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FORM B - BUILDING I H 382
l I
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION
294 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MIA 02108
- own Lexington
' - -ddress 20 Meriam Street
R
VIA
-� -
Ion
` Willard Brown House
istoric Name
-, - - - ; -se: Present residential
Original residential
DESCRIPTION:
)ate 1905
- Source Mrs. Sarah Brown Shoenhut
SKETCH MAP
Show property' s location in relation Style Colonial Revival
to nearest cross streets and/or (7- F4.
geographical features. Indicate Architect Willard D. Brown O'Co no
all buildings between inventoried cw_I•✓a
property and nearest intersection. Exterior wall fabric clapboards
Indicate north.
,. Outbuildings
_4�//
Aft O Major alterations (with dates)
l�} Moved Date
Approx. acreage .6 A. (27377 ft.
Recorded by Anne Grady Setting At the foot of Meriam Street;
Organization Lexington Historical Commission an area of substantial late-nineteenth
Date March, 1984 century homes and mid-twentieth century
infill.
(Staple additional sheets here)
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE (Describe important architectural features and
evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community.)
Designed by Willard Brown for his own residence, this is an early example
of a building type which was widely built in the twentieth century -- Colonial
Revival in feeling but without specific stylistic references. The hip roof
with broad overhang and exposed rafter feet was characteristic of I°l-illard
Brown's work in his early career, but at this stage he was more likely to use
it with materials such as stucco and fieldstone combined into a free style
termed by one contemporary account as "Arts and Crafts" (cf. Cary Memorial
(see Continuation Sheet)
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE (Explain the role owners played in local or state
history and how the building relates to the development of the community.)
Willard Dalyrimple Brown was one of four sons of Benjamin F. Brown, an
insurance agent in Boston, who came to Lexington in 1876 and settled on Hancock
Street. Before 1906 the Brown property was subdivided and Edgewood Road and
adjoining lots of which this site was one were laid out. Willard Brown
graduated from.. the MIT School of Architecture in 1894. He then trained in the
office of Durgit and Chandler in Boston for two years. He subsequently spent
- several years of travel and study in Europe. According to his daughter, he was
most affected by and spent the most time in the study of Italian architecture.
In 1902 Brown set up practice in Boston. Much of his early work was in
Lexington where he designed the Munroe School (1904) , Cary Memorial Library
(1906) , the Parker School, numerous residences, and several remodelings of
Colonial houses including the Jonathan Harrington house and the i:arrett l`unroe
house.
Willard Brown's early work is among the most interesting architecture in
Lexington. His best buildings are often highly original structures which defv
classification, but which appear to draw upon both traditional sources (Shingle
and Queen Anne styles) and the new movements "in the air" at the time that he
began practice (the Craftsman's Movement, Neo-Rationalism, the Western Stick
Style, and possibly the Prairie Style) .
Characteristic of his buildings are low hip roofs with broad eaves and
exposed rafters, emphasis upon the building's horizontality through various
(see Continuation Sheet)
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (name of publication, author, date and publisher)
Album of works by Willard D. Brown, Lexington Historical Societ�r Collections.
Personal communication from Sarah Emily Brown Shoenhut.
10M - 7/82
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community: Form No:
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COR4IISSION Lexington 382
Office of the Secretary, Boston
Property Name: 20 Meriam Street
Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below.
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
Library and 28 Meriam Street) . The house at 20 Ideriam Street was well received.
It gained an award for the best design for a house costing under $10,000 from
Beautiful Homes magazine and was featured in the March 1909 issue. Plans and
further description of the building are in the possession of the Lexington
Historical Society.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
design features, and the use of fieldstone, stucco, and shingles. Roofs are
occasionally enlivened by the curving up of the eave line into a flattened
ellipse, a form which particularly appealed to Brown (see 28 Meriam Street form) .
Brown designed furniture for some of his buildings.
Perhaps Brown's most creative structure was "Journey's End," designed in
1 '0 :• for J. Willard Hayden as a summer house. The
brick-paved stair hall of this house w�,:s lighted by electric lights submerged in
a central pool and dispersed through prisms of glass. The staircase was finished
with rough logs and branched elm sticks as a balustrade (see 110 Shade Street
form) .
Brown also designed in a fairly correct Colonial style, particularly in
his later buildings, and collaborated with the other architect who resided in
Lexington at the time, Wm. Roger Greeley of Kilham, Greeley and Hopkins, on
Cary Memorial Hall built in 1927.
Staple to Inventory form at bottom
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Town Property Address
LEXINGTON 20 MERIAM ST.
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD 382
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE:
A brief notice found in the Lexington Minute-man provides additional information on the construction of this house. On
August 5, 1905 the paper reported that:
The cellar is already under way for a house to built on Merriam street on the site of the coachman's cottage at the
rear entrance of"Edgewood"on that street, owned by Mr.Benj. F. Brown. The house is for Mr. Willard D.
Brown,the architect, and will be occupied by his family. The contract has been awarded to T. H. O'Connor,the
carpenter and builder who, since he has gone into business for himself has steadily been making a reputation for
first class work which now requires the most experienced, skilled labor and practical knowledge of details. The
house is to be even larger than the one building for J. Chester Hutchinson on Winthrop road, for which Mr.
Brown is the architect and Mr. O'Connor the builder. The little cottage that has been moved off the sight to a
location some distance away is to be remodelled and renovated for rental,this work also being in charge of Mr.
O'Connor.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Lexington Directories,various dates.
Lexington Minute-Man,August 5, 1905.
Middlesex County Register of Deeds, Cambridge,Mass.
U.S. Census Records, 1900-1930.
Supplement prepared by:
Lisa Mausolf
June 2009