HomeMy WebLinkAboutpeacock-farm-road_0003 AREA FORM NO.
FORM B - BUILDING S 548
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION
294 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MA 02108
wn Lexington
dress 3 Peacock Farm Road
storic Name Peacock Farm House
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® e: Present residence
Ital Original residence and farm
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DESCRIPTION:
Lte c. 1830
Source stylistic analysis
SKETCH MAP
Show property's location in relation Style Federal/Greek Revival ---
to nearest cross streets and/or
geographical features. Indicate Architect
all buildings between inventoried
property and nearest intersection. Exterior wall fabric clapboards
Indicate north.
4' Outbuildings mid- to late-nineteenth
century barn
Major alterations (with dates) one-story
addition to south and west sides, ell to
east (dates unknown)
I70 Moved Date
sr
Approx. acreage 1.55 A.
Recorded by Anne Grady Setting At beginning of road into- a
Organization Lexinton Historical Commission development of contemporary houses; devel-
Date March, 1984 opment's common land of swamy and meadow-
lie just north of the house.
(Staple additional sheets here)
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE (Describe important architectural features and
evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community.)
This is one of many five-bay wide, one-room deep with rear chimneys
dwellings built in East Lexington in th second quarter of the nineteenth
century. Simple trim of corner boards� rieze board relate the building to
the Greek Revival style. The three-part window over the door is more of a
Federal feature, however.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE (Explain the role owners played in local or state
history and how the building relates to the development of the community.)
In 1852, Phineas Lawrence owned this house and two others in the
immediate area. Lawrence (b. 1775, d. 1864) moved from Waltham four years
after his marriage to Polly Wellington c. 1796 into an area of Lexington
where members of the Wellington family already lived. Lawrence served as
a state representative.
Before 1906, George Norton, a soap manufacturer from Winsor, Connecticut
purchased the property for use as a summer residence. George Mason became
the owner some time thereafter and the property remained in the Mason family
until 1973. In 1951, the acreage of the farm was sold for the Peacock Farm
development.^ In the early twentieth century peacocks were raised on the farm.
(see
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, p. 355. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913.
Kelley, Beverly Allison. Lexington, A Century of Photographs, p. 11. Boston:
Lexington Historical Society, 1980.
1830 map
1852 map
1875 atlas
1889 atlas
1906 atlas
10M - 7/82