Lincoln, Massachusetts

Lincoln, Massachusetts
Town
Location in Middlesex County in Massachusetts
Country	United States
State	Massachusetts
County	Middlesex
Settled	1650
Incorporated	1754
Government
• Type	Open town meeting
Area
• Total	15.0 sq mi (38.9 km2)
• Land	14.4 sq mi (37.2 km2)
• Water	0.6 sq mi (1.7 km2)
Elevation	258 ft (79 m)
Population  (2007)
• Total	7,994
• Density	555.1/sq mi (214.9/km2)
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (Eastern)
ZIP code	01773
Area code	339 / 781
FIPS code	25-35425
GNIS feature ID	0619402
Website	http://www.lincolntown.org/

Lincoln is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 8,056 at the 2000 census, including residents of Hanscom Air Force Base that live within town limits. Without the base, which is largely self-contained, Lincoln is home to 5,152 people, according to the 2000 census.

History

Lincoln was settled in 1650 as part of neighboring Concord. It was incorporated as a separate town in 1754. Due to their "difficulties and inconveniences by reason of their distance from the places of Public Worship in their respective Towns," local inhabitants petitioned the General Court to be set apart as a separate town. Comprising parts "nipped" off from the adjacent towns of Concord, Weston and Lexington, it was sometimes referred to as "Niptown."

Chambers Russell, a Representative in the Court in Boston, was influential in the town's creation. In gratitude, Russell was asked to name the new town. He chose Lincoln, after his family home in Lincolnshire, England. His homestead in Lincoln was the Codman House property, which was occupied after his death by his relatives, the Codman family.

Lincoln is reportedly the only town in America named after Lincoln, England (and not President Abraham Lincoln).

Paul Revere was captured by British soldiers in Lincoln on the night of April 18, 1775.

Reverend Charles Stearns (1753–1826), a Harvard-trained minister, served the Congregational Church in Lincoln from late 1781 until his death. Only a handful of his sermons were printed, most in the early 19th century. In addition, Stearns was principal of the Liberal School, a relatively progressive and coeducational institution that opened in early 1793. While at the school, Stearns wrote and published a number of education-related works, including Dramatic Dialogues for Use in Schools (1798), a collection of 30 original plays that were performed by the students. After the school closed in 1808, Stearns continued to tutor students privately. Among his pupils were Nathan Brooks, a Concord lawyer, and George Russell, a Lincoln physician. Stearns' published works can be accessed at Early American Imprints, a microform and digital collection produced by the American Antiquarian Society. A summary article that looks at Stearns as a producer of children's drama is The Dramatic Dialogues of Charles Stearns: An Appreciation by Jonathan Levy, in Spotlight on the Child: Studies in the History of American Children’s Theatre, ed. Roger L. Bedard and C. John Tolch (New York: Greenwood, 1989): 5-24.

Geography

Lincoln has a total area of 15.0 square miles (38.9 km²), of which 14.4 square miles (37.2 km²) is land and 0.6 square miles (1.7 km²) is water, representing 4.26% of the town's total area. (Source: United States Census Bureau).

Police and Fire Department

The Lincoln Police and Fire Department building was upgraded recently. The Police Department is staffed with 13 full-time officers, broken down as follows: one Chief, one Lieutenant, three Sergeants, one Inspector, seven Patrol Officers and one Traffic Enforcement Officer. Ten part-time, Special Officers supplement the full-time officers in filling details and special events request for the department.

The Fire Department employs a full-time Chief, four full-time Lieutenant's, nine full-time Firefighter/E.M.T.'s, and ten Call Firefighter/E.M.T.'s. The department staffs a minimum of four firefighters per shift at all times.

One of the firefighters was selected to appear in a calendar of firefighters. The calendar features firefighters from though-out the nation in action. He was selected due to his classic firefighting mustache

Demographics

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 8,056 people, 2,790 households, and 2,254 families residing in the town. The population density was 560.7 people per square mile (216.5/km²). There were 2,911 housing units at an average density of 202.6/sq mi (78.2/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 87.16% White, 4.84% African American, 0.38% Native American, 4.17% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 1.33% from other races, and 2.09% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.97% of the population.

There were 2,790 households out of which 45.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 73.4% were married couples living together, 5.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 19.2% were non-families. 15.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.83 and the average family size was 3.18.

In the town the population was spread out with 30.7% under the age of 18, 5.4% from 18 to 24, 31.2% from 25 to 44, 21.7% from 45 to 64, and 11.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 94.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.7 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $79,003, and the median income for a family was $87,842. Males had a median income of $52,788 versus $31,786 for females. The per capita income for the town was $49,095. About 0.3% of families and 0.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 0.2% of those under age 18 and 2.4% of those age 65 or over. Voting patterns in recent decades indicate that Lincoln is among the wealthiest liberal (or most liberal wealthy) towns in the United States.

Codman House in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

Points of interest

• Codman Community Farm
• Codman House
• Drumlin Farm
• DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park
• Gropius House
• Hanscom Field and Hanscom Air Force Base
• Walden Pond

Transportation

Commuter rail service from Boston's North Station is provided by the MBTA with a stop in Lincoln on its Fitchburg Line.

Notable residents

As a town of decidedly rural character and layout but quite close to the academic and intellectual centers of Cambridge and Boston, Lincoln has had such notable past residents as architect Walter Gropius, An Wang of Wang Laboratories, Ken Olsen of Digital Equipment Corporation, Thomas Winship of the Boston Globe, Richard Bolt and Robert Newman of BBN (now BBN Technologies), humpback-song recorder Roger Payne, and opera impresario/conductor Sarah Caldwell. Other currently noteworthy people who grew up or live in Lincoln include Paul Pierce of the Boston Celtics, Julia Glass, author of Three Junes, Greg Hawkes (former keyboardist for the Cars), Jasper White, owner of the Summer Shack restaurant line, author Jane Langton, her son the artificial-life biologist Christopher Langton, radio personality and sometime columnist Mike Barnicle, Rodney Brooks, founder of iRobot and director MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, former Boston Bruins great Cam Neely, and many others. The "two Johns" of the band They Might Be Giants, John Flansburgh and John Linnell, named their second album Lincoln after their hometown.

See also

• Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School

Further reading

• 1871 Atlas of Massachusetts. by Wall & Gray.Map of Massachusetts. Map of Middlesex County.
• History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Volume 1 (A-H), Volume 2 (L-W) compiled by Samuel Adams Drake, published 1879 and 1880. 572 and 505 pages. Lincoln section by William F. Wheeler in volume 2 pages 34-43.

External links

• Town of Lincoln official website
• Lincoln Public Schools