Lincoln Center Historic District

Lincoln Center is a 161-acre village core at the geographic center of Lincoln, Massachusetts, about 15 miles west of Boston. Six roads radiate from a central watering trough, lined with 59 buildings that are almost all residential, along with two churches, a library, two town halls, a school, a town common and two burying grounds. Stone walls, hedges, orchards, hay fields and large house lots preserve a rural feel. The buildings trace local history from the Georgian Brown-Russell-Chapin House of 1734-1754 through Federal homes such as the Samuel Hoar House, Greek Revival houses and the 1848 Old Town Hall, to Victorian Romanesque landmarks like the 1883-1884 library and 1891 Stone Church, and Colonial Revival estates. The district was listed because it shows the growth of Lincoln's center from early 18th century settlement into a well-to-do suburban enclave while keeping its village scale and open land.