Peacock Farm is a residential neighborhood and historic district of mid-century modern houses in

Lexington, Massachusetts Lexington is a suburban town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is 10 miles (16 km) from Downtown Boston. The population was 34,454 as of the 2020 census. The area was originally inhabited by Native Americans, and was firs ...

Description

Peacock Farm is a residential neighborhood located in the southeast corner of Lexington,

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. Most houses use a standard split-level plan designed by the architectural firm of Comptom & Pierce and were built between the years of 1953 and 1960. Because of siting on the hilly landscape and use of mirror-imaged versions of the plans, the effect is one of diversity but with a common architectural theme. The neighborhood includes a large tract of community-owned land for active and passive recreation. This was the third planned modernist development to have begun in Lexington, after

Six Moon Hill Six Moon Hill is a residential neighborhood and historic district of mid-century modern houses in Lexington, Massachusetts. Description Incorporated in 1947, the community originally encompassed 28 houses which were built between 1947 and 1953. ...

, and at about the same time as

Five Fields Five Fields is a modernist residential neighborhood in Lexington, Massachusetts developed starting in 1951. It consists of 68 half-acre (0.2 hectare) lots with modernist houses on an 80-acre site designed by The Architects Collaborative (TAC). Pa ...

. The original c.1830 farmhouse and barn still stand and can still be seen today, at the entrance to the modern development. Previous to its purchase for the development, the land had been used for training trotting horses and raising peacocks. The neighborhood was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2012 as the Peacock Farm Historic District.

Background

In 1951, Danforth Compton and Walter Pierce were recent graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's School of Architecture. At MIT they had been influenced by the ideas of William Wurster, Lawrence Anderson, and the houses built in the area around the same time by Carl Koch. MIT, like the

Harvard Graduate School of Design The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is the graduate school of design at Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers master's and doctoral programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urban ...

(led at that time by Walter Gropius), represented the trend in design education away from backwards-looking Beaux Arts, to instead embrace the principles of

Modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

. As explained by Pierce in a 2011 interview, there was an interest in whether through standardization, homes could be built based on contemporary principles at a price young homeowners could afford. The newly-formed Compton & Pierce firm purchased of land that had been a

dairy farm Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a history that ...

in the 19th century, as a place to try out their ideas. By this time, modernist designs for housing were no longer anomalies. The widely-circulated magazine '' Better Homes and Gardens'' featured both modernist and traditional plans which subscribers could order from the magazine. However, modern housing designs were most popular in areas with more cosmopolitan tastes such as the suburbs of New York, Boston, and coastal California.

Architecture

Compton & Pierce designed a single-story house with a raised basement, low-pitch roof, and vertical cedar siding that was available in several sizes. The entry was at mid-level, and the houses incorporated large expanses of glass. The house at 4 Peacock Farm Road was built as a demonstration model late in 1951. Pierce said most traditional architects had found the land undesirable for development: "Much of the land gradient was steep, and much of the site was underlaid with ledge. To our eyes, these were assets that could be worked with. The land formed a natural bowl, shielded from the north by the hill and sloping down to the south and southeast, nice attributes in this northern latitude."

Community and family life

Similar to other modernist communities in Lexington, Peacock Farm attracted young professionals and academics. The neighborhood was organized to function as a community with shared land, bylaws, and architectural restrictions. These restrictions were reaffirmed by membership vote in 2001.

Notable residents

Wesley A. Clark Wesley Allison Clark (April 10, 1927 – February 22, 2016) was an American physicist who is credited for designing the first modern personal computer. He was also a computer designer and the main participant, along with Charles Molnar, in the ...

, American physicist and computer scientist, credited with designing the first modern personal computer *

Gerald Holton Gerald James Holton (born May 23, 1922) is an American physicist, historian of science, and educator, whose professional interests also include philosophy of science and the fostering of careers of young men and women. He is Mallinckrodt Profes ...

, American physicist, historian of science, and educator * Salvator Luria, biologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1969 * Walter Pierce, architect of the development, lived here for 55 years until his death in 2013 *

Oliver Selfridge Oliver Gordon Selfridge (10 May 1926 – 3 December 2008) was a pioneer of artificial intelligence. He has been called the "Father of Machine Perception." Biography Selfridge, born in England, was a grandson of Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founde ...

, computer scientist, pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence *

Jill Stein Jill Ellen Stein (born May 14, 1950) is an American physician, activist, and former political candidate. She was the Green Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2012 and 2016 elections and the Green-Rainbow Party's candidat ...

, the 2012 and 2016

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

nominee for president

References

External links

Historic Survey of Peacock Farm at lexingtonma.govBoston Globe article on Modernist Neighborhoods in MassachusettsModernMass.com – A brief history of modernist neighborhoods and houses in Lexington and Boston's western suburbs
Historic districts in Middlesex County, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Modernist architecture in Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Lexington, Massachusetts Houses in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts {{MiddlesexCountyMA-NRHP-stub