as it still does) rather than around them; and thanks to these hills as well as to poor maintenance an early stagecoach line was soon discontinued. In 1828 the stockholders petitioned the county commissioners to make the turnpike a county road. After the county took over some abutters moved their stone walls in as much as 10 feet, reducing the distance between walls to 50 feet in some places, far less than the 66 feet (4 rods) required by the turnpike. (A drawing of the Parker pine showing Concord Avenue before 1864 indicates that it was much narrower than 50 feet, but this may be the result of artistic license [Weiss 1864, I:facing 28]). Concord Avenue has since been widened, most recently in the early 1960s to make the pavement 30 feet wide, not too much different from the 22 feet reauired for the original turnpike. (see Continuation Sheet) BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Burgess, Marjorie Cutler. 1965. A Genealogy of the Cutler Family of Lexington, Massachusetts, 1634-1964, Concord, New Hampshire: Evans Printing Company. Smith, A. Bradford. 1905. "The Concord Turnpike." Proceedings of the Lexington Historical Society 3:110-116. Smith, A. Bradford. 1900. "Kite E;14.11 --Proceedings of the Lexington Historical Society 2;99-122. Weiss, John. 1864. Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker, Appleton and Company. (Reprinted 1969, Freeport, New York: Press.) New York: D. Books for Libraries 2M-6/80 1 INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Office of the Secretary, Boston L€4,-1 Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below. HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE Once the turnpike was built, it became a locus for new farmhouses, many of which are still standing. On Concord Avenue between the Belmont line and. Spring Street, of the seven houses shown on the 1830:map, five are still there; of the 12 on the 1852 map, eight still exist and one has been reconstructed (see sketch map and relevant building forms.) A schoolhouse located by 1853 on the lot now 405 Concord Avenue has been moved and is now part of a house on Lincoln Street (see 376 Lincoln Street form). The structures that no longer remain are almost all in the section from Spring Street west, an area that has been seriously disrupted in the twentieth century by the build- ing of the Cambridge Reservoir in 1897, Route 2 in 1933, Route 128 in 1951, and the rebuilding of Route 2 in the early 1960s. The noted. Phinney/Webster Smith farm, for example, was on land now occupied by Raytheon Corporation, and the site of the Simonds Tavern, which was at the corner of Spring Street and old Concord Avenue and burned in 1915, is now under Route 2. Highway construction has also altered the course of Con- cord Avenue. When Route 2 was built, it followed the course of the old turnpike from the Lincoln line to a point about midway between Spring and Old Shade streets, just west of the present Benjamin Road; Route 2 then swung slightly north and Concord Avenue began as a fork off the highway. When Route 2 was rebuilt in the early 1960s, it was connected to Concord Avenue by access ramps and Concord Avenue itself was turned to run southwest, intersecting Spring Street opposite the Parker homestead. Of all the historic personages who have lived in the vicinity of Concord Avenue, undoubtedly the most famous are the Parkers t Captain John, commander of the Minutemen in their historic confrontation with the British on the Lexington Green on April 19, 1775, and his grandson Theodore, the transcendentalist, reformer, and abolitionist (see 187 Spring Street and Parker monument forms). Theodore Parker was apparently responsible for saving a very tall double -headed pine that stood on a high point of Concord Avenue near the present intersections with Field and Benjamin roads (see photo). The tree was henceforth known as the "Parker pine" and was a. well-known landmark. It was badly damaged by fire in the late nineteenth century, however, and had to be cut down; a summer house was built around the stump in 1915 but neither the house nor the stump remain today. Other noted families along Concord Avenue were the Wellingtons, important in Lexington's late nineteenth century dairy industry (see 177 Concord Avenue form), the Cutlers, also dairymen (see 503 Concord Avenue form), and numerous Smiths, after which this part of Lexington was kn as "Smith's End" in the nineteenth century. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Worthen, Edwin B. 1946. A Calendar History of LexinEton, Massachusetts, 1620-1946. Lexington, Massachusetts: Lexington Savings Bank. 1830 map 1852 map 1853 map 1937 map 1955 map 1964 map Staple to Inventory form at bottom INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL cammissIoN Office of the Secretary, Boston Name: Concord Avenue Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below. PARKER PINE from Weiss, John, Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker (New York: D. Apple- ton & Co., 1864; reprint Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1969), p. 29. Star -le to Inventory form at bc tom INVENTORY FORM A CONTINUATION SHEET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 LEXINGTON CONCORD ROAD Area Letter Form Nos. T 552-53, 556-63, 572, 612-13, 908 Concord Road District Data Sheet of Inventoried Properties Assessor's Map Resource Address Style Date MHC # 4-45K William H. Lawrence House 113-115 Concord Avenue Greek Revival Before 1852 552 4-52 Benjamin 0 and Peter Wellington Homestead 177 Concord Avenue Federal c. 1802 553 9-5 Nehemiah Wellington Smith - Packard House 272 Concord Avenue Federal 1808 556 9-5 Nehemiah Wellington — Josiah Smith Barn 272 Concord Avenue Federal 612 DEM Isaac Childs Michael Cashman House 311 Concord Avenue Federal c. 1830 557 10-30 Elizabeth Condon House 321 Concord Avenue Federal c. 1830 558 DEM Ballou House 332 Concord Avenue Colonial Revival 1920s 559 10-32 Joseph Underwood House 353 Concord Avenue Federal c.1815? 560 10-35B Ebenezer Smith House 389 Concord Avenue Federal c. 1815 561 10-45 William L. McCullough House 461-63 Concord Avenue Italianate 1925 562 11-29 Thomas Cutler Farmhouse 503 Concord Avenue Federal c. 1804 563 12-3 Isaac Parker Homestead 187 Spring Street Greek Revival c. 1843 572 12-3 Parker Barn 187 Spring Street 1870 613 12 3 Theodore Parker Birthplace Marker 187 Spring Street 1870 1865 908 Continuation sheet 1