Lincoln Historic District By-Law and the 2018 Modern House Initiative

Lincoln voted to adopt its Historic District By-Law in accordance with the Massachusetts Historic Districts Act on March 28, 1981. Through the By-law, the Historic District is “intended to preserve and protect as a permanent legacy the significant historical areas and distinctive architectural characteristics of the Town of Lincoln in their settings.” The Lincoln Historic District Commission provides oversight of houses in the District on behalf of owners and the Town of Lincoln consistent with Town’s applicable Zoning By-Laws.

In 2018, The Friends of Modern Architecture/Lincoln partnered with the Lincoln Historic District Commission to increase the number of Modern houses in the Historic District to better reflect the Town’s significant Modern legacy as seen in over 300 Modern houses and buildings. Through this effort, the owners of twenty-eight houses joined the Historic District, eleven of them within a newly designated historic district in the Brown’s Wood neighborhood of Lincoln.

Before the Town Meeting vote of 2018, the Lincoln Historic District consisted of 73 properties located in four areas:

  • Lincoln Center—62 properties
  • Woods End, off of Baker Bridge Road—5 properties
  • Codman Estate and Farm—4 properties
  • Cory-Brown-Hunt Houses, Conant Road—2 properties

For more information please consult the website of Lincoln Historic District Commission which can be found here.

 

Modern houses within the District prior to the 2018 Initiative

Seven Modern houses were originally included in the Lincoln Historic District including seminal properties in the Woods End Road neighborhood designed by world-renowned Modern architects Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer and colleague Walter Bogner. Two others are within the Lincoln Center district.        

Gropius urn 3 HUAM INV202120 dynmc 300 x 200 Gropius back urn 3 HUAM DDC109592 dynmc 300 x 200
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
DESIGNED BY BAUHAUS FOUNDER AND PROFESSOR OF HARVARD SCHOOL OF GRADUATE DESIGN, ARCHITECT WALTER GROPIUS FOR HIS FAMILY IN 1938 IS NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK.    
                                         
Breuer urn 3 HUAM INV202143 dynmc 300 x 200
HOLLIS Breuer Interiors 300 x 200
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
DESIGNED BY BAUHAUS STUDENT AND FACULTY MEMBER, HARVARD PROFESSOR, ARCHITECT, AND FURNITURE DESIGNER MARCEL BREUER FOR HIMSELF in 1939 AND TO DEMONSTRATE TO STUDENTS AND THE PUBLIC HOW EUROPEAN MODERN ARCHITECTURAL LANGUAGE COULD BE ADAPTED TO NEW ENGLAND VERNACULAR.

 

bogner exterior ezra stoller 300 x 200 bogner interior ezra stoller 300 x 200

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 THE 1939 BOGNER HOUSE WAS DESIGNED BY HARVARD PROFESSOR AND ARCHITECT WALTER BOGNER FOR HIS FAMILY AND TO DEMONSTRATE THE ECONOMY AND EFFICIENCY OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE.

 

Ford urn 3 HUAM DDC109681 dynmc 300 x 200 Ford side urn 3 HUAM DDC109680 dynmc 300 x 200

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 THE 1939 FORD HOUSE WAS DESIGNED BY WALTER GROPIUS AND MARCEL BREUER FOR HARVARD PROFESSOR, SOCIOLOGIST, AND HOUSING SPECIALIST JAMES FORD AND HIS SPOUSE, HOUSING AND ARCHITECTURE SPECIALIST KATHERINE MORROW FORD.

 

Heck House Chap. 5 Fig. 5.9 300 x 200

THE 1948 HECK HOUSE WAS A REDESIGN OF A VICTORIAN ERA HOUSE BY HENRY HOOVER FOR THE STANLEY HECK FAMILY.

parish house 300 x 200

THE 1958 FIRST PARISH LINCOLN PARSONAGE WAS DESIGNED BY HENRY HOOVER.


talcot m banks house 300 x 200

 THE 1978 TALCOTT M. BANKS HOUSE UTILIZED THE DECK HOUSE COMPANY MODULAR SYSTEMS.

 

Twenty-eight non-contiguous houses added in 2018:

1937 Hoover house, Henry B. Hoover
1937 Rodiman house, Cyrus Murphy
1940 Gaskill house, Quincy Adams
1941 Booth house, Quincy Adams
1941 Cole house, Carl Koch
1947 DeNormandie house, Henry B. Hoover
1948 Comey house, Henry B. Hoover
1950 Abbott house, Lawrence Anderson
1950 Anderson house, Lawrence Anderson 
1959 Thompson house, Robert Woods Kennedy
1961 Maclaurin house, Henry B. Hoover
1962 Navon house, Deck house
1963 Flansburgh house, Earl Flansburgh
1964 Taylor/Lerman, Deck house
1965 Tinder house, Deck house
1968 Haggerty house, Deck house
1969 Wengren house, Constantin Pertzoff

2015 Gaskell House 300 x 200

 

 

 

 

 

 

1940 Gaskill House, Quincy Adams

 

Brown’s Wood Historic District:

1956 Freeman house, Arthur H. Brooks, Jr. 
1956 Gras house, Ranulf and Ann Gras
1956 Freud-Lowenstein house, Arthur H. Brooks, Jr.
1956 Morgan house, Walter Krokyn and Associates
1956 Polumbaum house, Nyna Polumbaum
1956 Swanson house, Compton and Pierce
1956 Eckhardt, Ron Gourley
1957 Allen house, Compton and Pierce
1957 Harris house, Compton and Pierce
1957 Hill house, Compton and Pierce
1959 Rawson house, Henry B. Hoover (1902-1989), Hoover and Hill Associates
1959 Wales house, Henry B. Hoover (1902-1989), Hoover and Hill Associates
1960 Balser house, Paterson

 Gras house 300 x 200
1956 Gras House, Ranulf and Ann Gras
CONTINUE HERE TO VIEW IMAGES OF THE HOUSES >>
 
Photo credits: Gropius House and Breuer House, Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum; 
Bogner House, Location: Lincoln MA ©Ezra Stoller / Esto; Gaskill House and Gras House, Richard Mandelkorn.