HomeMy WebLinkAboutoak-street_0033 FORM B - BUILDING AREA FORM N0.
522
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION
294 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MA 02108
wn Lexington
dress 33 Oak Street
- r storic Name Smith-Nichols House
IM M Ir '
e: Present residence
_- -- Original residence and farm
DESCRIPTION:
ite c. 1849
Source Worthen Collection
SKETCH MAP
Show property's location in relation Style Italianate
to nearest cross streets and/or
geographical features. Indicate Architect
all buildings between inventoried
property and nearest intersection. Exterior wall fabric clapboards
Indicate north.
Outbuildings barn
'
ASS-
011❑ ❑ Major alterations (with dates) bay added
to southwest end (second half of nineteenth
Ll
y century) ; rear additions (date unknown)
❑ 7
❑ Moved Date
Approx. acreage 3.51 A.
Recorded by Anne Grady Setting In the midst of the hillside
Organization Lexington Historical Commission Pastures and surrounding stone walls which
Date March, 1984 have been the setting for this house since
the nineteenth century.
(Staple additional sheets here)
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE (Describe important architectural features and
evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community.)
When constructed in 1849, the West Farm house was a typical Italianate
Vernacular structure: five-bays wide, one-room deep, rear chimney plan with
pedimented gables, modillions at the eaves, and projecting window caps and
sills supported by simple brackets. The house was built by Curtis Capell, an
East Lexington carpenter, who constructed many buildings there. C. 1890, the
southwest facade was extended by one bay and the ridge of the roof was raised
over that bay only to accommodate the increased width. This was, among other
(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.)
A penciled note by Edwin B. Worthen indicates that the house was built
in 1849. By 1853 Billings Smith was the owner, so very likely it was built
for him as well. Smith (b. 1821, d. 1890) , a farmer, served as town treasurer
in 1870-11-71.
Subsectuent owner, Edward Payson Nichols (b. 1835, d. 1916) , was a school-
teacher in Syracuse when he decided to learn the cotton business in order to
earn more money. He became .treasurer of a cotton mill in New Hampshire and
moved to Lexington in 1888. The family lived on Oak Street until 1906 when
they moved to the center of town. They retained ownership of the house in East
Lexington and for a number of years summered there. Dudley West bought the
property in 1933. He removed apple trees below the house and cleared the
pasture above the house. The acreage of the farm became conservation land in
the 1960s, thereby assuring the preservation of the nineteenth century setting
of the house.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (name of publication, author, date and publisher)
Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington, revised and continued to
1912 by the Lexington Historical Society, Volume II, pp. 494, 646. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913.
Worthen, Edwin B. Note in the Worthen Collection, Cary Memorial Library.
"Architectural Yesterdays in Lexington." Proceedings of the Lexington Historical
Society, Volume IV, p. 119. Lexington: Lexington Historical Society, 1912.
Personal communication from Phoebe Nichols Palmer.
10M - 7/82
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community: Form No:
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL CMAISSION Lexington 522
Office of the Secretary, Boston
Property Name: 33 Oak Street
Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below.
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
things, an economical way of achieving a more prominent profile from Massachusetts
Avenue. The drive once ran along the downhill side of the house; its location
is still marked by stone walls. There have been rear additions so that the house
now connects with one of the barns.
Staple to Inventory form at bottom