Woods End Road Historic District
The pin is a point inside the NPS boundary polygon, not a surveyed location.
Why it's listed
Woods End Road is a small enclave of seventeen acres in Lincoln, Massachusetts, set in the remains of an apple and cherry orchard between a low hill and a ledge. Its cul-de-sac was laid out in 1938, and five houses with two garages were built there in 1938 and 1939. Four houses are two-story International Style designs with flat roofs and vertical board siding: the Gropius, Ford, Breuer and Bogner Houses. The fifth, the Loud House, is a Federal Revival copy of a Cape Cod house designed by Constance Mumford Warren. Gropius and Breuer designed three of the houses shortly after arriving in the United States, and Gropius lived in his own home for thirty-one years. Helen Osborne Storrow funded the development and kept ownership of the properties until her death, and the tenants were largely Harvard professors. The district is notable for its architecture, its relation of buildings to landscape, and its influence on later cooperative communities of architect-designed houses.
Significance in brief: The district contains five architect-designed houses showing different solutions to designing a modern home in the late 1930s, including three of the earliest US houses by Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer, among them Gropius's own home. It was funded by Helen Osborne Storrow and housed a Harvard-centered tenant community that served as a precedent for later cooperative communities. The form cites Criteria B and C and Criteria Consideration G.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 88000956, listed July 8, 1988. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence high).
Key facts
| Address | 68 Baker Bridge Rd., 1, 5, 9, and 10 Woods End Rd., Lincoln |
|---|---|
| County | Middlesex County |
| Listed | July 8, 1988 |
| Reference number | 88000956 |
| Resource type | District |
| Period of significance | 1938-1945 |
| Architect / builder | Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer, Associated Architects; Walter F. Bogner; Constance Mumford Warren; built by Casper Jenney, Jr. (Gropius House) and Langille Brothers of Lincoln (Loud House) |
| Architectural style | International Style; Federal Revival |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Community Planning and Development, Architecture, Social History |
| Level of significance | State, Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | All houses remain occupied; four are private homes and the fifth is maintained as a house museum. |
| Acreage | 17 |
| Coordinates | 42.42690, -71.32778 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
This is a historic district. Buildings within its boundary are either contributing (they add to the district's significance) or non-contributing. Owners of contributing income-producing buildings can claim the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit; homeowners should look at state credits. National Register districts impose no design review by themselves; a local historic district ordinance, if one exists, does (the difference explained).
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 88000956.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q8033261
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.