Turning Mill

Walter Pierce’s largest development holds roughly 150 Compass Homes on Turning Mill Road, Solomon Pierce Road, Moreland Avenue, and surrounding streets in north Lexington. Built out from 1959 to 1963, Turning Mill is the third and largest of Pierce’s Compass Homes subdivisions, following Peacock Farm and the smaller Pierce work near Five Fields.

Pierce and engineer Danforth W. Compton platted the neighborhood around cul-de-sacs that step down a wooded hillside, preserving the oaks and pines rather than clearing for a grid. The houses are variations on four or five Compass Homes plans: Mid-Century Modern split-levels and ranches with tongue-and-groove cedar exteriors, post-and-beam structures, integrated carports, and the wall-of-glass-to-rear-yard orientation Pierce had refined at Peacock Farm. Original deeds carried setback and design-review covenants that the active neighborhood association still administers, so the streetscape reads as a coherent ensemble rather than a patchwork of teardowns.

Turning Mill has not yet been listed on the National Register, but the Turning Mill Neighborhood Association maintains a rich oral and architectural history at Turningmill.org, including original Compass Homes brochures, Pierce’s site plans, and a working architectural-review process for renovations.