HomeMy WebLinkAboutoakland-street_0012 FORA B - BUILDING Area F 39 no.
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Lexington
ss 12 Oakland St.
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ri Name e Dr. N.H. Merriam
Original residence
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SKETCH MAP
rJ Draw map showing property's DESCRIPTION:
location in relation to nearest (D��
cross streets and other buildings Date 0
or geographical features.
Indicate north. Source �✓lj�J 1�"l/f'� ¢�� Zoo/ �v 4 J
Style Queen Anne
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o Architect
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f� Exterior wall fabric yellow wood clapboards
shingles
Outbuildings
OMajor alterations (with dates)
porch roofed & screened, 1962.
Moved Date
�aU ST
pAK Approx. acreage .5 (220001 )
Joan Webber
Recorded by Henry V. Taves; Anne Grady Setting An imposing site at the southern
crest of Meriar Hill; surrounded by ample
Organization Lexington Historical Comm. houses, most of similar late nineteenth
century construction date.
Date 1977 1980 ; march. 1984 _
(Staple additional sheets here)
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ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE (describe important architectural features and
evaluate in terms of other buildings within community)
Gabled portico w/dentiled cornice, 4 ionic columns $ seat railing.
Triple window, 1st floor front left; triple/half window, 2nd floor middle.
Gable roof w/ smaller attached gables. 3-sided bay, 2nd floor right side.
Clapboards lst floor; patterned shingles 2nd $ 3rd floors.
— (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)
The house was built for Nathaniel Henry Merriam, a physician who was
the son of Matthew Merriam, developer of Meriam Hill. and the proprietor of
the successful shoe findings factory at the foot of Meriam Hill on Oakland
Street. The house remained in his ownership until after 1906.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC and/or REFERENCES
_ Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington, revised and continued to
1912 by the Lexington Historical Society, Volume II, p. 432. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913.
1889 atlas
1887 Directory
(see Continuation Sheet)
20M-2/80
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET CaMILMity: Form No:
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL CCMISSION Lexington 369
Office of the Secretary, Boston
Property Name: 12 Oakland Street
Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below.
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
This is a well preserved example of the Queen Anne style with a number
of inventive touches. Features include a gambrel-roofed central pavilion with
palladian window, offset second-level wall plane, pedimented portico and
diagonally placed windows at the corners flanking the portico. There is a
three-sided oriel on the right-hand side second level. The design is tied
together by the use of patterned shingles (staggered butt, and some semicircular)
on the second story. There are clapboards below. The use of patterned shingles
with clapboards is characteristic of Lexington buildings of the 1880s and 1890s.
This is perhaps the most prominent use of patterned shingles on a Meriam Hill
house of the period.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
1094 Directory
1899 Directory
1906 Directory
Staple to Inventory form at bottom
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Town Property Address
LEXINGTON 12 OAKLAND ST.
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD 369
BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS 02125
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE:
On July 26, 1.889 the Lexington Minute-man reported that N.H.Merriam was building a new house on Oakland Street.
Nathaniel Merriam(b. 1854)was the son of local manufacturer M.H. Merriam who operated the shoe findings shop at the
foot of Meriam Hill. Nathaniel was a physician, educated at Dartmouth College, and married Emma Cottrell in 1880.
The 1900 Census lists Nathaniel's occupation as a manufacturer of shoe findings, suggesting he took over the family
business after his father's death in 1898. Merriam continued to live here until about 1908.
By 1913 the house at 12 Oakland Street was owned and occupied by Charles Holt, a salesman for a dry goods business.
He lived here with his wife Caroline and two children. Mrs. Holt was still living here in 1942 with her daughter and
daughter's family.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Lexington Directories,various dates.
Lexington Minute-Man, July 26, 18 89.
Sanborn Insurance Maps,Lexington,various dates.
Supplement prepared by:
Lisa Mausolf
June 2009