Juneteenth films and online exhibit In honor of Juneteenth and its history, the Lincoln Public Library is offering two films and an online special display about the new state and federal holiday. Online Special Displays will be an ongoing project to highlight the library’s collection and various websites that patrons may find informative, as well…
history
Roots of Modern architecture run through Lincoln
Editor’s note: Dana Robbat is a founding member and current president of the Friends of Modern Architecture in Lincoln. She provided this summary of her June 12, 2012 talk titled “As the Twig is Bent, So Goes the Tree… A Shared Philosophy: New England Transcendentalism and European Modernism,” which highlighted the age-old social ideals of…
Lincoln to mark Juneteenth with ringing of bells, author talk
This Saturday, Lincoln will officially recognize Juneteenth, the annual occasion celebrating the end of slavery in the United States. Federal troops arrived in Texas on June 19, 1865 to announce the end of the Civil War and slavery, and that day is now a state holiday in 45 states including Massachusetts. The Bemis Lecture Series…
Lincoln’s efforts to thwart cut-through traffic go way back
By Kerry Glass One way to keep out traffic: Don’t tell travelers where the roads are. For the first 75 years after Lincoln was founded, the town felt no need for an official road map. The roads ran where Lincoln residents needed them, and new roads were created and old ones were closed by debate…
Happy 267th birthday to Lincoln!
By Sara Mattes Did you know… that the Lincoln has been known as “Nip Town” and its birth came only after 20 years of hard labor? Now it’s just celebrated its 267th anniversary as a town. What we now know as Lincoln was formed from parts of Lexington, Weston, and Concord, all nipped off to…
What’s in a name? A Lincoln school history primer
By Don Hafner The names of Lincoln’s schools are not what you probably think. The Lincoln school buildings — Smith, Hartwell, and Brooks — are named after Lincoln’s Revolutionary War soldiers, right? William Smith, captain of the Lincoln Minute Men. Samuel Hartwell, sergeant in the Minute Men. Eleazer Brooks, colonel in the Massachusetts Provincial Army….
Lincoln’s utopian neighborhood
By Don Hafner (Editor’s note: Brown’s Wood was designated as Lincoln’s newest Historic District in 2018 to recognize its many examples of Modern architecture.) Did you know… that Lincoln has a neighborhood originally built as a utopian vision? That neighborhood is Brown’s Wood, built on a woodlot once owned by Deacon Benjamin Brown (1681-1753). Brown’s…
Recalling Lincoln’s “Fertile Valley” era
By Craig Donaldson, Lincoln Historical Society (Editor’s note: this piece was first published in LincolnTalk in December 2020 and is republished here as part of the “Lincoln’s History” series.) Did you know there’s a Lincoln neighborhood known as “Fertile Valley”? You won’t find Fertile Valley marked on a map, but you can walk its borders…
Repaving and more are planned for Route 2A
Plans are being finalized for repaving and making other improvements to Route 2A between I-95 on Lexington and Crosby’s Corner in Concord, but work won’t start for another 18 months or so. Meanwhile, Minute Man National Historical Park (MMNHP) is also looking into a bus shuttle service serving the three towns. The Massachusetts Department of…
Lincoln’s new Americans in 1920
By Donald L. Hafner Imagine doing your errands on a Saturday in 1920, at the bustling center of business in South Lincoln near the railroad station. Perhaps you brought a tool to be mended at the blacksmith shop of Daniel MacAskill, an immigrant from Nova Scotia. Ahead of you in line, picking up an iron…