When you think of Boston home architecture, federal-style homes and saltboxes come to mind before modern ranch-style houses. But if you've ever driven through the back roads of Lexington you'll have caught glimpses of many of these modern homes in woody, tucked-away neighborhoods. The weekend before last, Lexington's Historical Society sponsored a tour of mid-century built houses in three modern 1950's Lexington neighborhoods: Moon Hill, Peacock Farms and Five Fields. We tagged along with our friend Karen and were able to see the grounds and insides of some amazing homes. Click after the jump to see some more things we discovered about these neighborhoods.
According to the booklet handed out in the tour, Lexington has nine distinct neighborhoods of modern architecture, more than any town in the country. A group of architects called the Architects Collaborative, which included Walter Gropius (whose home Wes and Kayle blogged about here), were among the architects for these 'hoods in the late 1940's to early 1950's. The idea for designing these neighborhoods was not only to build inexpensive houses (then in the $20,000 range), but also to create more social neighborhoods and a strong community.
The architects fostered community spirit by including commonly-owned areas such as neighborhood swimming pools, and by prohibiting fences along property lines (which also contributes to the sense of openness). The neighborhoods were and still are very close-knit. In Peacock Hill an amazing 23% of the original homeowners still live in their houses.
The houses aren't huge, they're actually fairly modest (even though most have been expanded from the original). They're designed oriented toward the sun, with large areas of glass, very minimal trim and sided with thin vertical boards. Most have flat roofs; they all have strong horizontal lines and open floor plans.
We found out after we took this photo that we weren't really allowed to take pictures inside, but many of the homes have modern furniture either original to the houses or in the same period. We saw some low platform beds, day beds, eames and knoll furniture and lamps with beautiful ceramic bases. But we also saw an equal amount of simple, well-designed furniture that looked especially designed for the spaces. What stood out was beautiful quality furnishings that have withstood the years and didn't look like they had been updated every few years because of a trend.
While we went in expected to be impressed by these well-designed mid-century modern houses (which we were!), we left equally impressed with the homeowners devotion to their neighborhoods and the strong community created by these well-planned and respectfully designed homes.
>>>Lexington Historical Society's website
Who knew?
view threadbare's profile
my good friend used to live in one of these houses and it was really cool. the kitchens had the rubber flooring with the dots which at that time was really revolutionary. they also have a community pool and soccer field for everyone in the development to share.
though the residents probably complained about the flat roofs with the new england winters
view debbieeastbay's profile
Wow!
view visualingual's profile
"though the residents probably complained about the flat roofs with the new england winters"
What's to complain about?
As long as the roof is strong enough to support the snow load, there's no issue - and the snow actually becomes a layer of insulation on the roof.
view bepsf's profile
Did I miss where our Boston contributors let us know AHEAD of time that this tour was happening, as is often seen in LA and NY threads? I would have loved to have gone...
view lovemcm's profile
Aww now I'm a bit homesick. I grew up in Lexington, and some of my high school friends lived in houses that looked like these...
view fjorlief's profile
Has a real nostalgic feel to it.
view anabelle's profile
bepsf - i have a flat roof (which i LOVE, don't get me wrong) and once we've had even a mild thaw and the snow turns to ice, you end up with these really loud cracks and pops caused by the ice shifting. i don't know if it results in any structural damage (i hope not!) but it definitely takes some getting used to. you can avoid it by sweeping the snow off your roof before it turns to ice, which i'll probably try this year.
also, those homes are AMAZING. my only concern would be the no-fence rule. what about dog owners?
view muro.lamere's profile
Flat roofs look cool but they do tend to wear out faster, because of standing water from rain or melting ice and snow that doesn't run off as quickly as on a steeply pitched roof. It does involve more work, but so does plaster and wood, versus brick and wood.
I second the "hearing about this event BEFORE it happened would have been nice" comments.
view gquaker's profile
Again, I'm so excited that Apartment Therapy is in Boston! I'm a local real estate agent in the area and I love showing these homes. I had a client last spring looking in these areas as well as the surrounding towns and we had so much fun because they are my dream homes!!
No two are alike, some are updated so are not. But what is so special is that it always feels like the home was built for the land that it sits on. Very nice! Thanks for the post, but I wish I new about the tour as well.
view kellye's profile
I grew up in Lexington and had a number of friends who grew up in these neighborhoods (and most of the neighborhoods all have a community pool - jealous!) I went on this tour and it was great. The Lexington Historical Society does these types of tours every year (or every other year - something like that). A few years ago they did a tour of all the historical colonials located in the town center.
What was great about this tour is that a lot of the original owners are still around and stopped by to tell the historical society what was original, what wasn't and where they bought many of the light fixtures and bookshelfs that still reside in the homes!
view Katilm81's profile
Hi everyone, Jeanine here- I soooo wish I would have known about this earlier, I would have LOVED to have blogged about it in advance. I only heard about it Sunday morning and literally flew out the door with wet hair and a precariously charged camera battery to buy a ticket. The historical society lady said that this was their first modern tour and was so popular that they will look into doing another one soon (we know how to look out for it now). One of the homeowners I met is going to let us do a house tour and their house is incredible!
view j9brennan's profile
It's funny- I grew up around the corner from Five Fields, and I was a member of the community pool there as a kid. The original houses there were designed to be be inexpensive, and as a result, many of the houses have been gutted/reworked over the years. The good news is that a lot of the new houses keep some of the same design ideas, the bad news is some of the new houses are approaching McMansions- and that's a shame.
There also used to be couple of Deck houses around the corner from there, though one has been knocked down and replaced...
view nothingfuture's profile