Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutsherman-street_0002 FORM B - BUILDING Assessor's Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION 10048000130 Boston N. 676 MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD Town Lexington BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Place (neighborhood or village) Address 2 Sherman St. to / Historic Name Thurston House ,)s Uses: Present Residential Original Residential Date of Construction 1893-1894 Source Lexington Minute-man; Lexington Valuation lists Style/Form Queen Anne Architect/Builder DeVeau Bros. Exterior Material: Foundation Fieldstone to Wall/Trim Wood Clapboard/Wood Shingle Roof Asphalt Shingle Outbuildings/Secondary Structures Major Alterations(with dates) 220 Condition Excellent j SHENMAN Moved ® no [:] yes Date Acreage 0.2 A. Setting On a side street in Lexington Center in a neighborhood with late 19th-century houses Recorded by Nancy S. Seasholes Organization Lexington Historical Commission Date(month/year) March 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. 2 Sherman St. is one of the most elaborate and intact vernacular Queen Anne houses in Lexington. The house is basically cross- shaped with arms of uneven lengths and a rear ell, 2'/s stories, and cross-gabled with a chimney at the intersection of the roof lines. It is set on a fieldstone foundation, clad with wood clapboards and wood shingles, and roofed with asphalt shingles. Many of the Queen Anne finishes are repeated throughout the house: a raised block detail on the verge boards, scrollwork in the gable pediments, decorative brackets at the corners of the eaves, staggered shingles in the gables (the front gable also has butted and diamond-patterned shingles), and a serrated finish at the base of the gables. The wraparound porch has turned posts with cut-out brackets and turned balusters; a rear porch on the east elevation has similar finishes as well as verge boards that match those elsewhere in the house. There is a canted two-story gabled bay on the southwest corner;the west arm has a second story overhang under which are curved brackets;the east arm has a small window cut across the frieze board and a one-story shed-roofed overhanging bay with curved brackets under the overhang. The gable at the north end of the 2'/2-story two-by-one bay rear ell has the same finishes as other gables in the house. 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 built in 1893-1894 by the DeVeau Brothers, who, according to their advertisement in the 1894 Directory,were: "Carpenters and Builders. Jobbing of all kinds promptly attend to. Contractors for erecting residences or any building." Charles and Stephen DeVeau had come to Lexington from Nova Scotia in the early 1880s. They established their business near the railroad tracks on the newly-laid out Grant St. in the area where David W. Muzzey was subdividing his land into house lots (see Arra Form G). In 1889 the DeVeaus built a house for themselves at southeast corner of Grant and Sherman streets and in March 1893 purchased the lot across the street and began erecting a house on it. The Lexington Minute-man noted on August 4 of that year that the cellar was being dug and commented: "The house being built to sell will make a desirable home for someone." It is not known where the DeVeaus got the plan for the house,which has more elaborate finishes that most others in the neighborhood. Lexington assessors' records indicate that the house was still unfinished in 1894, but in 1895 the DeVeaus sold it to a Sarah Thurston. Mrs. Thurston's husband George is listed as a janitor in Lexington Directory's but she seems to have been quite well- off,for she owned several houses in Lexington, apparently renting them all including this one at 2 Sherman St. The Thurston themselves lived two doors down in the house now at 10 Sherman St. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES ❑see continuation sheet Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington. Revised and continued to 1912 by the Lexington Historical Society. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913. 2: 170. Lexington Directory. 1894, 1899, 1902-03, 1906, 1908-09, 1913. Lexington Minute-man, 4 August 1893. Lexington Valuations Lists. 1889-1890, 1893-1896. Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Deeds, Plans. 2361: 236; PI. Bk. 65, PI. 12. ❑ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked,you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.