HomeMy WebLinkAboutvine-street_0016-0018-0020 AREA FORM NO.
FORM B - BUILDING F X42
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION
294 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MA 02108
1. an Lexington
gess 16-18-20 Vine Street
;toric Name First Town Hall/High
rGhool Building
Aft, Present residential (apartments)
-�� Original town hall/school
)ESCRIPTION:
LA
- .,.. -e 1846
e„ _
Source Hudson 1913, I, p. xviii
SKETCH MAP
Show property' s location in relation Style
to nearest cross streets and/or
geographical features. Indicate Architect Isaac Melvin
all buildings between inventoried
property and nearest intersection. Exterior wall fabric wood clapboard
Indicate north.
Outbuildings
1 Q
QMajor alterations (with dates) gabled
Z� �� roof cut down; portico, Ionic columns,
Q and pediment removed; long round-headed
owindows replaced (1902)
t
from east side of Massachusetts Avenue
Moved near intersection of Date 1902
Woburn Street (site of Muzzey Junior H)
Approx. acreage27870 fto2 (with 10-12-14,
Recorded by Nancy S. Seasholes Setting On narrow back street; near
Organization Lexington Historical Commission many modest nineteenth-century workers
Date Anril, 1984 houses.
(Staple additional sheets here)
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE (Describe important architectural features and
evaluate in terms of other buildings within the community.)
This tenement with its bulky rectangular profile seems out of scale in
— comparison with the small workers cottages close by. The building was actually
moved to this site from elsewhere in Lexington where it was the central portion
of Lexington's first town hall and high school, built in 1846. Photographs of
the original building indicate none of its exterior finishes survive: the
entire entablature and pediment with dentil course were removed and replaced
with the truncated gable roof now there; the four Ionic columns of the original
(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.)
The 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 built by David A. Tuttle, a prominent nineteenth-century Lexington builder.
When Lexington established its first high school in 1854, classes were
initially held in this central portion of the town hall building. According
to one of the original students, the first classroom was on the second floor,
a room she called the "attic" -- 30 feet long, 22 feet wide, windows only at
one end, and heated by a stove in the corner (Hudson 1903:118-120) . The second
year the classroom was moved to the larger and better ventilated room down-
stairs and, after Lexington built another town hall in 1871, the high school
took over the entire building.
By the end of the nineteenth century the high school was badly in need of
renovations and repairs; it was condemned in 1896 by the State Inspector as
unfit for further use and finally, in 1902, replaced by a new high school on
the same site -- the building that later became Muzzey Junior High School. The
old high school was purchased by W.E. Denham, cut apart, and moved to Vine
Street where it became tenements; this building was the central portion of the
old one.
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.
Hudson, Mary E. "Early Days of the Lexington High School," 1903. Proceedings
of the Lexington Historical Society, Volume III, pp. 117-133. Lexington,
Massachusetts: Lexington Historical Society, 1905.
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.
10NI - 7/82
INVENTORY FORM CONTINUATION SHEET Community: Form No:
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL CCWISSION Lexington 342
Office of the Secretary, Boston
Property Name: 16-18-20 vine Street
Indicate each item on inventory form which is being continued below.
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
portico were reused at the entrances of Muzzey Junior High School; and the
original, long round-headed windows were placed with the present ones. A
current tenant reported that no original interior finishes survive.
Staple to Inventory form at bottom