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HomeMy WebLinkAboutmaple-street_014612/12 Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form. FORM B  BUILDING MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Photograph Locus Map Recorded by: Marilyn Fenollosa Organization: Lexington Historical Commission Date (month / year): March 2026 Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number 38-21 Concord LEX.2519 Town/City: Lexington Place: (neighborhood or village): Address: 146 Maple Street Historic Name: Harrington School Uses: Present: School Central Administration Original: Elementary School Date of Construction: 1954 Source: Town Assessors records; Town of Lexington Annual Reports 1954, 1956 Style/Form: Colonial Revival Architect/Builder: Leland, Larsen, Bradley & Hibbard Exterior Material: Foundation: Concrete Wall/Trim: Brick Veneer on wood frame Roof: Tar & Gravel Outbuildings/Secondary Structures. Major Alterations (with dates): New wing added 2017 Condition: TO BE DEMOLISHED 2026 Moved: no ☒ yes ☐ Date: Acreage: 8.70 Acres Setting: Residential neighborhood RECEIVED MAR 30 2026 MASS. HIST. COMM. INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 146 MAPLE ST MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 2 LEX.2519 ☐ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form. Use as much space as necessary to complete the following entries, allowing text to flow onto additional continuation sheets. ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION: Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community. Harrington School is a two-story, flat-roofed Colonial Revival building, built in 1954 and facing northeast toward Maple Street. The school, of wood-frame construction with a brick veneer and set on a concrete foundation, blends elements of modernist design with touches of simplified Colonial Revival detailing. Reflecting its mid-20th century design is the building’s plan, with an angled asymmetrical footprint. The larger classroom block is offset to the southwest at a forty-five degree angle, with a smaller entrance wing at the northeast corner. The Harrington School’s Colonial Revival elements focus on the entrance, which is accessed via a flight of stairs beneath a projecting brick, gable-roofed portico. The entrance is further delineated with a shallow pitched pedimented gable lit with a fanlight and topped with a short, square copper-roofed cupola. The cupola design recalls the belfry cupolas of early school architecture; large paired multi-lite wood sash are a further reflection of traditional schoolhouse design. The Harrington School was designed by Leland, Larsen, Bradley and Hibbard. Joseph Daniels Leland (1885-1968) was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, graduated from Harvard and received architectural training at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. A Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, he had a solo practice until he formed a partnership with one of his former associates, Neils H. Larsen; the firm subsequently became Leland, Larsen, Bradley and Hibbard and designed properties throughout New England, including the Higgins Armory in Worcester, Massachusetts and the New Hampshire Savings Bank. “Joseph Daniels Leland III”, (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/203743975/joseph-daniels-leland); https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/88000658_text ; American Architects Directory, 1956 https://aiahistoricaldirectory.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/AHDAA/overview?homepageId=20644018 . Niels H. Larsen (1885-1974), born in Copenhagen, Denmark, attended the Boston Architectural Center, Harvard and the American Academy of Rome. Originally in partnership with Joseph Leland, expanded to become Leland, Larsen, Bradley & Hibbard, Larsen completed many projects in New England, including an extension to the Boston Navy Yard, buildings at the University of Maine in Orano, and the Library Building at Russell Sage College in Troy, NY He also served as the Assistant Chief Architect for the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He was a former member of the Visitors Committee of the Harvard School of Design and a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Obituary, “Niels H. Larsen is Dead; Boston Architect was 89”, The New York Times October 10, 1974; INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 146 MAPLE ST MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 3 LEX.2519 American Architects Directory, 1956 https://aiahistoricaldirectory.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/AHDAA/overview?homepageId=20644018. John Freeman Bradley (1904–1990) was born in Evanston, Illinois and attended Harvard and the MIT Special Studies in Architecture School. Bradley was in partnership with Charles Lovely Hibbard until 1954, when the firm merged with the present Leland, Larsen, Bradley & Hibbard. He designed homes throughout New England as well as the classroom building for the Salisbury School in Salisbury, Connecticut and other commercial and industrial buildings. “John Freeman Bradley”, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/260400318/john-freeman-bradley; Obituary, The Patriot Ledger, Friday, Aug 17, 1990, Quincy, MA; American Architects Directory, 1956 https://aiahistoricaldirectory.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/AHDAA/overview?homepageId=20644018 . Charles Lovely Hibbard (1904–1971), the son of the late district court judge Hon. Charles Hibbard from Pittsfield, MA, was an architect was educated at William’s College, graduating in 1925, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1925-1928. In 1945 Hibbard started a partnership with architect James Freeman Bradley, which then merged with Leland and Larsen in 1953, Boston-based architects specializing in commercial and institutional architecture. Some of the projects that Hibbard and the others contributed to were The First High Street Parking Garage and the Medfield State House. Hibbard also participated in projects such as the Charles Jones House in Milton and Washburn Hall, Washburn Hall being the last documented project that he worked on in 1960. Obituary, “Charles L. Hibbard Jr., Williams Graduate”, North Adams Transcript, February 24, 1971 pg. 24; KR, “Cushing, George M. - Hibbard, Charles Lovely House”, https://miltonhistoricsites.org/items/show/43. HISTORICAL NARRATIVE 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. Harrington School was named for the prominent Harrington family, deeply tied to the town's Revolutionary history, especially Jonathan Harrington, a militiaman who died on Lexington Green, and his family's historic homes nearby. Opened in 1954, Harrington School was built as part of post-1940 infrastructure development to serve Lexington's growing population. A new Harrington School was built and opened for students in 2005 in the northeast corner of the same land parcel (TLCR Architects) and the original Harrington School repurposed for the Lexington School Administration Department. The School Administration Department subsequently vacated the building in 2005 and it is expected to be demolished in 2026. BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES Hinkle, Alice and Andrea Cleghorn. Life in Lexington 1946-1995. Lexington Historical Commission, Historical Period Summaries, Post 1940 Period https://www.lexingtonma.gov/916/Post-1940-Period Town of Lexington, Annual Reports 1954, 1956, 2001, 2005, 2025 Town of Lexington Assessors Records Town of Lexington GIS Mapping INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 146 MAPLE ST MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 4 LEX.2519 FLOOR PLANS Central Administration @ Old Harrington Public Facilities Department April 1, 2008 INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET LEXINGTON 146 MAPLE ST MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No. 220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125 Continuation sheet 5 LEX.2519 Front façade entry detail Front façade window detail