HomeMy WebLinkAboutadams-street_0149 FORM B — BUILDING
Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 0075000026 Boston N.I L__J 721
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Place (neighborhood or village)
Address 149 Adams St.
to
11 Historic Name Delmont A. Butterfield House
�s Uses: Present Residential
Original Residential
t ted#M Date of Construction 1883-1884
}� 5rat IC
Source Lexington Valuation lists
vim
Style/Form Queen Anne
Architect/Builder
Exterior Material:
Foundation Fieldstone
to Wall/Trim Wood Clapboard/Wood Shingle
Roof Asphalt Shingle
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures
_ Fieldstone well house
WI / r Major Alterations (with dates)
,• y
Condition Good
.A 1
I
r Moved ® no ❑ yes Date
,.f y
Acreage 2.2.A.
Setting Set back from a busy street on the edge of a hill
above a stream and marsh
Recorded by Nancy S. Seasholes
Organization Lexington Historical Commission
Date(month/year) February 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.
149 Adams St. is a very intact example of a large Queen Anne house in Lexington. The side-gabled, 2Y2-story house is
rectangular in form, approximately two-by-two bays with a 2'/2-story gabled rear ell. A ridge chimney is located in the ell near the
main block. The house is set on a fieldstone foundation, clad with clapboards on the first story and staggered shingles above, and
roofed with asphalt shingles. The main entry is on the facade and windows are 2/2 and 1/1 double hung sash. A projecting bay
surmounted by a gabled dormer is located over the entry; next to it, a larger three-sided second-story bay is carried up into a
hexagonal tower capped with a peaked roof. There are staggered windows on the north elevation and a dentil course and spindle
frieze on the wraparound porch. In the ravine to the east of the house is a circular fieldstone well house with a conical roof.
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 1883-1884 by Delmont A. Butterfield, who had been born in 1855 in the house now at 43 Adams St.
(MHC#706). Butterfield's wife bought the land on which this house is located in August 1883 and the house was probably
started that year, for she was assessed for the completed house in 1884. In 1889 Butterfield leased the pond behind the house,then
called Grangers Pond, and reportedly cut ice from it; the pond is now known as Butterfield's Pond. In the late 1920s and early
1930s this house was the site of a local radio station,WLEX; the antenna was located on the gravel pit behind it. The station was
reportedly run by a member of the Moakley family, Lexington electricians, and in 1941 Richard Moakley purchased the house.
This house has had only three main owners in the over 100 years of its existence and the present owners, James Long, Jr. and
Patricia Hardiman Long, have received visits from descendants of both the Butterfields and the Moakleys.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑ see continuation sheet
Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington. Revised and continued to 1912 by the Lexington Historical Society.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913. 2: 85-86.
Lexington Directory. 1922-1942.
Lexington Valuation Lists. 1883-1884.
Patricia Hardiman Long. Personal communication 1998.
Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Plans. Cambridge, MA. 1643: 428; 1926: 470; 6500: 187; Pl. Bk. 12,Pl. 54; Plan No.
565 of 1941.
S. Lawrence Whipple. Personal communication 1998.
❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National
Register Criteria Statement form.