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Home My WebLink Aboutlarchmont-lane_0011 FORM B - BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 1006400098A Boston N. I L__J 762, 763 MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town Lexington BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place (neighborhood or village) 1 I oto Address 11 Larchmont Ln. I / 11 Historic Name Larchmont Farmhouse;Tidd School os Uses: Present Residential/Office Original Residential/School Date of Construction House- 1913; School/Office- 1852 Source House-Lexington Valuation lists; School/Office- Lexington Town Reports Style/Form House-Queen Anne; School/Office-Italianate Architect/Builder Exterior Material: Foundation Fieldstone to Wall/Trim Vinyl Siding Roof Asphalt Shingle Outbuildings/Secondary Structures Garage Major Alterations(with dates) Additions to farmhouse and school-office (dates unknown) Condition Fair �; �, ��r•. - �� Moved ❑ no ® yes Date 1906 (School) >r i Acreage 9.4 A. Setting Set far back from a quiet street on an open lot Recorded by Nancy S. Seasholes Organization Lexington Historical Commission Date(month/year) April 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. The 11 Larchmont Ln. property has several buildings on it: a Queen Anne farmhouse(MHC#762), an Italianate former school now used as an office(MHC#763), and a 20th-century garage. The house is one of several retardetaire farmhouses in Lexington (another example,though Italianate rather than Queen Anne, is at 290 Wood St. [MHC#696]), and the school, which retains some original Italianate finishes, is one of several reused 19th-century schools in town—two others, for example,now compose the house at 376 Lincoln St. (MHC#596). The farmhouse at 11 Larchmont Ln. is rectangular, 2%:stories,three-by-three bays,and front gabled with a side rear chimney. It is set on a fieldstone foundation; clad with vinyl siding except for the northwest elevation, which is clad with wood shingles;and roofed with asphalt shingles. On the southwest elevation is a one-story, one-by-two bay side-gabled addition with an exterior chimney;to it is attached a two-car garage with a low-pitched side-gabled roof. The main entry, covered by a porch, is on the facade;a secondary entry, covered by a porch with turned posts, is on the northeast elevation; windows are casements and 2/2 double hung sash. East of the house is the Italianate office. The original building is rectangular, 1%2 stories,three-by-three bays, and front-gabled. It is now clad with vinyl siding and roofed with asphalt shingles. A large square cupola in the center of the roof has modillions and a dentil course under its wide overhanging eaves, a finish that is repeated under the wide overhanging eaves on the gable ends, under the cornice over the frieze board that encircles the building, and under the eaves of the wall dormer on the southwest elevation. At the rear is a one-story shed-roofed addition connecting to a long one- story side-gabled building with front-gabled sections at either end. The 20th-century garage southeast of the office is three-by- four bays and front-gabled with a low-pitched 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. The 11 Larchmont Ln. property was developed as part of the estate of George W. Taylor, a wealthy fire insurance agent who came to Lexington in the 1860s. Taylor lived on Massachusetts Ave. near what is now Harrington Rd. until the 1890s when he built a huge house on the hill south of Larchmont Ln. In 1896 he bought a 5.8-acre parcel on the other side of Larchmont Ln. where 11 Larchmont Ln. is now located. This parcel included a spring whose water Taylor marketed as Larchmont Spring Water. An ad in the 1899 Lexington Directory claimed that the water had been"analyzed by Bennett Davenport and pronounced by him A REMARKABLY PURE WATER, and excellent for Table Purposes." Larchmont Springs was apparently not in operation for very long, but Taylor purchased other parcels that adjoined it, eventually amassing an almost 12-acre area that became Larchmont Farm, now 11 Larchmont Ln. In April 1906 the town auctioned off the old Tidd School,which had been built on North Hancock St. in 1852 as the school for the north district, one of six such schools in town. Originally named the Bowditch School, the name was changed in 1888 to the Tidd 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. 1: 400-01; 2: 691. Kelley, Beverly Allison. Lexington:A Century of Photographs. Lexington, Mass: Lexington Historical Society, 1980. 66 34. Lexington Directory. 1899-1942. Lexington Minute-man. 28 April 1906. Lexington Town Reports. 1852-1853, 1858-1859. Lexington Valuation Lists. 1906-1924. ❑ 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 11 Larchmont Ln. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD 762, 763 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 HISTORICAL NARRATIVE(continued) School in honor of Charles Tidd, the teacher there for many years. With the consolidation of Lexington elementary schools into the Adams and the new Hancock School in 1891,the old district schools were closed. The Tidd School was reopened briefly in 1896, however,to relieve overcrowding at Hancock but closed for good in 1903. George Taylor bought the old school at the 1906 auction and moved it to Larchmont Farm,where it served as a barn. An historical photograph of the building when it was a school shows the cupola,then an open bell tower, set near the front of the building,which then had two identical doorways, one for girls and one for boys. Another historical photograph of the building after it was moved shows the cupola in its present position,the doors in the gable end blocked up, and a barn door installed on the side of the building under the wall dormer. Lexington assessors' records indicate that the farmhouse on Larchmont Farm, which appears to be Queen Anne in style, was actually not built until 1913. The farmhouse was occupied by Joseph Tropeano, the farm foreman, and his family. Beginning in 1928,Lexington Directory's list Joseph Tropeano as the proprietor rather than the foreman of Larchmont Farm,but the Tropeanos did not actually buy the property until 1934 after the death of the Taylor's daughter,and they still own it. The farm, which raised vegetables that were sold to Boston hotels, continued to operate until 1949;the land is now used by Larchmont Engineering, which sells irrigation products. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (continued) Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge, MA. 2457: 67; 5802: 61. Tony Tropeano, personal communication 1998. Worthen, Edwin B. A Calendar History of Lexington,Massachusetts, 1620-1946. Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Savings Bank, 1946. 91, 97, 100, 102. INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Town Property Address Lexington I I Larchmont Ln. MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 761, 763 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 TVvek TVvek TVv la�k TVvek TVvek Trek TVvek T Roll 48,Negative#30 Roll 48,Negative#33