HomeMy WebLinkAboutmaple-street_0020 FORM B - BUILDING
Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 10030000013 Boston N. 649, 650
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place (neighborhood or village)
' J f Address 20 Maple St.
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Historic Name Everett E. Smith House
os Uses: Present Residential
� Original Residential
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Date of Construction 1874
Source Deeds, Lexington Valuation lists
Style/Form Italianate
Architect/Builder
Exterior Material:
Foundation Brick
to Wall/Trim Wood Clapboard
m - Roof Asphalt Shingle
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures Attached barn
Major Alterations(with dates)
IRear additions (dates unknown)
0
Condition Deteriorated
Moved ® no ❑ yes Date
STRE Acreage 0.2 A.
I I i Setting On a heavily-trafficked street across from other
19th-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.
20 Maple St. is one of the very few front-gabled Italianate houses in Lexington with an attached barn (another example is at 8
Fletcher Ave. [MHC#671 and 672]); it retains its original finishes but is in very poor condition. The house(MHC#649) is
rectangular with a rear ell, 2%stories,three-by-three bays, and front-gabled with a side chimney. The two-by-one bay rear ell is
hip-roofed with a side chimney. The house is set on a brick foundation,clad with wood clapboards, and roofed with asphalt
shingles. The main entry on the facade is flanked by sidelights;windows are 2/2 double hung sash. In addition to the sidelights,
Italianate finishes on the main block include side frieze boards, a distinctive staggered-block molding at the cornice of the
projecting one-story bays and entry hood, and panels under the bay widows. At the rear of the ell two front-gabled structures
connect the ell with the barn; the first is on a fieldstone foundation and the second on a concrete foundation with an exterior
chimney. The 1'/z-story,gable-roofed barn(MHC#650)has a ridge chimney and a number of windows.
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.
Deeds and assessors' records indicate that this house was built in 1874 by Everett E. Smith (1827-1881), for Smith purchased the
lot on which it is located in October 1873 without any buildings and in 1874 was assessed for a house, barn and two outbuildings.
The house soon became associated with the farm behind it(see 3 Ingleside Rd.,MHC#646 form), for in 1882 it was purchased
by Dr. Parker Kenison, who had bought the farm in 1880, in 1900 by George E. Lothrop, who purchased the farm that year, and
in 1907 by Charles W. Ryder,whose wife had acquired the farm in 1906. Worthen, who grew up across the street, remembered
Lester Tompkins,the farm foreman, living in this house when Kenison owned the farm. In the 1920s and 30s, when the Ryders
owned this house and it was divided into front and rear residences, its tenants changed almost yearly and were sometimes people
associated with the farm, such as the foreman, chauffeur,a farm hand, and a herdsman.
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: 646.
Lexington Directory. 1922-1942.
Lexington Valuation Lists. 1873-1874.
Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge,MA. 1281: 26; 1463: 564; 1588: 172; 2834: 498; 3302: 327.
Worthen, Edwin B. Tracing the Past in Lexington,Massachusetts. New York: Vantage Press, 1998. 37.
❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National
Register Criteria Statement form.