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Home My WebLink Aboutmeriam-street_0006 FORM B BUILDING Date (month/year): September 2015 Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 56/62 0 0 2143 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Town/City: Lexington Place: (neighborhood or village): Photograph Merriam Hill Address: 6 Meriam Street Historic Name: Episcopal Church of Our Redeemer " Uses: Present: church 3 y Original: church Date of Construction: 1956-57 Source: Lexington Historical Commission 1 Style/Form: Colonial Revival Architect/Builder: Edward M. Bridge Exterior Material: Left side and front (facade) elevations Foundation: brick (visible portion); concrete? Wall/Trim: brick with wood trim Locus Map Roof- asphalt shingles f w Outbuildings/Secondary Structures: None Major Alterations (with dates): Rear addition (parish house; 1966) y , y Condition: excellent p �-7 •, � i' � � `• ` Moved: no ❑ yes ❑ Date: Acreage: 2.38 L-m,gt648al* ' Setting: Located between the base of Merriam Hill . + residential neighborhood and the edge of commercial district along Massachusetts Avenue. Adjacent to Minuteman Bikeway(former railroad track). Recorded by: Wendy Frontiero Organization: Lexington Historical Commission 12/12 Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 6 MERIAM STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 2143 ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. ff checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form. Use as much space as necessary to complete the following entries, allowing text to flow onto additional continuation sheets. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION: Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. The Church of Our Redeemer at 6 Meriam Street is a monumental, Colonial Revival style building at the base of Merriam Hill, close to Massachusetts Avenue. The flat site is situated between the Minute Man Bikeway rail trail and Patriots Drive. Constructed of brick with wood trim, the roughly L-shaped building consists of the main sanctuary block and several wings and appendages of various sizes at the back. Front and side setbacks are large. Maintained chiefly in lawn, the property also contains a wide driveway at the left side, which extends to a paved surface parking lot at the back half of the site; scattered trees and shrubs; and formal gardens and a playground at the right side of the lot. A concrete walkway leads from Meriam Street to a broad concrete stairway at the main entrance. The five by seven bay sanctuary block is set gable end to the street. Its outer bays are blank, framed by Tuscan pilasters. The middle three bays contain a recessed entrance, with Doric columns supporting a high wood entablature. The center entrance comprises double-leaf, wood paneled doors flanked by a single leaf doorway on each side. All three doorways have pedimented lintels with acroteria at the corners; the center doorway has a scroll and sunburst element in the center. Six over six windows surmount the outer doors; a blind window opening tops the center door. The fully pedimented gable end contains flushboarding in the tympanum, with a triangular louvered opening in the center. A three-stage steeple with a polygonal spire is set towards the front of the building. Its brick base has a large circular window in each face and a wood entablature crowned by large wood urns at each corner. The slender second stage (containing a bell) is wood, with corner pilasters, flushboard sides with open arches, and a decoratively carved cornice. The small, uppermost stage is octagonal, with an oval window in each wood face and a molded cornice. The side elevations are characterized by tall 16/12 double-hung windows with wood trim, including pedimented lintels. The raised basement has 8/8 windows. On the left side of the sanctuary, a cross-gabled entry wing rises one-story over a partially exposed basement. Its three-bay fagade has brick-quoined corners, wood gable returns, an offset entrance at the main level with a classical wood frame and recessed double-leaf doorway, and a louvered lunette centered in the gable peak. Windows have 8/8 sash and brick sills. A low, two story, side gabled wing behind the main sanctuary presents five bays towards the driveway, with brick—quoined corners, molded wood trim at the 8/8 windows, and two single-leaf doors with molded casings and cornices. Extending from the right rear corner of the sanctuary is a perpendicular gabled ell, one story high with a mostly exposed basement level and 8/8 double hung sash. Its three-bay gable end (facing Patriots Lane) has gable returns and three windows at the upper story; a center entrance is located at grade with double-leaf doors in a classical wood frame. Fenestration on the seven bay elevation facing Meriam Street is slightly irregular, with some grouped windows. Landscaping includes a labyrinth and memorial garden installed in the early 21 st century between the church building and Patriots Lane. Well preserved and well maintained, The Church of Our Redeemer is a landmark property in downtown Lexington and an exceptionally well-detailed example of mid-20th century Colonial Revival ecclesiastical design. The building is notable for its elegant proportions, monumental pedimented fagade, prominent steeple, and academic detailing. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE Continuation sheet I INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 6 MERIAM STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 �H 2143 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 Church of Our Redeemer was constructed in 1956-57 on a previously undeveloped lot. The property was owned by the Stetson heirs in 1898 and afterwards by the Boston & Maine Railroad, which had a small one-story freight house standing near the intersection of the railroad tracks and Meriam Street(1927, 1935). The adjacent residential subdivision of Patriots Drive was laid out and developed between 1935 and 1950 on part of what had been the Goodwin estate. The first Episcopal services were held in Lexington in 1883. The congregation was recognized as a mission of the Episcopal Church in 1884 and incorporated as a parish in 1885. Construction of a new church building Street began almost immediately, on land purchased at the corner of Oakland and Meriam streets (17 Meriam Street). Designed by Boston architect E. A. P. Newcomb, the church hosted its first service in 1886 and was consecrated in 1887. As Lexington's population swelled after World War II, the growing and active congregation needed a larger facility. Land across the street from the original building was purchased in 1954. Designed by architect Edward Bridge, the new church was dedicated in 1957. A parish house was added to the site in 1966. The old church building was sold to the Greek Orthodox Church of Lexington (St. Nicholas) in 1965. Little is presently known of the architect Edward Melville Bridge. He lived in Wakefield, graduated from MIT's department of architecture in 1913, worked as a draftsman for Coolidge & Carlson, and was a professor of architecture at MIT in the 1930s. MACRIS, the MHC database, identifies Bridge with 22 properties in eastern Massachusetts into the 1960s; all but one are ecclesiastical buildings. Bridge reportedly designed two other buildings in Lexington: St. Brigid's Church at 1985 Massachusetts Avenue (1957) and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at 1386 Massachusetts Avenue (1966). BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Bacon, Mardges. LeCorbusierin America. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2001. Church of Our Redeemer website. "History." http://www.our-redeemer.net/about-us/history/ Accessed Jul 27, 2015. Historic maps and atlases: Walling 1853; Beers 1875; Walker 1889; Stadly 1898; Walker 1906; Sanborn 1908, 1918, 1927, 1935, 1935/1950. Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913. Kelley, Beverly Allison. Lexington;A Century of Photographs. Boston, Mass.: Lexington Historical Society, 1980. Lexington Comprehensive Cultural Resources Survey, Period Summaries. http://historicsurveV.Iexingtonma.gov/index.htm Accessed Jul 23, 2015. Massachusetts Historical Commission. "MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Lexington." 1980. . MACRIS database. Accessed Jul 27, 2015. (See especially QU1.344 and WAK.299) Technology Review, Volume 16. "Class Notes." [Cambridge, Mass.:] Association of Alumni and Alumnae of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1914. Continuation sheet 2 INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 6 MERIAM STREET MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD,BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125 0 2143 SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES L A•r ,. r 9 a . J Right side elevation Rear wings: Left side elevations i � Front (fagade) Continuation sheet 3