HomeMy WebLinkAboutreed-street_0079 FORM B - BUILDING
Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 10072000501 Boston N. 772
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town Lexington
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Place (neighborhood or village)
u�.
Address 79 Reed St.
to
X11 Historic Name
II'
S Uses: Present Residential
Original Residential
Date of Construction 1849?
Source Lexington Valuations lists
Style/Form
_ Architect/Builder
' Exterior Material:
a
Foundation Concrete
to Wall/Trim Wood Clapboard
Roof Asphalt Shingle
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures
Major Alterations (with dates)
Rear addition, carport(after 1952)
I I I
1 ;N Condition Good
_ — Moved [:] no ® yes Date 1952
-
�. Acreage 0.2 A.
Setting On a quiet street in a neighborhood of 19th-and
20th-century houses
Recorded by Nancy S Seasholes
Organization Lexington Historical Commission
Date(month/year) April 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 Reed St. is one of the few examples in Lexington of a very small post-and-beam house. It is rectangular with a side ell, 1'/2
stories,two-by-one bays, and side-gabled with a rear chimney. The one-story two-by-one bay side-gabled ell is attached to a
gabled carport. At the rear of both house and ell is a one-story shed-roofed addition. The house is set on a concrete foundation,
clad with wood clapboards, and roofed with asphalt shingles. The main entry is now in the west gable end;windows are 6/6
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 originally at 54 Bedford St.,that is,just west of the present intersection of Bedford St. and Worthen Rd. at the
front of what is now Walgreen's parking lot. It faced Bedford St. and was just west of a stream, now underground,that crosses
the street at the Worthen Rd. intersection. The house was reportedly built ca. 1750 but Lexington assessors' records suggest that
it was built in 1849, for William Woods, who then owned the land on which it stands,was first assessed for it in 1850. Its post
and beam framing is,however, consistent with an earlier date of construction, so it is possible that it is an earlier house that was
moved to Woods' property in 1849.
In the early 1870s the house was acquired by Mary W. Harrington Swan and was eventually inherited by her niece May(Mary
Swan)Harrington (b. 1876), who lived in the Harrington house at 5 Harrington Rd. (MHC#55) and in the 1940s rented the
Bedford St. house to the Edgar R. and Mary G. McLallan family. Mr. McLallan fixed up the house and installed indoor
plumbing,which it had not had previously(the outhouse had been near the stream). May Harrington died in the 1940s and
reportedly willed the house to the McLallan's. In 1952,when construction of the A&P supermarket(now Walgreen's)was
planned(Worthen Rd. was not built until 1955),the McLallan's decided to move the house. They bought a lot on Reed St. and the
house with its ell was transported to its new location on the back of a flatbed truck.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑see continuation sheet
Barbara Church, 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: 284-85, 286, 688.
Lexington Directory. 1922-1942.
Lexington Valuation Lists. 1840-1915, 1919-1924, 1942.
Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds. Cambridge, MA. 506: 54; 753: 564, 566; 945: 323; 1033: 528; 7943: 243.
Sanborn Map Company. Lexington, Middlesex County,Massachusetts. New York: Sanborn Map Co., 1927, Pl. 8; 1935, Pl. 9.
❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National
Register Criteria Statement form.