HomeMy WebLinkAboutspring-street_0187 AREA FORM N0.
FORM B - BUILDING T 572
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MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION
294 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MA 02108
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t• j 'a :<�a wn Lexington
h { dress 187 Spring Street
" StoriC Name Parker Homestead
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e: Present residential
-
�.= Original residential
- - _ DESCRIPTION:
ate c. 1843
= z Proceedings of the Lexinaton
Source Historical Society II(1900) :102
SKETCH MAP
Show property's location in relation Style vernacular
to nearest cross streets and/or
geographical features. Indicate Architect
all buildings between inventoried
property and nearest intersection. Exterior wall fabric clapboard
Indicate north.
Outbuildings garage (20th C.) ; barn
(second half 19th C.) ; "milk house"
Major alterations (with dates) three-bay
ell with gable roof on south end before
1,Cos) ; dormers on original house and ell,
N sou two-story addition, nor porch, entre
AJC (all since 1905)
Z C,ONCOF'o
Moved Date
Approx. acreage ).4 A.
Recorded by t:ancy S. Seasholes Setting on busy street across from 1960s
Organization Lexington Historical Commission houses; backs onto wooded hill.
Date February, 1984
(Staple additional sheets here)
1
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE (Describe important architectural features and
evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community.)
This 1840s one-and-a-half story cottage set with its gable end perpendi-
cular to the street has been all but obscured by subsequent additions. None-
theless, its original five-bay wide, two-bay deep profile and gable roof are
still discernible. This property also has a history of many outbuildings, of
which those remaining are a large, five by three bay barn with butted rafters
and a ventilating cupola, thus probably dating it in the second half of the
nineteenth century, and a small fieldstone house, known as the "milk house,"
immediately northwest of the barn and perhaps built in the twentieth century.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE (Explain the role owners played in local or state
history and how the building relates to the development of the community.)
A signboard hanging from a tree next to the driveway reads, "The Parker
Homestead. Here lived John Parker, born July 15, 1729, died Sept 17, 1775,
Captain, Lexington Minute Men, and his grandson Theodore Parker, born Aug. 24,
1810, died at Florence, Italy, May 10, 1860," and this says it all in terms of
historical significance of the site. Both Captain John of April 19, 1775 fame
and his famous grandson, the transcendentalist, reformer, and abolitionist,
lived, however, in the original Parker homestead, which was taken down in 1843
and whose foundation is under the Parker monument north of the house (see
Parker monument and Historic Archaeologic Site forms) .
This house, however, was built soon after the other one was taken down
by Isaac Parker (1798-1872) , a brother of Theodore. He was a farmer, a
selectman for four years between 1846 and 1850, and reportedly very interested
in the public schools. After his death the farm was owned by his sons Charles
1% (1835- ? ) and Theodore J. Parker (1841-1892) ; the former 'served in the
Civil War and was a selectman in 1872. By 1906 the farm had passed out of the
Parker family and was owned by John B. Quinn, the owner of the
Hotel Essex, Boston.
As for the house itself, its history is certainly one of change. An
1880s painting in the Lexington Historical Society and a c. 1905 photo in the
Parker house both show that before the latter date it was a five by-two bay
one-and-a-half story cottage with two dormers in front, two thin rear chimneys,
and a three-by-two bay, one-and-a-half story, gable-roofed ell on the south
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (name of publication, author, date and publisher)
Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington II, pp. 512, 515-517.
j Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913.
r
Lexington Historical Society Archives
Smith, A. Bradford. "Kite End"(1891) . Proceedings of the Lexington Historical
Society II(1900) :101-103.
1906 man
1906 Directory
10M - 7/82
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community: Form No:
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL CCWISSION Lexington 572
Office of the Secretary, Boston
Property Name: 187 Spring Street
Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
end. Thus, all the additional alterations have been made since 1905: the
sunporch on the north, the extended dormers on both the front and back of the
original house, the entry and the three-sided bay windpw, the dormers on the
first ell, and a large two-story addition on the south side of this ell.
There have also been many modifications to outbuildings: a fieldstone garage
built in the twentieth century and connected to the house with a trellised
walkway; a silo, now gone, on the northwest corner of the barn; a cemented
cistern, no longer in use, on the hill above the barn; and two discontinued
wells, one in front of the house (see photo) and one to the north of the
Parker monument. A barn immediately west of the house burned but its founda-
tion is clearly visible.
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Staple to Inventory form at bottom