Unique Homes MA
Peacock Farm
Walter Pierce's first modernist development, on Peacock Farm Road.
Peacock Farm was architect Walter Pierce’s first modernist development, laid out beginning in 1952 along Peacock Farm Road in Lexington. The 33 split-level contemporary homes share a tight design vocabulary: low-pitched roofs, walls of glazing facing private rear yards, integrated carports, and tongue-and-groove cedar siding. The plan established the Compass Homes prototype Pierce would later scale at Turning Mill.
Pierce worked with developer Danforth W. Compton to subdivide a former poultry farm into curvilinear lots that respected the topography and stands of pine. Setback covenants and architectural review provisions in the original deeds have kept the streetscape intact, since alterations require neighborhood association sign-off. That is one reason the enclave still reads as a coherent 1950s ensemble rather than a mosaic of teardowns.
The Peacock Farm Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010, the same year as Five Fields, in recognition of its role as one of the earliest builder-developer Mid-Century Modern subdivisions in New England. The Peacock Farm Association maintains common land and the original community pool.
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