Lexington Historical Commission Approves Trotting Horse Drive Addition Unanimously

LEXINGTON -- March 18, 2026, Lexington Historical Commission approves Peacock Farm addition and debates urgent historic school documentation. The commission voted unanimously Wednesday to approve a partial demolition and addition at 4 Trotting Horse Drive, confirming vertical one-by-three V-groove clear cedar siding and updated window proportions after contractor Chris Chancey presented revised plans eliminating exposed concrete on the garage elevation. The bulk of the 740th meeting focused on a push to add five public schools, Diamond, Clark, Fisk, Harrington, and Parker, to the historic inventory before two of them disappear entirely; commissioner Marilyn Fenollosa said "the bulldozers are parked outside" Harrington. Commissioner Susan Szenasy volunteered to draft contextual language grouping schools by architectural era, noting probable Willard Brown designs in the early-twentieth-century building campaign. Chair Robert Rotberg also warned that the commission's demolition delay conditions at Merritt Road, expiring September 19, remain in force despite a Zoning Board of Appeals approval that incorporated none of the commission's requirements.