Lewis Street Historic Area, Lincoln, Massachusetts

LEWIS STREET HISTORIC AREA

Prepared for theLINCOLN HISTORICAL COMMISSION & MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION

[email protected]

2012

Lewis Street Area

Location: Between Lewis Street and the railroad in Lincoln, Massachusetts

Period of Development: 1869-present

Period of Construction Represented: 1870-1920

Significance: Architecture; Commerce; Community Planning; Industry

Massachusetts Historical Commission: For guidance on the use of these filesas well as access to additional files on historic properties in Lincoln andMassachusetts–including more detailed individual inventory forms on each of thebuildings located within the Lewis Street Area–go to: http://mhc-macris.net/

“It Began With a Pickle” Video: For a related video of a 2011 presentationby Jack MacLean on the development of Lincoln’s commercial area, go to:http://lincolntv.pegcentral.com/player.php?video=dd90a84d143a901ee635b4a1bb65cdc5

Lewis Street and Lewis Pickle Factory (1870)

LEWIS STREET HISTORIC AREA: INVENTORY FORM A

Lincoln, Massachusetts

http://lincolntv.pegcentral.com/player.php?video=dd90a84d143a901ee635b4a1bb65cdc5

Follow Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.

FORM A - AREA

MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSIONMASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARDBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125

PhotographLewis Street looking towards Lincoln Road, Pickle

Factory in foreground & gambrel Blodgett-Rooney

Assessor’s Sheets USGS Quad Area Letter Form Numbers in Area

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Town: Lincoln

Place (neighborhood or village):South Lincoln/Lincoln Station village

Name of Area: Lewis Street

Present Use: residential/commercial

Construction Dates or Period: 1870-1920

Overall Condition: good

Major Intrusions and Alterations:Front entrance to Wyman-Cook House altered;

some aluminum/vinyl siding use; parking lots addedAcreage: 1.55 acres

Recorded by: John C. MacLean

Organization: Lincoln Historical Commission

Date (month/year): August 2008

Topographic or Assessor's Map _X__ see continuation sheet

INVENTORY FORM A CONTINUATION SHEET LINCOLN LEWIS STREET AREA

MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area Letter Form Nos.220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125

Continuation sheet 1

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_X__ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.If checked, you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.

Use as much space as necessary to complete the following entries, allowing text to flow onto additional continuation sheets.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTIONDescribe architectural, structural and landscape features and evaluate in terms of other areas within the community.

The Lewis Street area is bounded towards the west (actually northwest) by Lincoln Road, the town’s main street, towards thesouth (southwest) by a side road known as Lewis Street, and on the north (northeast) by the railroad tracks that served as animpetus for the development of this area. Developing from the beginning of construction on Lewis Street in 1869-70, the SouthLincoln village (later also known as Lincoln Station) is today Lincoln’s main commercial village, having a mix of commercial andresidential buildings as well as a church. With this commercial development around the railroad tracks, the town’s other village,Lincoln Center (Lincoln Center National Historic District—the town’s original village dating to the eighteenth-century) hasremained primarily residential, mixed with church and town public buildings, giving the two villages distinct characteristics. Boththe mix of commercial and residential buildings found along Lewis Street and the concentration of historic buildings within asmall acreage in this Area are atypical for the Town of Lincoln, historically an agricultural community and today a rural suburbwhich has 80,000 sq. ft. zoning for lots.

Closest to Lincoln Road is the Second Empire 1870 Wyman-Cook House (LIN.279), which may have partly been inspired by theprominent Second Empire George Grosvenor Tarbell House (LIN.77) built the previous year in the Lincoln Center village. Thefront of the Wyman-Cook House faced a newly created private road (Lewis Street) that served the adjoining pickle factories,rather than the main road (Lincoln Road); this alignment and a drop in the landscape also provided at grade access off of themain road to basement-level retail space. Visually two stories plus an additional story within the mansard roof, the square houseextends up an additional floor on its north and west elevations, where the basement is at grade level. Off of the mansard-roofedmain section of the house there is an extension with flat roof on the east façade that appears to have been part of the originalconstruction and an added one-story brick extension of the basement area on the north side which also has a flat roof. Theconcave mansard roof is broken by two window gables on all four sides, each set inside the outer windows on the floor below.The scalloped slate roof is decoratively laid with slate courses in alternating colors; above, the center roof is broken by a singlechimney towards the north side of the house that is not visible from the symmetrical front façade. The original front façade hasbeen altered by the addition of a central two-story entranceway with a shed roof, and the building is now clad in aluminum siding.

To its east on Lewis Street is the 1919 Doherty & Corrigan Garage. With its original garage bays enclosed in the mid-1980s, itbecame an example of adaptive reuse as the building was converted for offices, with new windows, and with applied awningtreatments at the Lewis Street and track entrances. The building is built of brick, with a cement block addition on the west façade. Ithas a flat roof that is fronted on both the Lewis Street and track elevations with the original stepped brick storefront treatments.Its front façade facing Lewis Street is one story high, while the north elevation facing the railroad tracks is below a ridge and istwo stories in height.

The next building to the east on Lewis Street is the two-family 1884 Cook Brothers House (LIN.278), which is related to theWyman-Cook House as the two brothers who had this house built had been living in the Wyman-Cook House prior to 1884, andthey ran the store there. Looking up Lewis Street from the main road and the Wyman-Cook House, at the time of constructionthere was an open view to the gabled end of the Cook Brothers House, and visually the roof form and outward flare of its Dutchgambrel revival roof would have complemented the concave mansard roof lines of the Wyman-Cook House. The reverse-L-shaped house is sited close to Lewis Street. The symmetrical front elevation faces towards the south, with the main housegenerally running in a west to east direction, with side-facing Dutch gambrel ends. The main part of the house has a nearlycomplete second story within the steep gambrel roof, with a one-story ell on the rear. There are two interior chimneys, servingeach of the units, both sited just on the north side of the central ridge of the roof. On the front façade, the steep gambrel roof isbroken by three projecting two-over-two windows surmounted by shed roofs. The lower part of the roof flares out, having a welldefined return on the sides. The flare of the roof provides greater space on the first floor than on the second floor. On the front,




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central doors are surrounded by added projecting bays on both sides, and across the bays and over the doorways a lower roofextends down from the main gambrel roof. Each bay is fronted by a pair of two-over-two windows, with one-over-one windowson the sides of the bays. The side elevation has two two-over-two windows within the gambrel gable, symmetrically placedabove similar windows on the first floor.

Next to it is the extended 1870 Lewis Pickle Factory (LIN.276), which has a two-unit tenement on its south side, close to LewisStreet. This elongated Victorian Eclectic commercial building runs perpendicular to the railroad tracks and Lewis Street, with a2½ -story tenement at its southern, Lewis Street, end. A gabled roof runs north to south along its entire length, broken on thewest side by a protruding gabled extension above the tenement. It retains a slate roof over the pickle factory proper, but most ofthe roof above the tenement/apartment section is now asphalt shingled. The gabled south façade of the tenement, fronting onLewis Street, is sided in wooden shingles, with partly asymmetrical fenestration of one-over-one windows on the first floor andtwo-over-two windows on the second floor. There is a set of three one-over-one windows in the attic, with the center windowlarger than the two side windows. The entrances for the tenement section and for the factory section are on the west façade.Here, the tenement’s protruding 2½ -story gabled side-hall section is clad in clapboards rather than shingles. The gabled sectionhas a center window in the attic, three equally spaced windows on the second story, and spaced below them are two windowsand a doorway, the doorway set to the left (north). The tenement fenestration follows that of the south façade, with one-over-onewindows on the first story and two-over-two windows in the second story and attic. The doorway is fronted by a gabled porch withsimple bracketed posts, as well as lattice work on the north side of the entry porch. To the north of the tenement, the west façadeof the factory section is also clad in clapboards. Extending out from near the center of the factory section is a one-story hip-roofed enclosed entrance. A garage bay is located to the south of the protruding entryway, and two garage bays are to its north.

The next building east on Lewis Street is the two-unit 1912 Blodgett-Rooney House (LIN.287). Originally situated on a narrowlot and sited close to the pickle factory to its west, the gambrel-roofed house runs lengthwise from north to south, with entrancesfor each of the units on both the east and west elevations. On the symmetrical east elevation, probably originally designed asthe front, a pair of extended shed dormers, each containing four windows, project out from the lower section of the gambrel roof.Similar banks of four windows are found on the first story below each of these. Unadorned entrance doors for the units areplaced near the north and south ends of the east façade; these are each fronted by recent balconied decks with latticeworkbelow.

HISTORICAL NARRATIVEExplain historical development of the area. Discuss how this relates to the historical development of the community.

The transformative power of the coming of the railroad is part of the history and lore of America. In 1844 one of those rail lines,the Fitchburg Railroad, came to Lincoln—initially linking the town with Charlestown, with separate transportation going fromCharlestown across the Charles River to Boston. In 1848 the eastern terminus of the line was extend directly into Boston, whilethe railroad had extended west to Fitchburg by 1846, with lines continuing along northern Massachusetts and into NewHampshire and Vermont by 1850. For agricultural Lincoln, the railroad would bring a new means of transport for wood and someagricultural products to the Boston market; in time, it would bring some Boston businessmen to the town, and the developmentof country estates in the community. It also brought an end to the stagecoaches that had traveled through the town, and itchanged the way mail and various goods came to the community.

At the same time, the railroad station was placed away from the historic center of the town, in an area of open fields with nobuildings around it. A new village ultimately would develop around the railroad depot, and that small village would become thetown’s commercial center. It is, however, perhaps surprising that it was not until 25 years after the railroad came to town that thefirst building was constructed around the Lincoln station. For Lincoln, the coming of the railroad did not result in a correspondingcommercial development; when limited commercial development finally came, it related to the town’s small-town agriculturalcharacter.

Aside from the station facilities north of the tracks, the first building to be constructed in the area of the railroad was the 1869Underwood Pickle Factory (no longer standing), soon followed by the 1870 Lewis Pickle Factory facilities (LIN.276) and the1870 mansard-roofed Second Empire Wyman-Cook House (LIN.278), as well as the Denham-Smith House (no longerstanding), all located on the south side of the tracks, along a private way that would become known as Lewis Street. TheWyman-Cook House across from the railroad station contained a store in the basement, and in 1872 a post office would also




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open there. Other residential buildings would follow, while later commercial activities initially focused on grain from the localfarmers and coal shipped out from Boston.

The pickle factories and the surrounding buildings that followed were located on a parcel acquired by Rufus Wyman in 1867,when he was in his early eighties. A widower, Rufus had moved to Lincoln in 1866, initially living in the brick Adams-TarbellHouse (LIN.32). His 1867 purchase for $400 of 8 ¼ acres on the south side of the railroad tracks and east of Lincoln Road(including the pickle factory site) as well as a larger parcel on the north side of the tracks and east of Lincoln Road (Viles toWyman, Mid. Deeds, 1134:272; the deed gave the larger lot as 19 acres; Lincoln Assessors listed Wyman’s combined holdingshere as 32 acres) would set in motion the development of what would soon become know as the South Lincoln village. A corepart of Lincoln’s history, Wyman and his Smith heirs were the principal early developers of that village.

Rufus had a granddaughter, Elizabeth Mary (Clement) Smith, whose mother had died when Elizabeth was a baby, with herfather soon remarrying. It is likely that Rufus had long cared for his granddaughter, and since her marriage to George H. Smithin 1850, Rufus and the Smiths had been sharing a household. Indeed, while Rufus Wyman was assessed for the pickle factoriesuntil 1873, in 1874 they were under Elizabeth M. Smith, the administrix of his estate, and in a later deed she was referred to as“his grand child and only next of kin” (Mid. Deeds, 1704:279). Given Rufus’s age, it would seem likely that George H. Smith mayhave in fact been behind the construction of the pickle factories. Smith seems to have had an entrepreneurial bent; he was listedin Salem as being involved in a clothing store in the 1850 census; living in Boston as a “marketer” in the 1860 census; while hewas listed in the 1870 census as being 41 years old and a farmer in Lincoln. However, he also appears in the 1870 Boston citydirectory as: “Smith George H. & Co. glass, 41 Kilby, h[ouse]. at Lincoln,” while in the 1872 Boston directory he appears as:“Smith George H. & Co. bankers and brokers, 102 State, h. at Lincoln.” Living in Lincoln but working in Boston, Smith washimself indicative of the changes made possible by the railroad coming to Lincoln a quarter-century earlier.

With his business located on Kilby Street in Boston in 1870, Smith’s place of work was but a little more than a block away fromthe two Boston firms that would rent the Lincoln pickle factories: Wm. Underwood & Co., located at 67 Broad Street; and W. K.Lewis & Brothers, located at 93 Broad Street. Both firms were leaders in the active pickle industry then based in Boston. TheLincoln pickle factories gave Underwood and Lewis a strong local position with the farmers, and the presence of a buyer in theirneighborhood encouraged the local market gardeners to increase their cucumber production. As reported in a history of NewEngland agriculture: “Cucumbers and rhubarb were new Concord [Massachusetts] crops, grown under glass. One farm sold25,000 cucumbers a year, together with two indoor crops of fresh rhubarb. Pickle factories, opened in Cranston, Rhode Island,Lincoln, Massachusetts, and the Deerfield area, together with some in Vermont and New Hampshire, offered an outlet for whatone grower called “as profitable a crop as I ever raised.” (Howard S. Russell. Long, Deep Furrow, p. 450).

William Underwood, who founded Wm. Underwood & Co., started the canning industry in America. After an apprenticeship inthe pickling and preserves industry, Underwood immigrated to New Orleans from England in 1817. He settled in Boston twoyears later, soon starting his trade there, shipping pickles, ketchup, sauces, mustard, jellies, and such around the world. Goodswere hermetically sealed in bottles, but in 1839 Underwood pioneered in the use of tin cans, giving rise to the canning industry.The company also expanded into lobsters, fish, and other canned products, and while pickles were still their biggest product inthe 1870s, in time the company would be remembered most for another of their products: “Underwood Red Deviled Ham,” whichin 1870 became the first U.S. food patent.

William K. Lewis (1808-1885) learned the canning industry while working for Underwood, becoming a partner in that firm in 1833.In 1837 Lewis joined with his immigrant father to establish their own competing business, Wm. and Wm. K. Lewis, whichbecame W. K. Lewis & Brothers after the father died in 1859. The company would soon thrive under the army’s demands forpreserved food supplies during the Civil War, and they remained a profitable operation for many years. Listed in the 1870Boston city directory as producers of “pickles &c.,” like Underwood, the Lewis firm was engaged in bottling and canning anumber of sauces, preserves, canned milk, and other products in addition to producing pickles. Each year, the firm madearrangements with local farmers early in the season. In a printed letter the firm sent out to local farmers, they wrote: “We arenow ready to contract for a supply of Pickles for the coming season. The price will be THIRTEEN CENTS per hundred, delivered atour SALTING HOUSE, LINCOLN DEPOT, payable at the usual time./Please inform us immediately, by mail or otherwise, thequantity you desire to raise, and much oblige/Yours Respectfully/ W. K. LEWIS & BROTHERS./ 93 & 95 Broad St., cor. Franklin”(John C. MacLean collection, quoted in MacLean, A Rich Harvest, p. 519).




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The pickle activities at Lincoln were described in an 1874 Boston newspaper article:The leading industry at the present time is in the line of “pickles” or cucumbers. Messrs. William Underwood & Co. andMessrs. W. K. Lewis & Brothers receive all the cucumbers for their extensive establishments here. The Messrs. Lewishave the largest assortment of canned fruits, vegetables, meats, etc., in New England. Their annual count of picklestaken in at Lincoln is between 5,000,000 and 10,000,000. Each afternoon the teams come in like an Eastern caravan,each with from two to ten barrels. The topic of business conversation does not commence here with the “weather,” butwith “pickles.” It is for these that the rain descends and the sun shines and the gentle west winds blow. Even the stars intheir nightly courses, temporarily removing their watch from human kind, look peacefully down on “pickles.” Price per100, thirteen cents. (“Not Far Away from Boston,” Boston Daily Globe (August 27, 1874, p. 3.)

As prime movers of the development that had taken place around the railroad station, the Wyman-Smith family left behinddevelopments that permanently changed the face of the town. Another 1874 newspaper article had stated:

A Thriving Village.—Among the few New England villages which have experienced a rapid growth of late years is SouthLincoln, on the line of the Fitchburg Railroad. The natural beauties of the place, and the superior railroad facilities, haveattracted the attention of enterprising and wealthy men, and through their instrumentality fine residences and businessblocks have arisen in this heretofore obscure town.…Here are to be found the large pickle establishments of Messrs.Underwood & Co., and W. K. Lewis & Co., stores, shops, and, last but not least, one of the finest railway stations on theline of the road. Near at hand are the fine estates of Ogden Codman, George H. Smith, Howard Snelling andothers….(“South Lincoln,” Boston Daily Globe, April 8, 1874, p. 8.)

The 1869 Underwood Pickle Factory was a single building that ran parallel to the railroad tracks (no longer standing), while theLewis facility consisted of two buildings running perpendicular to the tracks (buildings identified as “Pickle Factories” on the 1875map). The westernmost of these two buildings is the extant Lewis Pickle Factory building, and it was probably the moreimportant of the two (on the 1885 plan, it is the one identified as “Lewis Pickle Factory (so called).” The building to its east mayhave had a tenement at its south end. Later records suggest the factory end was taken down or otherwise removed, with theremaining “house near Pickle Factory” standing until 1912, when it was replaced on that site by the current Blodgett-RooneyHouse (LIN.277), bringing to an end this second Lewis Pickle Factory building.

A central part of a larger 1870’s complex of development around the railroad tracks, the extant Lewis Pickle Factory buildingcontinued to be owned by Elizabeth M. Smith until 1900, when it was sold to Fred E. Cousins (Mid. Deeds, 2803:206). UnderCousins, that year the building was identified in the Assessors’ record as a “Barn & Store.” A couple of years later Cousins mayhave made some improvements, as the assessed value increased some, and it was now listed as a House & Barn.” Born inLincoln in 1864, Cousins had been listed as a grocer in the 1900 census, but the focus of his work would change. Sumner Smithlater recalled: “Fred Cousins and his family occupied one apartment [in the pickle factory] for a time. He ran a coal and grainbusiness from the factory” (Sumner Smith. Smiths of Sandy Pond Road, p. 62), operating as Fred E. Cousins & Co. In 1907 hehad acquired the adjoining 1884 Cook Brothers House, and on its lot he would build a new “grain store” in 1911, having alreadysold the pickle factory. In December of 1910 Mary A. Rooney, wife of Lincoln’s John W. Rooney, a laborer with the Lincolnhighway department, purchased the former pickle factory from Cousins (Mid. Deeds 3593:43), and from 1911 until she died in1920, Mary was assessed for the property, which continued to be listed as a “House and store house” by the Lincoln Assessors.

Leading to controversy in the town, in 1920 her son sold the property to Charles Sumner Smith (John W. Rooney to Smith, Mid.Deeds 4363:442). The Lincoln Selectmen felt that the building would be desirable for use by the town as a town barn, but ratherthan going to the town, Smith, the Chair of the Selectmen, purchased the building, hiring contractor R. D. Donaldson (also aSelectman) to fix up the building. When it was subsequently recommended for purchase by the town, the town decided againstdoing so, but the town ended up renting the facilities as a Town Barn until the late 1940s.

While the pickle factories were the most distinctive part of the Lewis Street development, an important center for the communitywas the 1870 Wyman-Cook House, which contained a store and post office. Wyman and the Smiths presumably moved into thehouse in 1870, taking up residence in the grander Smith-Blodgett House (no longer standing, corner of Lincoln and Codmanroads) the following year. In any event, on May 20, 1871 Rufus Wyman sold the Wyman-Cook House to Elizabeth Cook, wife ofhouse painter Benjamin Cook of East Cambridge, for $9000. The sale was subject to a “lease from myself to A. A. Cook for fiveyears from Dec. 1st 1870” (Mid. Deeds 1160:634). A. A. Cook & Co. included Albert A. Cook and his brother Arthur A. Cook—and




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later brother George F. Cook—the sons of Benjamin and Elizabeth. Albert, whose occupation was listed as “huckster” in the 1870census, when he was living with his parents in Cambridge, was in his early 20s as he took the leap from selling goods on thestreet to operating a store, leasing the basement of Wyman’s house in Lincoln and establishing a store there. Lincoln had earliersupported stores in the south part of town, along South Great Road, but in 1870 the town was served by the store and postoffice operated by James L. Chapin in the center of the community, with delivery wagons from Chapin’s store and from Westonserving many in the community. The young Cooks gambled that Lincoln could support a second store, while the location next tothe railroad station was beneficial for receiving goods to be sold.

In 1872 residents sought to have a second post office in the community, and Albert A. Cook became the postmaster, setting upthe South Lincoln post office in his store. With his mother purchasing the house, it became both a home and business for theCooks. While brother Arthur was also at first involved in the store, he soon went out of the grocery business while brotherGeorge would join in the grocery business. At the time of the 1880 census, Albert and George, both listed as merchants, wereliving in this house along with their mother, their sister Abbie, Albert’s family, and store clerk James “Jimmy” Lahey.

After owner Elizabeth (Slocomb) Cook died in 1886, the property was under her daughter Abbie M. Cook. She would live herefor a few of years and then rented the property. Albert and George, meanwhile, continued a lifetime of close relationships. In1884 Albert and George built a two-family home off of Lewis Street (Cook Brothers House, LIN.278), while in 1890 they acquiredanother house where they and their sister subsequently lived. Meanwhile, as A. A. Cook & Co. and as Cook Brothers, theenterprising brothers would expand their focus from groceries into the grain and coal business. In 1883 they had acquired theformer Underwood Pickle Factory building next door to the Wyman-Cook House (Mid. Deeds 1630:330 and 1630:334), and in1887 they expanded the building to not only use it for storage but also to include a grain elevator for their grain business. Theiroperations were described in December 1887:

The straw grist mill of A. A. Cook & Co. will grind 24 bushels an hour. Last Friday they ground and crushed 50 barrels ofcob corn. Cook brothers claim that corn ground by their roller mill is worth from 5 to 10 cents a hundred more than thatby the old process, as corn ground by burr stones heats and takes more or less (according to the dampness of the corn)of the goodness. Cook Brothers keep a large stock of the best flour, groceries and coal. They have been here about 17years (Concord Freeman, December 23, 1887, p. 1).

On March 23, 1895, that grain and coal building (the Underwood Pickle Factory) was destroyed by fire, leaving just the CookBrothers House on the lot.

By then, the Cook brothers had discontinued their direct involvement in the store, renting it out to partners James B. Butterfieldand Milton S. Glass. Butterfield and Glass evidently lived upstairs in the house when they advertised in 1893: “BUTTERFIELD &GLASS, Meat and Provisions, Groceries Tea, Coffee, Etc. Also a line of Dry Goods. The very best meat is carried on our teams.Opposite the Depot. SOUTH LINCOLN, MASS.” (Lincoln Directory; see in MacLean, Rich Harvest, p. 500). In 1895 Lincolnnative Fred Elmer Cousins and his younger brother, Harold “Harry” Cousins, began their business association here. It wasreported: “Fred Cousins of Waltham opened the store and grain room at South Lincoln on Monday last. Mr. Cousins is assistedby his brother Harry. He will keep grain at Waltham prices and seems determined to succeed in the business” (Waltham DailyFree Press, May 17, 1895, p. 5). While Fred E. Cousins was still listed as a grocer in the 1900 census, that year he acquired theLewis Pickle Factory and much of his focus turned to operating a coal and grain business there while his brother continued tooperate the store. . In the 1920s Henry A. Grimwood of Weston, who had been running a meat wagon, took over from Cousinsas the operator of the business here, operating as Grimwood’s General Store and Lincoln Bakery. He would use the lower leveland part of the floor above for the business, which included a general assortment of clothes, tools, and other items as well asfood supplies.

Meanwhile, in 1907 Fred Elmer Cousins (1864-1951) had purchased the Cook Brothers House from the Cook heirs (Mid.Deeds, 3336:534), and in 1911 he built a new coal and grain store on the same lot as that house. That new facility stood to thenorth of the house, below it on the same grade level as the railroad tracks. In 1914 Cousins sold both the house and the buildingbelow it to Marion L. (Bamforth) Snelling under two separate deeds (lot with house, Mid. Deeds, 3878:265; lot with businessbuilding, Mid. Deeds, 3878:264).




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Marion Snelling was the wife of S. Rodman Snelling, and they lived on Tower Road (LIN.24), where he operated an ice business,cutting ice from Beaver Pond and delivering it in Lincoln and Weston. He and his wife were also involved in the coal and woodbusinesses, using the facilities at the Lincoln railroad for these operations. There had been a historical family connection to thecoal industry, as his father, Howard Snelling, had years earlier been a very successful Boston merchant who operated HowardSnelling & Co., dealers in coal and wood in Boston. A son of Rodman and Marion Snelling later recalled:

My father was in the coal and ice business, and he used to sell wood, too. We had our coal sheds down at thestation…sheds for coal and wood. And the icehouses were up on Beaver Pond. That’s where we cut the ice and storedit in some big buildings up there [Howard Snelling in Regan, Voiceprints of Lincoln, p. 114].

After Rodman Snelling contracted rheumatic fever, Marion ran the operation for a number of years but phased out of thebusiness. She continued to own both the Cook Brothers House and the adjoining Cousins-Snelling building until 1923. TheCousins-Snelling building appears to have disappeared at that time, leaving just the house.

Earlier, in 1915, Marion Snelling had sold the western part of the lot on which the Cousins-Snelling building was situated topartners Matthew H. Doherty and Martin Corrigan (Mid. Deeds 4005:20; the eastern bounds of the lot sold was 13 feet west ofthe west side of the Cousins-Snelling building). They operated in a garage building here that was replaced in 1919 by theDoherty & Corrigan Garage. With Doherty as senior partner, Doherty and Corrigan had started their business in 1905 as a liveryand taxi service. In time moving from horses and carriages to motor vehicles, they would continue to offer taxi and deliveryservices, with a number of residents in the Lewis Street area listing their occupations in census records as “chauffeur.” Amongtheir regular deliveries was to take the mail from the South Lincoln post office up to the Lincoln Center post office. The businessalso expanded into providing busing services for the Lincoln schools. Their movement from operating a livery to operating agarage was a natural development as the modes of transportation changed, and Doherty was the principal party engaged in theoperation of the garage. Matthew H. Doherty took over full operation of the businesses in about 1937, and later his son William“Bill” Doherty ran the business, which incorporated in 1958. In 1967 they moved to a new garage on Lincoln Road, and todayDoherty’s is still operated by the family as the oldest business in Lincoln, providing gas station, bus, and other services.

From the beginning, Doherty’s Garage also essentially served as a town fire station until the town built a Fire and Police Stationin 1958. As reported in the 1921 Lincoln Town Report (p. 88): “The apparatus belonging to the Department is as follows: Twowagons, one reel, one combination truck, twenty-five extinguishers, three ladders, hose, axes, and plaster hooks.” Thecombination truck and much of the equipment was stored at Doherty’s Garage. Matthew H. Doherty was then one of the firedepartment’s engineers, but he soon became the department’s chief.

For the most part, the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century passed Lincoln by. While Lincoln was an agricultural townat the beginning of the nineteenth century, there were a number of small shops used by blacksmiths, cordwainers, and othercraftsmen. There had been a ropewalk in the community in the eighteenth century, and for a brief time in the nineteenth centurythere would be a woolen mill, but in general the town’s larger industries were family-owned saw and grist mills as well as twofamily-owned tanneries. Indeed, as industries developed elsewhere, these smaller family shops and operations in Lincolndeclined as they could not compete, so that by the middle of the nineteenth century Lincoln was even more focused onagriculture than it had been at the beginning of the century. Even the coming of the railroad to town in 1844 did not bringindustrial development, and when industries did develop along the railroad a quarter of a century later (pickle factories, a gristmill and grain elevator, and a coal business), they would be industries tied to the local agricultural economy. Today, while a numberof the town’s early barns survive, from among the town’s shops, mills, and other business buildings of the eighteenth ornineteenth century, only the 1870 Lewis Pickle Factory can be identified as still standing. Itself a rarity in the town’s history, it isLincoln’s oldest industrial building. Containing a tenement section at one end of the building, it also reflects the social history ofthe town as it appears to be the oldest extant tenement in the community. Surrounded by the 1884 Cook Brothers House andthe 1912 Blodgett-Rooney House, these three buildings have long provided two-family options that have been atypical ofLincoln’s predominant single-family homes, historically contributing to the town’s diversity, including its town-worker housing,and providing distinctive contributions to the mixed commercial-residential character of the surrounding village. As a substantial,fashionable Second Empire building, the 1870 Wyman-Cook House also gave visual prominence to this small village and itsdiversity of building forms. The store and post office located there made this a center of town activity, while with the movementto automotive transportation, the 1919 Doherty & Corrigan Garage would also become an important part of the community. Withthe town’s fire apparatus housed in Doherty’s Garage for many years, with the town’s bus service operating out of that garage,and with the Lewis Pickle Factory also long serving as the Town Barn, these buildings also had an important role in the day to




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day operation of the town during much of the twentieth century. Collectively, the early buildings on Lewis Street played a centralrole in fostering the development of the South Lincoln/Lincoln Station village that has become a mix of commercial andresidential buildings and the town’s commercial center.BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES

Boston Globe.Cook, John G. “Shropshire Lads: The Lewis Brothers of St. Louis and Boston,” in Missouri State Genealogical Society Journal

Vol. 20, no. 1(2000), pp. 36-40.Dee, Helena (Lennon). “Just Rambling Round”…. [1966], copy in Lincoln Archives Collection.Lincoln Assessors’ Records.Lincoln Historical Society. Lincoln. Images of America Series. (Charleston, SC, 2003).Lincoln Town Reports.MacLean, John C. A Rich Harvest: The History, Buildings, and People of Lincoln, Massachusetts (Lincoln, MA, 1987).Middlesex County Registry of Deeds, South District.Regan, Ruth Moulton. Voiceprints of Lincoln (Lincoln, MA, 1991).Russell, Howard. A Long, Deep Furrow; Three Centuries of Farming in New England. (Hanover, NH, 1976).Smith, Sumner. The Smiths of Sandy Pond Road. (Lincoln, MA, 1983).Smith, Sumner letter to Frank Shaw, August 10, 1954, Lincoln Archives Collection.Todd, Rob and Molly Hawkins. A History of Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary (Lincoln, MA, 2005).Underwood, W. Lyman. “Incidents in the History of the Canning Industry of New England,” in A History of the Canning Industry

by its Most Prominent Men. Arthur I. Judge, ed. (Baltimore, 1914).U.S. Census records, various years.Waltham [Massachusetts] Free Press.http://www.dohertysgarage.com/history.htm

1875 map showing, from left to right on the south side of the tracks, the Wyman-Cook House next to the road, the UnderwoodPickle Factory running parallel to the tracks, and then the two “Pickle Factories” that were the Lewis Pickle Factory facilitiesrunning perpendicular to the tracks




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An 1875 survey shows from left to right the Wyman-Cook House (“Elizabeth Cook”); the Underwood PickleFactory and the Cook Brothers House (“Albert A. Cook”)and the Lewis Pickle Factory buildings.

A detail from an 1889 map shows from left to right on the south side of the tracks: the Wyman-Cook House; the enlargedUnderwood Pickle Factory/Cook elevator; the Cook Brothers House with back ell added; the extant Lewis Pickle Factory and thesecond Lewis Pickle Factory building (site where the Blodgett-Rooney House would later be built).




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(above) Second Empire 1870 Wyman-Cook House and 1919 Doherty & Corrigan Garage viewed from Lewis Street, and (below)the same buildings viewed from the lower elevation facing the railroad tracks




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1884 Cook Brothers House viewed from Lewis Street, with part of the Lewis Pickle Factory in background

MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Community Property AddressMASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING LINCOLN LEWIS STREET AREA220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARDBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125

Area(s) Form No.

National Register of Historic Places Criteria Statement Form

Check all that apply:

Individually eligible Eligible only in a historic district

Contributing to a potential historic district Potential historic district

Criteria: A B C D

Criteria Considerations: A B C D E F G

Statement of Significance by_____John C. MacLean____ ___________________The criteria that are checked in the above sections must be justified here.

The Lewis Street area is eligible for the National Register through its important local historical contributions to fosteringthe development of the South Lincoln/Lincoln Station village, for its contributions to Lincoln’s and the region’s agriculturaland commercial history, its role in the history some of the town’s departments, its contributions to the town’s historicdiversity of housing, and architecturally for buildings that ranged from an elegant Second Empire mansion to a survivingrepresentative example of a simple commercial type that combined factory and tenement use. For the most part, theIndustrial Revolution of the nineteenth century passed Lincoln by. While Lincoln was an agricultural town at the beginningof the nineteenth century, there were a number of small shops used by blacksmiths, cordwainers, and other craftsmen.There had been a ropewalk in the community in the eighteenth century, and for a brief time in the nineteenth century therewould be a woolen mill, but in general the town’s larger industries were family-owned saw and grist mills as well as twofamily-owned tanneries. Indeed, as industries developed elsewhere, these smaller family shops and operations in Lincolndeclined as they could not compete, so that by the middle of the nineteenth century Lincoln was even more focused onagriculture than it had been at the beginning of the century. Even the coming of the railroad to town in 1844 did not bringindustrial development, and when industries did develop along the railroad a quarter of a century later (pickle factories, agrist mill and grain elevator, and a coal business), they would be industries tied to the local agricultural economy. Today,while a number of the town’s early barns survive, from among the town’s shops, mills, and other business buildings of theeighteenth or nineteenth century, only the 1870 Lewis Pickle Factory can be identified as still standing. Itself a rarity in thetown’s history, it is Lincoln’s oldest industrial building. Containing a tenement section at one end of the building, it alsoreflects the social history of the town as it appears to be the oldest extant tenement in the community. Surrounded by the1884 Dutch Colonial Revival Cook Brothers House and the 1912 Blodgett-Rooney House, these three buildings have longprovided two-family options that have been atypical of Lincoln’s predominant single-family homes, historically contributingto the town’s diversity, including its town-worker housing, and providing distinctive contributions to the mixed commercial-residential character of the surrounding village. As a substantial, fashionable Second Empire building, the 1870 Wyman-Cook House also gave visual prominence to this small village and its diversity of building forms. The store and post officelocate there made this a center of town activity, while with the movement to automotive transportation, the 1920 Doherty &Corrigan Garage would also become an important part of the community. With the town’s fire apparatus housed inDoherty’s Garage for many years, with the town’s bus service operating out of that garage, and with the Lewis Pickle

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Factory also long serving as the Town Barn, these buildings also had an important role in the day to day operation of thetown during much of the twentieth century. Collectively, the early buildings on Lewis Street played a central role infostering the development of the South Lincoln/Lincoln Station village that has become a mix of commercial andresidential buildings and the town’s commercial center.

Documents

Lewis Street Historic Area, Lincoln, Massachusetts