Fully Renovated Historic Federalist in Lexington

Coming April 11! Open houses 12 and 13. Times TBC.

Have the best of the old and new in this perfectly proportioned, fully renovated (from studs) Federal Colonial. The “Leonard Proctor/Freeborn Raymond House” is located a very short (.30-mile) distance to the town center, bike path, and conservation. You’ll appreciate the architectural charm without having to sacrifice ceiling height, closet space, or modern flowing living area. Generously sized rooms over three finished floors and plenty of spacious and open transitional spaces, such as the welcoming foyer. Among the four-plus bedrooms and three-and-a-half baths is a luxurious master suite with two walk-in closets. The kitchen flows to a sunroom, which in turn opens to a deck via sliders. The house is filled with natural light. A cozy gas fireplace warms the living room.

Imagine a lifestyle less dependent on a car, heading down the Minuteman Bikeway to dinner at one of the many restaurants in the center, followed by a show at Cary Hall, or grabbing a latte before picking up a book at the library.

History

[Taken from the Massachusetts Historic Commission]

16 Manley Ct. is one of several Federal houses in Lexington that have been moved from Massachusetts Ave. to a new site…. The house was originally on the south side of Massachusetts Ave. in Lexington Center where the [building currently housing the Panera and Love at First Bite restaurants and other retail] located directly opposite what is now Edison Way. Deed research indicates that this house was built in 1832 by a Lexington physician named Leonard Proctor, for in October 31 Proctor bought the lot on which the house was later located and in August 1832 sold half of the house he had erected on the “building lot” he had purchased the year before. The fact that this house was intended to be a double one explains the profile, which is unusually deep for a Federal House. In 1836 Proctor, who then lived in Boston, sold the other half of the house and the two halves continued to be owned separately until 1846. Deeds for this period describe the property line as being along “the back side of the barn,” which was apparently on the east half of the lot, and a “partition” through the house and cellar…. In 1871 the house was acquired by Freeborn Raymond (1812-1903), a Boston businessman who had been a councilman, assessor, school committeeman and commissioner in Boston and who moved to Lexington  in 855 presumably because that year he married Sarah Richardson, the daughter of Aaron Richardson, who owned property on Massachusetts Ave…. After Raymond’s death this house was moved to Manley Ct. sometime between 1906 and 1908, for a 1906 map shows it still on its original site on Massachusetts Ave. but a 1908 map shows it no longer there. [Edwin B.] Worthen describes it about 1941 as a double house but it is now a single house.