HomeMy WebLinkAboutgrove-street_0037 FORM B - BUILDING
Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 10077000138 Boston N. 746, 7
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Place (neighborhood or village)
Address 37 Grove St.
�A 11 Historic Name James Locke House
�r0
= ` IN Is -Uses: Present Residential
t Original Residential
Date of Construction 1823
Source Lexington Valuation lists
Style/Form Federal
Architect/Builder
Exterior Material:
+rYl p �I
_ Foundation Granite
Wall/Trim Wood board Cla
P
-A — Roof Asphalt Shingle
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures Attached barn
Major Alterations(with dates)
Rear additions (date unknown; 1987)
1� Doorway,windows (1944-1945)
i Condition Fair
`,
m �� Moved ® no El yes Date
STREET
✓ '
� - Acreage IA.
Setting Close to fairly busy street in neighborhood of 20th-
century houses
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.
37 Grove St. (MHC#746) is one of a number of Federal houses in Lexington and is distinguished by its elaborate doorway. This
house is rectangular,two stories, five-by-one bays, and hip-roofed with two side chimneys. The original house is on a granite
foundation, clad with wood clapboards, and roofed with asphalt shingles. An offset side-gabled rear addition is on a fieldstone
foundation; behind it is a connector to the barn and a rear deck. The center entrance surround has a projecting molded cornice,
louvered elliptical fanlight, pilasters with Ionic capitals over which are triglyphs and guttae, and half length sidelights;windows
are 6/9 double hung sash. On the north elevation is a two-story,three-sided bay; the larger first story has a hip roof and the
second story a gabled roof. The front-gabled barn(MHC#747) retains its original clapboards and barn door opening.
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 1823 by James Locke(1784-1848), a son of Amos Locke,who lived in a house once at 79 North St.
(MHC#723). In 1820 James bought one acre of land on what is now Grove St. from Ebenezer Simonds,whose house was at
what is now 45 Grove St., and in 1824 was assessed for a"new house,"indicating he had built it the previous year. After James'
death the house was owned by his widow Lucy(1788-1867)until she sold it in 1862 to a John T. Demar. In the 20th century the
house was reportedly rented from 1933-1944 to the Mix family and was purchased in 1944 by Lexington contractor Walter
Black. Black renovated the house for his daughter, Debby Terio, installing the doorway,attributed to Samuel McIntyre, which
Black had purchased some years before from a house being renovated in Dover,New Hampshire. Black also replaced all the
windows with the present 6/9 ones, and uncovered a fireplace in the living room. The present owner says there is a well
underneath the addition and that remains of the wood shingles once on the roof of the main block can be seen in the attic at the
intersection of the original house and the addition.
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: 372.
Lexington Valuation Lists. 1821-1824.
Marshall, Debbie Terio to Nancy S. Seasholes, 15 March 1998. In possession of Nancy S. Seasholes, Lexington, MA.
Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge, MA. 234: 230; 895: 385.
Warner Ogden, Jr. Notes on history of 37 Grove St. and 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.
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Town Property Address
Lexington 37 Grove St.
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
746
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
IF,
B � r
MEL,
Roll #8,Negative#20