HomeMy WebLinkAboutnorth-street_0079 FORM B - BUILDING
Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 10076000009 1Boston N. 723
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Place(neighborhood or village)
Address 79 North St.
)to
Historic Name William Locke House
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is Uses: Present Residential
Original Residential
I � Date of Construction 1832
Source Lexington Valuation lists; dated beam
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�. Style/Form Greek Revival
-- Architect/Builder
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Exterior Material:
Foundation Fieldstone
o Wall/Trim Wood Clapboard
Roof Asphalt Shingle
Y{ Outbuildings/Secondary Structures Attached garage
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Major Alterations(with dates)
Side and rear additions (dates unknowm)
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J eegr' \ I
Sr PHT
l # N Condition Good
Moved ® no ❑ yes Date
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Acreage 1.2 A.
Setting On a wooded lot at a bend of a narrow historical
street;nearby houses are 20th century
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.
79 North St. is one of three side-gabled Greek Revival cottages in Lexington with wall dormers (the other two are at 241 Grove
St. [MHC#7481 and 185 Burlington St. [MHC#745]), although in this case the dormers appear to have been added above the
eyebrow windows instead of being integral wall dormers. The original house is rectangular, 1'/Z stories,three-by-one bays, and
side-gabled with a center rear chimney. It is set on a fieldstone foundation, clad with wood clapboards, and roofed with asphalt
shingles. At the east end is a side-gabled addition with a ridge chimney and at the rear a long front-gabled addition. A breezeway
connects the side addition and the two-car garage. The center entrance in the main block has an elaborate surround with a molded
cornice,half-length sidelights, and side pilasters with a Greek fret design similar to that at 241 Grove St. (MHC#748), on a
number of houses on Massachusetts Ave. in East Lexington, and in Pl. 28 of Asher Benjamin's Practical House Carpenter. Most
windows are 2/2 double hung sash.
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 by William Locke(1805-1890), a grandson of Amos Locke(1742-1828), whose house had stood on
approximately the same site. Although tradition holds that this was Amos Locke's house, Lexington assessors' records indicate
that William Locke,who inherited the Amos Locke property, was assessed more in 1833 for a"new house,"strongly suggesting
that this house was built the preceding year. This date is confirmed by the fact that"Oct. 20, 1832"is carved on a large
supporting beam in the basement of this house and that an 1889 paper by a Locke descendant says that the old Locke house was
taken down about 1830 and this one built in its place. The Lockes had come to Lexington from what is now Burlington in the 17th
century and by the 19th century owned about 200 acres in vicinity of North, Adams, and Lowell streets. William's brother
Nichols, for example, had a farm that included most of the land now Willards Woods and would soon build the house now at 66
North St. (MHC#724)and his brother Stephen would later have a house and farm at what is now 130 Burlington St. (MHC
#744). William's father Stephen,who had apparently lived with his parents in the old house on this site, had run what was known
as the Locke mill—a planing mill that produced interior moldings—on the site of the house now at 74 North St. After William's
death this house was occupied by his unmarried children, Austin William(b. 1852)and Emily(b. 1841). It is said that Emily, a
tidy housekeeper, objected to the mess Austin made when taking a bath in the kitchen so Austin created an outdoor bathtub in the
brook under the mill. In 1954, after repeated vandalism,the Locke mill was taken down.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ®see continuation sheet
Benjamin, Asher. The Architect, or Practical House Carpenter(1830). New York: Dover Publications, 1988.
Joan Goldmann, personal communication 1998.
Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington. Revised and continued to 1912 by the Lexington Historical Society.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913. 2: 369, 372, 375.
Kelley, Beverly Allison. Lexington:A Century of Photographs. Lexington, Mass: Lexington Historical Society, 1980. 18-19.
Lexington Valuation Lists. 1831-36, 1841, 1845.
Locke, Herbert G. "Amos Locke." Proceedings of the Lexington Historical Society 1 (1889): 67-72.
❑ 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 79 North St.
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
723
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (continued)
"Things to Remember." Lexington Minute-man.
Willard, Edith W. Letter to the Editor. Lexington Minute-man, 15 July 1954.
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