The earliest known occupant of this Lexington, Mass., house was the Reverend Henry Westcott, who was the minister at the Lexington Unitarian Church from 1867-1881.

Rev. Carlton A. Staples assumed Westcott’s job and bought his old house in 1881, after Westcott and his family moved to Malden.

Staples lived there into the early part of the century, before it changed hands to professor Hollis Webster and his wife, Helen Noyes Webster. Hollis was a Greek and Latin scholar, while Helen was a nationally-recognized authority on herbs and herbal medicine.