HomeMy WebLinkAboutvine-street_0010-0012-0014 1 AREA FORM NO
FORM B - BUILDING F 31
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION
294 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MA 02108
s - wn Lexington
dress 10-12-14 Vine Street
a _T .storic Name
First Town Hall/High
— - = hool Building
Present (apartments)
Present
Original town hall/school
ESCRIPTION
F-
_ - _ ite 1846
Source Hudson 1913, I, p. xviii
SKETCH MAP
Show property' s location in relation Style k. ;-
to nearest cross streets and/or
geographical features. Indicate Architect Isaac Melvin
all buildings between inventoried
property and nearest intersection. Exterior wall fabric wood shingles
Indicate north.
Outbuildings
r,
Major alterations (with dates) ashlar
finish, long round-headed windows, and
roof balustrade on original building
1` removed (1902)
C
_ from east side of Massachusetts Avenue
i�✓`'G t� �' '' Moved near intersection of Date 1902
Woburn Street (site._Cf M�I.zzey J.H.S.)
Approx. acreage27870 ft.' (with 16-18-20
Recorded by Nancy S. Seasholes Setting On a narrow back street; near
Organization Lexington Historical Commission many modest nineteenth-century workers
Date April, 1984 houses.
(Staple additional sheets here)
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE (Describe important architectural features and
evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community.)
This bulky tenement, together with a similar building next to it, looms
over the small nineteenth-century cottages in its immediate vicinity. Actually,
this building was moved to this site in the early twentieth century and is
comprised of the two wings of Lexington's first town hall and high school, built
in 1846. Not many of the original exterior finishes survive, however, other
than the brackets under the wide cornice. Photographs of the original building
indicate the extent to which it was modified: the coursed ashlar wood finish
(see Continuation Sheet)
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE (Explain the role owners played in local or state
history and how the building relates to the development of the community.)
This building originally stood on Massachusetts Avenue on the site now
occupied by Muzzey Junior High School and was built in 1846 as Lexington's first
town hall. It was designed by Isaac Melvin, a Lexington architect who also
designed the Stone Building (1833) and the First Parish Church (1847) , and was
built by David A. Tuttle, a prominent nineteenth-century Lexington builder.
According to an antiquarian account, its two-story center section flanked by
one-story wings was the result of a compromise on the building committee between
advocates of a two- and of a one-story building.
In 1854 Lexington established its first public high school and decided to
hold classes in the central portion of the town hall; the wings were at first
reserved for town business but, especially after a new town hall was built in
1871, the entire buildinq became the high school.
By the end of the _ lq N 'century the high school was in need of repairs
and renovations; it was condemned in 1896 by the State Inspector as unfit for
further use and finally, in 1902, the town built a new high school on the site
-- the building that later became Muzzey Junior High School. The old high
school was purchased by W.E. Denham and moved to Vine Street where it became
tenements; this building was formed by joining the two side wings of the old
school.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES (name of publication, author, date and publisher)
David A. Tuttle papers. Lexington Historical Society archives.
Hudson, Charles. History of the Town of Lexington, revised and continued to
1912 by the Lexington Historical Society, Volume I, p. xviii. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1913.
Kelley, Beverly Allison. Lexington, A Century of Photographs, p. 62. Lexington,
Massachusetts: Lexington Historical Society, 1980.
"Lexington Has Always Been Proud of Its Schools." Lexington Minute Man,
December 30, 1971.
Smith, A. Bradford. "Kite End," 1891. Proceedings of the Lexington Historical
Society, Volume II, p. 122. Lexington, Massachusetts: Lexington Historical
Society, 1900.
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INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community: Form No:
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL CCt+1ISSION Lexington 341
Office of the Secretary, Boston
Property Name: 10-12-14 Vine Street
Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below.
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
replaced by shingles, the long round-headed windows and window frames with
impost blocks and keystones simulated in wood replaced by the present ones, and
the balustrade on the roof removed. A current tenant said that no original
interior finishes survive.
Staple to Inventory form at bottom