HomeMy WebLinkAboutconcord-avenue_0177 AREA FORM N0.
FORM B - BUILDING T 553 {
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION i
294 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MA 02108
Rtown Lexington
F� address 177 Concord Avenue
istoric Name Benjamin 47e11ington
Homestead
'A �
Use: Present residential
I ii ,j _ - Original residential
� � -� � � ��"
- � - DESCRIPTION:
- Date c. 1802
Proceedings of the Lexington
Source Historical Society II:120
SKETCH MAP
Show property's location in relation Style Federal
to nearest cross streets and/or
geographical features. Indicate Architect
all buildings between inventoried
property and nearest intersection. Exterior wall fabric aluminum siding
Indicate north.
/2 Outbuildings removed
13
0 /1 Major alterations (with dates) two-story
4V�V rear ell (before 1890s; removed) ; one-story
0 0 O � porch and room on east (fieldstone founda-
2� tion
a � Moved Date
Oso O Approx. acreage 18970 ft.2
Recorded by Nancv S. Seasholes Setting On street with continual traffic
Organization Lexington Historical Coianission surrounded by 1950s and 1960s houses built
Date March, 1954 on land formerly associated with this
house.
(Staple additional sheets here)
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE (Describe important architectural features and
evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community.)
This imposing Federal farmhouse is one of the surviving Federal houses
along what was the Cambridge-Concord Turnpike and, like the houses at 272
Concord Avenue and 503 Concord Avenue, has brick ends and end chimneys. Unlike
the others, however, this house is really two houses built back-to-back; thus,
although it is the usual five bays wide, it is four bays deep and has four
chimnevs instead of the customary two. Aside from a frieze board -across the
facade, the house has lost most of its original exterior finishes: clapboards
(see Continuation Sheet)
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE (Explain the role owners played in local or state
history and how the building relates to the development of the community.)
According to an antiquarian account, this house was built in 1802 by
Benjamin Wellington (1743-1812) for his sons Benjamin O. (1778-1853) and Peter
(1781-1869) (Smith 1891:120) . Although 1804 may be a more likely date of
construction since the Cambridge-Concord Turnpike was not built until that year
and the house is set facing the road, it is clear the Benjamin O. and Teter
Wellington married sisters, in 1811 and 1813 respectively, and that both lived
in the house with their families. The elder Benjamin Wellington was reportedly
one of the first in Lexington to transport milk into Boston for sale, and this
business was continued by his son Benjamin O. The latter became one of the
prominent figures in Lexington's nineteenth century dairy industry at a time
when the milk business consisted of delivering milk to a regular "route" of
city customers and, later, of buying milk from other farmers and selling it in
the city. Benjamin O. Wellington was also prominent in town affairs, serving
as a selectman four times between 1814 and 1831, on the school committee front
1832 to 1836, and as an assessor twice. His brother Peter was less active in
the town but, as a member of the building committ `or h Fi t o hall in
T8-r2-l� Fnd fP 9-
1845, advocated a building with two stories (see/Vine Street form an , in a
similar role for the original Franklin School in 1851, raised the money to
finance the inclusion of a second story (see 376 Lincoln Street form) (Smith
1891:107, 122) . After Benjamin O. Wellington's death, the milk business was
carried on by his son Winslow, and in the late nineteenth century the farm was
(see Continuation Sheet)
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (name of publication, author, date and publisher)
Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington II, pp. 730-732. Boston:
Houghton-l:ifflin, 1913.
Lexington Historical Society Archives, Burr Church Collection
Smith, A. Bradford. "Kite End" (1891) . Proceedings of the Lexington Historical
Societv 11(1900) :120-122.
Smith, George O. "The *Milk Business and Milk Men of Earlier Days" (1897) .
Proceedings of the Lexington Historical Society 12(1900) :187-196.
Worthen, Edwin B. A Calendar History of Lexington, Massachusetts, 1620-1946,
p. 123. Lexington, Massachusetts: Lexington Savings Bank, 1946.
1906 map
1887 Directory
MOM - 7/82
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Commmity: Form No:
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL CCMISSION Lexington 553
Office of the Secretary, Boston
Property Name: 177 Concord Avenue
Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below.
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICA14CE
(and now aluminum siding) cover the brick ends and the doorway is modern.
The clipped gable roof and the clipped upper corners of the gable-end windows
may be the result of a late nineteenth century "modernization." The original
granite gate posts stand at the east end of the driveway off Concord Avenue.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
owned by Cornelius Wellington (1828-1909) , an abolitionist and a wholesale
dry goods dealer whose occupation is listed as "household art rooms" in the
1887 Directory. In 1897 the farm was owned by a Miss Chase, and in 1906 by
James Kimball, a produce dealer in Boston.
In 1928 the Wellington farm began a new career when it became Minute Man
Golf Club with the homestead as the clubhouse. It continued as such until 1952
when the clubhouse was remodeled back into a residence and the former farmland
was used for housing developments.
Staple to Inventory form at bottom