HomeMy WebLinkAbouthaskell-street_0008 (formerly 51 Lowell St) FORM B — BUILDING
Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 10028000104 1 Boston N. 1655, 656
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Place (neighborhood or village)
'i Address 51 Lowell St.
U)to
-11 Historic Name Josiah H. Reed House
)s Uses: Present Multi-Family Residential
a
Original Residential
Date of Construction 1872
Source Lexington Valuation lists
s
Style/Form Italianate w. Queen Anne finishes
Architect/Builder
Exterior Material:
Foundation Brick
�I to Wall/Trim Wood Clapboard/Wood Shingle
Roof Slate
O
utbuit ings/Se
conda ry
Structures
Attached barn
Major Alterations(with dates)
W
� N N
Condition Good
J
=f \ Moved ❑ no ® yes Date 1996
Acreage 0.4 A.
Setting At one side of a new development of closely-
spaced 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.
51 Lowell St. is one of several L-shaped Italianate farmhouses in Lexington, but the only one with Queen Anne finishes. The
cross-gabled house(MHC#655)has a rear ell, is 2'/2 stories, and has two ridge chimneys. It is set on a brick foundation,clad
with wood clapboards and wood shingles, and roofed with slate. The main entry is now under a porte cochere on the south
elevation,a secondary entry is located in the reentrant angle,and windows are 2/1 double hung sash. Some Italianate finishes still
remain: the paired curved brackets at the cornice and single brackets at the corners,the shed-style window hoods roofed with
fishscale slates,and a double former front door in the reentrant angle. More prominent are the Queen Anne finishes: diamond
patterned shingles above the first story, second-story walls that flare outward at the base, a distinctive scroll design along with
flowers and paterae on the barge boards, another distinctive design on the panels of the projecting bays,turned porch posts with
cut-out brackets, a spindle balustrade, and a spindle frieze under the porte cochere. The attached barn(MHC#656)with a cupola
vent is now a residence with a two-car garage.
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 1872 by Josiah H. Reed(1827-1890),who had grown up in the Reed homestead house at 72 Lowell St.
(MHC#658). After his father's death in 1864, Josiah's brother, Reuben W.,apparently lived at the homestead farm and Josiah
lived in Somerville before building this house. By 1881,however, Reuben W. had moved to Somerville and Josiah had acquired
the Reed homestead farm; Josiah then sold this house in 1882 to a William Litchfield. It was undoubtedly Litchfield who made the
Queen Anne additions to the house and he made many other changes as well. An August 1882 item in the Lexington Minute-man
related : "Mr. Litchfield contemplates making quite extensive improvements and is now engaged in sinking a well,which will not
be less than forty feet deep,through the ledge, and when this is finished he will erect a wind mill to pump water to the highest point
of his land,where he will build a reservoir to contain it for domestic and other purposes. He will also have an artificial duck pond
in front of his residence. A new barn has been built for him this last spring. When finished, this will be another beautiful estate."
In 1893 Litchfield's estate included the house, barn,windmill (built in 1889), 3/, acre mowing and tillage, 8 acres pasture, 3
horses, 1 cow, 60 fowl, and 3 carriages.
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: 568.
Lexington Minute-man, 26 August 1882.
Lexington Valuation Lists. 1872-1873.
Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge, MA. 1582: 27; 1595: 55, 56.
Sileo, Thomas P. Research on Monahan House, Lowell St. In possession of Thomas P. Sileo, Chelmsford, MA.
Sullivan, Mark. "Family Feuds over Historic Home." Boston Globe, 26,March, 1995.
❑ 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 51 Lowell St.
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD 655, 656
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE (continued)
In 1901 the house was acquired by Charles B. Patch,who worked in Boston,and in 1913 by Eugene and Agnes Monahan.
Monahan was a produce dealer and by 1915 had added two greenhouses. In 1995 the property became the center of a
controversy when two Monahan descendants sold it to developer Mark Moore,who planned to build 12 new houses on the
lot, a development that would force the Monahan's daughter to move out of the farmhouse. The dispute was somewhat
resolved in 1996 when the farmhouse was moved forward and to the side of the lot to permit the construction of the new
houses and, in the process, the barn converted to a residence.
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