Only 12 miles northwest of Boston, Lincoln Massachusetts is a truly unique place to live, offering the rural charm of a New England farming community and the sophistication of a well-to-do commuter town.
Lincoln's winding roads pass by unspoiled woods and fields which have been farmed for many generations, a true bog and groves of hemlock, pine and hardwoods. Stone walls, historic barns and farmhouses mix in a harmonious way with a wide variety of residential homes.
Lincoln is first of all a New England town. Only recently, by accident of geography and economics has it become a suburb of Boston. Like its more famous neighbor, Concord, it grew up as a farming community. Comprised of parts nipped from three adjacent towns, Concord, Weston and Lexington, it was sometimes referred to as "Niptown." Due to their "difficultiesand inconveniences by reason of their distance from the places of Public Worship in their respective Towns," local inhabitants petitioned the General Court to be set apart as a separate town.
With the assistance of Chambers Russell, the most distinguished citizen of the community and a Representative in the Court in Boston, the town was incorporated in 1754. In gratitude, Russell was asked to name the new town. He chose Lincoln, after his family home in Lincolnshire, England. His homestead in Lincoln was the property we now call Codman House, which was occupied after his death by his relatives, the Codman family.
In 1773 Town Meeting voted that "we will hold and esteem all such as do use such tea as enemies of their country and will treat them with the greatest neglect." On the night of April 18, 1775, Paul Revere was captured by a British patrol in Lincoln on the Bay Road (now North Great Road).
The Lincoln company was the first from any of the neighboring towns to reach Concord when the fighting started the next day. After the battle at the North Bridge, as the British retreated toward Boston, a small engagement occurred at the junction of Old Bedford Road and Virginia Road. This site was known as the Bloody Angle. Eight British soldiers were killed, five of whom are buried in the "Precinct burying ground," part of the Town Cemetery on Lexington Road
At Town Meeting on May 20, 1776, a motion to support independence was "past in the negative." However, on June 24, 1776, the Town voted favorably on the same article that "should the Honorable Congress for the safety of the United American Colonies declare them independent of Great Britain, we the inhabitants of said town will solemnly engage with our lives and fortunes to support them in the measure.
The Town Hall, now called the Old Town Hall, was built in the 1840s. The railroad came through in 1844. It was not until after the Civil War that the population showed any increase. During the latter half of the 19th century the town received two public buildings. George Tarbell gave the library which was dedicated in 1884, and George Bemis contributed generously to the Town Hall dedicated in 1892, which is now known as Bemis Hall (above)
Lincoln's population reached 1,000 in 1900. Always considered "well-watered," it became increasingly popular for sites for country estates and summer places. Among the estate owners were: Louise Hathaway, who built Drumlin Farm and whose estate now houses the headquarters of the Massachusetts Audubon Society; James Storrow, financier of railroads and automobiles and whose mansion now houses the Carroll School; John Pierce, who bequeathed the Pierce House to the town; and Julian DeCordova, whose property now houses the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park.
The town's rural origin has direct bearing on the appearance of Lincoln today. Because the new village was established in the outlying districts of its three parent towns, there is no closely built-up center; broad fields surround the central five corners and run up the slopes of Lincoln Hill.
There were farms: cider, fruit and vegetables were sent to the Boston market. Herds of milk cows existed until the very recent past. Though the farms have largely disappeared, we still have open meadows, undrained swamps and bogs, unpolluted ponds, and a few bits of forest. Despite the increasing population and our closeness to the city, Lincoln remains one of the last green islands in an encroaching sea of urban development.
Lincoln residents are committed to a high standard of education and to the preservation of agricultural land and open spaces.
