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HomeMy WebLinkAboutmaple-street_0027 FORM B - BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 10030000107 Boston N. 652 MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town Lexington BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place (neighborhood or village) oto Address 27 Maple St. X11 Historic Name Edward L. Tyler House 9s Vses: Present Residential Original Residential Date of Construction 1831 Source Lexington Valuation lists Style/Form Greek Revival Architect/Builder Exterior Material: Foundation Granite to Wall/Trim Wood Clapboard a' Roof Asphalt Shingle j iOutbuildings/Secondary Structures Large garage Major Alterations (with dates) Addition to rear ell,garage(dates unknown) q � I II Condition Good �i33ais . Moved ® no El yes Date �_ Acreage 0.5 A. Setting n a Oheavily-trafficked street in a row of 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. 27 Maple St. is one of only 10 side-gabled Greek Revival cottages in Lexington and one of the most intact;the only comparable example is at 43 Adams St. (MHC#706). The house is rectangular with a rear ell, 1'/i stories, five-by-two bays, and side-gabled with a side chimney. The long front-gabled rear ell has a ridge chimney. The house is set on a granite foundation, clad with wood clapboards, and roofed with asphalt shingles. A rear extension of the ell is on a concrete foundation and to it is attached a side- gabled one-car garage. The main entry, now in the west gable end of the original house, has a simple molded surround with corner blocks and half-length sidelights;windows are 6/6 double hung sash. There are two gabled dormers on the front slope of the roof, a shed dormer on the rear, and a frieze board across the front of the house. At the rear is a large three-vehicle garage clad with vertical wood siding. 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 plaque on the front of this house says, "Edward L. Tyler Dairy Farm 1831"and research shows that for once the plaque is right, at least about the date of the house and name of the original owner. Edward L. Tyler(1806-1864),a Chelmsford carpenter, bought a 15-acre farm in Lexington known as the Peter Place in 1831 and built the house soon afterward, for in December 1831 he was assessed for a house and barn, having not been listed at all in 1830. When Tyler bought the property Maple St. did not yet exist—it is not shown on the 1830 map of Lexington, was not mentioned in the deed to Tyler, and is described in an 1835 deed as the"new road leading from Eben Pierce's [on Mass. Ave.] to Nathan Fessenden's [the house now 162 Maple St. (MHC#661)at the corner of Lowell St.] After Tyler's death,his son Henry H. Tyler and wife Mary ran a diary business here, delivering milk on routes in Arlington, Cambridge, and Somerville. Worthen, who grew up next door, describes the couple as "drudges,"always scrubbing everything and never allowing visitors in the house. Worthen adds,however, that they were well off, providing music lessons and later building adjacent houses for their sons, Arthur at 29 Maple St. (MHC#653) and Edward at 31 Maple St. 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 Mullin, 1913. 2: 713. Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge, MA. 302: 168; 358: 382; 351389. Worthen, Edwin B. Tracing the Past in Lexington,Massachusetts. New York: Vantage Press, 1998. 38-39. ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.