A House’s Story

Everyone’s house has a story to tell. 
 
Maybe your house was built two hundred years ago and has a fascinating history and a rich story of its inhabitants before you.  Maybe it stood during the Revolutionary War or was home to a historically significant figure. 
 
Maybe your house was built during the 1950s.  Maybe it was built by a well-known mid-century modern architect in one of Lexington’s architecturally significant planned communities.
 
Or maybe you designed your house yourself only a few years ago.  You carefully considered the exact layout and design that would be best for you and researched and installed all the amenities that you found important.  Yours is the first and only family to have inhabited it, and you are the very beginning of its story. 
 
Regardless of the age of your house, that house is your home.  Whether you know a lot about the history of your house, or whether you know nothing and would like to learn more, your home has its own unique story that it is waiting to tell you.
 
Many people are fascinated with learning the story that their home has to tell.  What has their home seen over the years?  How has it changed since its original construction?  Who else lived there, and who else made it their home, too?  There are a lot of resources that you can use to learn more about your home in Lexington.
 
In Lexington Historical Society Archives, the most common research requests we get are concerning the history of specific homes and buildings in town.  We have realized that people love to know about where they live!  To that end, we have been working in the archives to get our Properties and Landmarks Collection online so that this collection, and others, can be available to the public.  Individuals can now search this collection for their address to see any information or photographs that we might have on their home.  Don’t forget, though – if your search doesn’t yield any results for your address, that doesn’t mean that we don’t have any information!  This is an extensive collection, and while we are doing our best to make it available online in its entirety as quickly as possible, we aren’t there yet!  So, if you don’t see any information on your address, be in touch and we will see what we can find for you.
 
The Society isn’t the only resource available to those in Lexington, though.  You can also find more information on your house at the Town of Lexington Archives, Cary Memorial Library, and by browsing the Historical Commission’s Cultural Resources Survey, where you can find information on the architectural and historical importance of specific Lexington houses and neighborhoods.
 
If you are interested in learning more about all of these resources available in Lexington, consider attending the panel discussion “Discover Your Home’s History” on Saturday, September 22, 2018 at 9:30am at Cary Memorial Library, where representatives from all of the above organizations will be participating as panel members!
 
And always remember – your house is your home.  And you are now part of its story and history.


-Elizabeth Mubarek, Archives Manager