Study Committee Report

PIERCE-LOCKWOOD NEIGHBORHOOD CONSERVATION DISTRICT (NCD) STUDY COMMITTEE REPORT Members of the Study Committee Donna Moultrup, Chair Richard Goldhammer, Vice-Chair Chris Neurath, Secretary Richard Canale, Planning Board Rep. David Kelland, Historical Commission Rep. October 12, 2017 with February 2, 2018 Addendum TABLE OF CONTENTS Page I. Executive Summary 2 II. Introduction 2 III. Historical Background of the Area 3 IV. Architectural Features of the Homes 13 V. Neighborhood House Inventory 15 VI. Early Maps of the Area 16 VII. Area Map and Discussion of the Proposed NCD 20 VIII. Addendum (February 2, 2018) 21 I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Having completed the necessary steps as outlined in Chapter 78 of the Code of Lexington, the Pierce-Lockwood NCD, is submitting this report of its Study Committee to the Historical Commission and the Planning Board. This report outlines highlights in the development of this area from the Pierce-Lockwood homestead, along with two other 1800s' homes, to the 21-home area bounded by the Minuteman Bikeway, Maple St., Massachusetts Avenue, Tower Park and additional Town-owned land. Despite renovations and additions over the years, the neighborhood retains its basic 1930s look and feel. The NCD strongly believes that with the guidelines outlined in the NCD Bylaw, the basic character of this area, the architectural style and size of the homes, and the closeness of the neighbors can be preserved and can continue to represent a time in Lexington's history that is, and always will be, important to our heritage. II. INTRODUCTION The proposed Pierce-Lockwood NCD has some prominent boundaries; on the east by the Minuteman Commuter Bikeway; on the north by Tower Park and adjacent Town-owned land; on the southeast by Maple St. and on the west by Massachusetts Avenue. These boundaries, we believe, have contributed to the closeness of the neighbors in that area. A building project started on a piece of land adjacent to the neighborhood started the discussion of how to preserve the primarily 1930s homes, and the general feeling of cohesiveness that contributed to the "love" of the neighborhood. There were several homes whose residents had lived there since the 1950s, and even some of the "newer" residents have been there more than twenty-five years. The Planning Board, coincidently, was discussing the possibility of introducing a bylaw to Town Meeting that would allow neighborhoods to create neighborhood conservation districts to preserve exactly what the neighbors in the Byron Avenue, Lockwood Road and Massachusetts 2 Avenue area felt they had. A couple of the neighbors met with representatives of the Historical Commission and the Historic Districts Commission to determine if the area neighborhood could possibly meet the criteria that were being considered in the proposed bylaw. Receiving a positive response, a meeting with the neighborhood was held on October 24, 2015 to start the discussion with the residents. The NCD bylaw was passed at the 2016 spring Town Meeting and approved by the State Attorney General. On October 13, 2016, the first neighborhood meeting to discuss the creation of a NCD under the requirements of the new bylaw, Chapter 78, was held at 10 Lockwood Road. The agenda included: choosing three candidates to be on the required Study Committee; obtain the ten signatures required to petition the Historical Commission regarding the formation of a Study Committee; and to discuss the potential guidelines that would be included in the final regulations and guidelines required to create the NCD. The initial thoughts of neighbors on protections to be considered were: 1) houses to remain oriented to the street they are currently facing 2) any changes must have consistency of architectural style and size 3) keep reasonably sized backyards 4) no paving of front yards for parking 5) no solid fences across front yards 6) additions or trees can't unduly shade abutters houses or gardens from winter sun 7) trees removed should be replaced with native, shade trees 8) colors should avoid bright oranges, blacks and purples 9) vegetative fences must be discussed with abutters 10) solar panels are okay 11) unknown future technologies could be okay but would be subject to review On October 19, 2016, a public hearing was held by the Historical Commission on the Byron/Lockwood/Mass. Ave. petition. The petition emphasized that many of the homes in the proposed NCD were built in the 1930s and had similar architectural details and size. The homes remained reasonably priced in consideration of the Lexington real estate market and there was a cohesive "feel" to this neighborhood perhaps due to its physical boundaries. The petition was accepted and a Study Committee was appointed. This final report is the product of the Study Committee's work from December, 2016 through June, 2017. At the April 18, 2017, Study Committee meeting, the group voted unanimously to change the NCD name to the Pierce-Lockwood NCD. III. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND East Lexington is said to have developed independently from the center of Lexington and displayed its greatest prosperity in the early 19th century when local industry flourished along what would become Massachusetts Avenue. An 1875 map of the area shows that Massachusetts Avenue was originally Main St. in Lexington and the houses on that street in the Lockwood Area 3 were numbered in the 200s. Dairy farms and wheelwrights (men whose occupation was to make and repair wheels and wheeled vehicles, such as carts and wagons) were prominent in the area. There was a high concentration of homes referred to as five-bay-wide (referring to windows across the front), center entrance farm houses with individualized Greek revival doors. It is thought that Eli Robbins built many of these houses for people who worked for him in the 1820s and 1830s. The bulk of these houses are located on the East side of Maple St. on both sides of what we know as Massachusetts Avenue. The Pierce-Lockwood NCD has three homes built around this time period that the neighborhood considers the historical "anchors:" the Pierce-Lockwood House, the Brown-Wheaton House, and the Brigham House. , The Pierce-Lockwood House, 1099 (believed to be #257 originally) Massachusetts Avenue, appears in the Lexington historic survey as a Federal/Greek Revival style home. The Pierce family was the original owner, and the house was one of several built by the Pierce family. Homes on the opposite side of Maple St., along Massachusetts Avenue, and even the current museum land was owned by the Pierce family. Nathaniel Pierce, a dairyman, who with two 4 other local dairymen, was supposedly the first to take milk to Boston in bottles; wooden bottles, but it was progress at the time. The 1899 Lexington-Bedford Directory mentions the Pierce homestead, now being owned by Mr. Rhodes Lockwood, and refers to it as the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Maple St. In the 1902-03 Lexington Directory, Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes Lockwood, Emily Niles, Henrietta N., Marion, and Philip C., a student, are listed as residents. Mr. Rhodes Lockwood is listed as working for the Davidson Rubber Co., 19 Milk St. in Boston. It is actually known that the Rubber Company was owned by a Rhodes Lockwood, having inherited it from an uncle. It was established around 1830 and the company sold items to the government during the Civil War. Rhodes Lockwood was credited with the invention of a process for rubber pencil erasers that kept them supple, and the fountain syringe, which turns out to be the working part of a Waterman fountain pen. They also made things like syringe bulbs and baby bottle nipples. The Sterling Fountain Pen Company was a subsidiary Newspaper articles refer to three generations of Rhodes Lockwood's. By the 1908-1909 Lexington Street Directory, the Lockwood name disappears. It is known that Rhodes Lockwood was killed in an automobile accident. That may have precipitated a move by the family. There was a "taking" of land by the Town for the "relocation of Maple St." registered in 1922. It is believed that the owner of the house at the time, Lilly St. Agnan Huntington, eventually sold the corner of the homestead to Robert J. Fawcett and Fred K. Moulton, July 2, 1924, for the purpose of building a "filling station." It is stated in historical records that the land was sold the day before a new zoning law went into effect preserving the land for residential use. The current owner of the house states that the agreement regarding the land requires the selling of gasoline or the land reverts to residential. It is believed that the farm house was moved further back from the street when the land was sold, although at least one historian believes that the house was moved in the late 1800s instead of as late as 1922. The sale of the land left ten feet of property with Mass. Ave. frontage and one hundred feet of frontage on Maple St. The current owner obtained permission from the Historic Districts Commission to remove the porch, which appears in some pictures, on the Mass. Ave. side of the house and return it to, what they believed, was the original five-bay-wide colonial. There is a history of two barns, horse stables on both Maple St. and Mass. Ave., and a private family cemetery on the property at one time. It is land from this Pierce-Lockwood Estate that was, in 1910, registered as Lots A and B, the homestead remaining on Lot A, and Lot B eventually being registered in 1928 as the subdivision that makes up the bulk of the proposed Pierce-Lockwood NCD. The neighborhood was told by an elderly neighbor that the names of the streets were the names of the two sons, Byron and Rhodes, and Lockwood was the family name.

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