HomeMy WebLinkAboutadams-street_0039 FORM B — BUILDING
Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 10063000116 1 Boston N. 703
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
/ Place (neighborhood or village)
Address 39 Adams St.
<, to
Historic Name Chapman/Johnson/Porter/Warren House
' )s -Uses: Present Residential
Original Residential
Date of Construction 1884
Source Lexington Minute-man
Style/Form Queen Anne
Architect/Builder
Exterior Material:
Foundation Fieldstone
fo Wall/Trim Wood clapboard and shingle
Roof Asphalt Shingle
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures Garage
Major Alterations (with dates)
1J AI
IglQ- a Condition Excellent
to Moved ® no ❑ yes Date
Acreage almost 2 A.
Setting On a heavily-trafficked residential street in a
neighborhood of 19th-and early 20th-century houses with
Recorded by Nancy S. Seasholes later 20th-century infill
Organization Lexington Historical Commission
Date(month/year) January 1998
Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.
BUILDING FORM
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION ❑ see continuation sheet
Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community.
39 Adams St. is one of the most intact patterned-shingled Queen Anne houses in Lexington. It is essentially square with several
projecting bays and a rectangular rear ell. Hip-roofed(the rear ell is gable-roofed)and 2%2 stories in height,the house has two
ridge chimneys, one at the intersection of the main house and the ell and the other in the ell. The entire house is set on a fieldstone
foundation, clad with wood clapboards broken by bands of octagonal wood shingles, and roofed with asphalt shingles. The main
entry, on the facade, has transom lights and the windows are 1/1 or 2/2 double hung sash. The main block has a canted gabled-
roofed 2'/2-story bay on the front and two-story hip-roofed bays and shed dormers on the side elevations. A screen porch extends
across the facade; it has a dentil course at the cornice and a doorway flanked by pilasters. At its north end is a projecting
octagonal corner porch with a peaked roof surmounted by a simple finial. A rear entrance, on the south side of the ell,has a porch
with turned posts and a spindle frieze. The two-car garage is front-gabled, on a cement foundation, and clad with wood drop
siding.
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 built in 1884 by George F. Chapman, who owned a 31-acre farm at the corner of Adams and East streets. The
farmhouse had formerly been the house now at 43 Adams St. (MHC 4706), but after Chapman built this house it became the
main farmhouse and the one at 43 Adams St. was probably rented out. In 1893 Chapman's widow sold the farm to William Prior,
a fish dealer at Quincy Market in Boston, and at that time 5%2 acres containing this house was set off as a separate parcel and sold
to Prior's wife, Edna. The Priors lived in this house until 1896 when Edna Prior, by then a widow, sold both the 25'/2 remaining
acres of the farm at 43 Adams St. and the 5%2 parcel on which this house is located to Irving Johnson of Arlington. The Johnsons
were market gardeners, or truck farmers; Irving Johnson lived in this house and his son Frederick W. lived in the house at 43
Adams St. After Irving Johnson's death in 1917,the Johnsons sold the property to the William B. Porter family—the farm in
1922 and this house in 1924. The Porters lived in this house and brother-in-law Matthew Wilson, who was a partner in the farm,
lived at 43 Adams. This house remained associated with the farm until it was subdivided after World War II; in 1948 this house
was sold to Carlton Warren, who owned it for the next 50 years before selling it to a developer in 1998.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑ see continuation sheet
May Baskin,personal communication 1998.
Lexington Directory, 1887, 1894, 1899.
Lexington Minute-man, 24 April 1884.
Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge, MA. 2244: 247; 2505: 152, 156; 4512: 326; 4745: 216; 7310: 424.
❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National
Register Criteria Statement form