HomeMy WebLinkAboutpleasant-street_0048 AREA FORM NO.
FOP24 B - BUILDING 544 �
i
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION
294 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MA 02108
to Lexington
Tress 48 Pleasant Street
- l ;toric Name Edmund Munroe Brown House
1 Present residential
Original residential
- DESCRIPTION:
- _� Z " '*�++ to c. 1830-1850
Source map research
SKETCH MAP
Show property's location in relation Style 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.
Outbuildings barn
OMajor alterations (with dates) ell
Oraised to a two full stories (early 1970s)
Moved yes Date c. 1935
4 O
,V 5 Approx. acreage 17876 ft.2
Recorded by Anne Gradv Setting Set back from street behind
Organization Lexington Historical Commission another house adjacent to cultivated
Date April, 1984 fields of Wilson's Farm.
(Staple additional sheets here)
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE (Describe important architectural features and
evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community.)
This is one of the most modest farm cottages to survive as a residence
in Lexington. Constructed like the more substantial Federal/Greek Revival
jernacular houses which dot East Lexington with small stair hall at the front
.entrance, chimneys at the rear of right and left hand rooms, and roof construc-
tion of principal rafters nailed to a one-foot by six-foot board at the ridge,
this house is distinguished from the others by its modest scale and less-than-
two story height. The current owners have opened up the interior of the house
and remodeled it in a contemporary manner.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE (Explain the role owners played in local or state
history and how the building relates to the development of the community.)
According to the maps, the house was built between 1830 and 1853. It
was occupied in 1853 by Edmund Munroe Brown, grandson of Francis Brown who kept
a tavern nearby at 620 Massachusetts Avenue in the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries. By 1875 John Irwin, a farmer, lived here. By 1898 the
house was part of the dairy farm of Sidney Myron Lawrence, who built the house
adjacent at 52 Pleasant Street in the 18905. At some point, this house was
moved to the rear of the lot.. The current house on the front of the lot (50
Pleasant Street) was constructed c. 1934 for a daughter of the farm's owner.
The barn of the Lawrence farm now belongs to the owners of 48 Pleasant Street.
It was built c. 1905 as a "Grade A" dairy barn and included such features as a
manure track. It replaced an earlier barn on the site, and was converted to a
garage in the 1950s.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (name of publication, author, date and publisher)
Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington, revised and continued to
1921 by the Lexington Historical Society, Volume II, pp. 66, 69. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913.
Personal communication from John Shanahan.
1830 map
1853 map
1875 atlas 1887 Directory
1889 atlas 1894 Directory
1898 atlas 1899 Directory
1906 atlas 1906 Directory
10M - 7/82
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community: Form No:
44
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL CCRAISSION Lexington 5
Office of the Secretary, Boston
Property Name: 48 Pleasant Street
Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below.
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Staple to Inventory form at bottom