HomeMy WebLinkAbouthancock-street_0053 FORM B — BUILDING
Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 10063000074 Boston N. 730
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place (neighborhood or village)
Address 53 Hancock St.
t � to
11 Historic Name Joseph F. SimondsBatcheller/Stone House
�s Uses: Present Residential
Original Residential
Date of Construction 1849
Source Tuttle list; Lexington Valuation lists
Style/Form Italianate w. Colonial Revival/Jacobethan
j additions
Architect/Builder David A. Tuttle
Exterior Material:
Foundation Granite(original house), Fieldstone(additions)
to
Wall/Trim Wood Clapboard, Stucco
Roof Slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures Garage
\ Major Alterations(with dates)
Two additions at east end,front addition/porte cochere(by
1875?); enclosed porch, Colonial Revival and Jacobethan
N finishes (dates unknown)
4� s
Condition Good
-_STREET_ x
Moved ® no ❑ yes Date
Acreage 0.87 A.
Recorded by Nancy S. Seasholes Setting Set back from and on a rise above a heavily-
trafficked residential street(the driveway is off a side street)
Organization Lexington Historical Commission in a neighborhood of large,high-style 19th-and early 20th-
century houses
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.
Although 53 Hancock St. appears to be a Colonial Revival house with Jacobethan details, it is actually an Italianate that has had
many alterations and is thus unlike any other house in Lexington. The original house was apparently a three-by-two bay,center
entrance, side-gabled Italianate with wide corner boards and a frieze board across the front and rear and possibly also the gable
ends. It was set on a granite foundation, which can be seen to the right of the main entrance, and clad with clapboards;the present
roof is of slate. Two additions,both on fieldstone foundations, were then added to the east end of the house. The first,which is
set back on the front and offset on the rear elevation, is, like the original house, 2'/z stories and side-gabled. The second addition is
two stories high with a gable on hip roof. A third addition extends out from the front of the house; it is also two stories with the
first story left open to form a porte cochere supported by the corner posts and Tuscan columns. Many Colonial Revival and
Jacobethan details have been added to the original house and first addition: three front-gabled dormers on both the front and rear
elevations, modillions at the cornice of the house and dormers,curved brackets at the eaves on the gable ends, stucco and half-
timbering in the gable ends and on the dormers, a dentil course at the top of the frieze board on the front gable end, an enclosed
wraparound porch with a circular bay at the rear and paneling under the windows, diamond-paned windows,etc. The exterior
center chimney on the original house is undoubtedly also a later addition;this house also has a ridge chimney and there is an end
chimney in the first addition.
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.
David A. Tuttle, a prominent 19th-century builder in Lexington,wrote in 1904 that he built the original part of this house in 1849
for Joseph F. Simonds. This construction date is confirmed by Lexington assessors' records,which show that in 1850 Simonds
was assessed for a new house. Assessors' records also indicate that Simonds had acquired the land on which this house is located
from Nathan and William Chandler in 1849, although the deed was not actually signed until 1851. The deed says, however,that
there was already a house on the land, so perhaps the 1849 acquisition had been an informal agreement. The deed also specified
that no house was ever to be built between this one and Hancock St. and there was a similar restriction in the deed for the house
originally at 55 Hancock St. (MHC#732), now moved to 56 Hancock St. (MHC#733). This house appears to have been
originally a three-by-two bay side gabled Italianate(see Architectural Description above), which would have been similar in
massing to the house that Tuttle built in 1855 at 22 Hancock St. (MHC#106). Simonds,who had sold his family farm on
Burlington St. (9 Burlington St., MHC#742)just before moving here, did not live in this house very long, however, for in 1854
he sold it to a Henry Harris and moved to the old Fiske house further up Hancock St. (63 Hancock St.,MHC#735). Hams,
described in deeds as a"gentleman,"probably put on the two side additions, for both are shown on a plan drawn in 1865 while
Harris still owned the house.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑see continuation sheet
Beers, F. W. County Atlas of Middlesex Massachusetts. New York: J.B. Beers & Co., 1875. Lexington Center plate.
Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington. Revised and continued to 1912 by the Lexington Historical Society.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913. 2: 25.
Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Plans. Cambridge, MA. 609: 402; 668: 560; 1042: 103; 3547: 73; 3968: 326; Pl. Bk. 15,
Pl. 33.
Tuttle, David Ainsworth. List of buildings erected in Lexington. Presented to the Lexington Historical Society,April 4, 1904.
On file at Lexington Historical Society,Lexington,MA.
Worthen, Edwin B. Letter to Mrs. Bruce Currie, 16 February 1951. Worthen Collection. Cary Library, Lexington, MA.
❑ 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 53 Hancock St.
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD 730
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE (continued)
In 1868 Harris sold the house to Brooks T. Batcheller(1813-1902),a self-made man who had begun as a towboy on the
Middlesex Canal, became a stage driver when the canal was discontinued,then a stable keeper in Boston, and moved to
Lexington in 1868 where he became a prominent citizen—he was on the first board of trustees of the Lexington Savings
Bank when it was established in 1871 and elected to the state senate in 1874. The Batchellers may have added the front ell,
for it is shown on an 1875 map. In 1898 the Batchellers sold the house and moved in with their son Warren, who lived at
46 Hancock St. (MHC#725).
The house was owned from 1901 to 1910 by James T. Davis,the owner specified on Tuttle's 1904 list, and between 1910
and 1915 by Edward C. Graves, who made some alterations. The most extensive alterations,however,were made after the
house was acquired in 1915 by Edward C. Stone,the U.S. manager of Employees Liability Assurance Co.
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Roll 4 8,Negative#23