HomeMy WebLinkAbouthancock-strteet_0073 FORM B -BUILDING
Assessor's number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
64/124A Boston N. 1060
Massachusetts Historical Commission
Massachusetts Archives Building
220 Morrissey Boulevard
Town Lexington
Place (neighborhood or village)
Address 73 Hancock Street
Historic Name Fred&Minnie Williams House
�t Uses: Present Residential
Original Residential
M. Date of Construction 1889
P�
Source Lexington Valuation Lists, newspaper
I Style/Form Queen Anne
Architect/Builder unknown
Exterior Material:
r - Foundation fieldstone
Wall/Trim wood clapboard, wood shingles
¢ y" Roof asphalt shingles
p g
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures
E 673 000
none
Major Alterations (with dates) none
rn 0
Condition good
z s'� Moved ® no ❑ yes Date
Z's 0 \�• JJs�� Acreage 15,529 SF
Recorded by Lisa Mausolf Setting corner of Coolidge Ave. in mixed 19th to 20th
Organization Lexington Historical Commission century residential area
Date (month/year) July 2000
Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.
BUILDING FORM (73 Hancock Street)
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION
Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of the building in terms of other buildings within the
community.
Located at the corner of Coolidge Ave., 73 Hancock Street is a wood-frame Queen Anne-style dwelling constructed in 1889.
Set above a fieldstone foundation, the house consists of a two-story hip-roofed main mass sheathed in wood clapboards with a
projecting 2 1/2-story front gable. Wrapping around the building is a distinctive frieze made of continuous horizontal
flushbords in a torus-like profile. A single-story entrance porch fills the space between the facade of the main block and the
projecting gable. The shed-roofed porch incorporates a front pediment; wood shingles fill all three of these gables. The
porch is supported by bold turned posts and the distinctive railing features staggered sections of turned balusters separated by
plain spindles. The sidehall entrance contains a varnished wood door with upper glass.
The adjacent front gable displays cutaway corners on the first floor with a wide 2/1 window with entablature lintels above.
The closed gable is sheathed in wood shingles laid in a staggered butt pattern. Windows include 2/1 sash, individual and in
pairs and in various sizes. Projecting slightly from the north side of the house is a 2 1/2-story cross gable with a back porch
at the rear of the elevation.
1
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE
Describe 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.
According to a brief mention appearing in the Lexington Minute-man on November 29, 1889, Fred Marlboro Williams was
building a house on Hancock Street next to J.F. Simonds. The previous year Williams, of Boston, had married Minnie
Campbell Thayer of Lexington. The couple initially lived in Allston, and constructed this house the following year. By 1904
the ownership of the property had passed to Minnie's sister, Elizabeth. Following Minnie's death in 1906 and Elizabeth's in
1907, the property was sold by Elizabeth's heirs. By 1918 the house had been acquired by Louis Bills, an electrician, and his
wife Eleanor. The property was purchased by Donald and Ellen White in 1964.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington. Revised and continued to 1912 by the Lexington Historical Society.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913.
Lexington Assessors Records.
Le,xmgton Directories, various dates.
Ll ngton Minute-man, 1/20/1888; 11/29/1889.
Lexington Valuation Lists, various dates.
Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attached a completed
National Register Criteria Statement form.