The Codman House (also known as The Grange) is a historic house set on a estate at 36 Codman Road,

Lincoln, Massachusetts Lincoln is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 7,014 according to the 2020 United States census, including residents of Hanscom Air Force Base who live within town limits. The town, located in the MetroWe ...

. Thanks to a gift by Dorothy Codman, it has been owned by Historic New England since 1969 and is open to the public June 1–October 15 on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month. An admission fee is charged. The main house was originally Georgian in style and was built in approximately 1735 by Chambers Russell, the de facto founder of Lincoln, Massachusetts. It was enlarged in the 1790s to its current three-story Federal style by John Codman, brother-in-law of Chambers Russell III and executor of his estate. This was perhaps with some involvement of noted American architect

Charles Bulfinch Charles Bulfinch (August 8, 1763 – April 15, 1844) was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first American-born professional architect to practice.Baltzell, Edward Digby. ''Puritan Boston & Quaker Philadelphia''. Tra ...

. The interior is extensively furnished with portraits, memorabilia, and art works collected in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. Various rooms preserve the decorative schemes of every era, including those of noted interior designer Ogden Codman, Jr. The former carriage house, built c. 1870 to a design by Snell & Gregerson, is also located on the property. Until the 1980s, it was original to its use as a stable and an early auto garage and contained many artifacts of both. A few of those artifacts continue to be on display in the carriage house including an early gas pump and a large machine powered lathe. The grounds have been farmed almost continuously since 1735 and now also include an Italian garden, circa 1899, with perennial beds, statuary, and a reflecting pool filled with waterlilies, as well as an English

cottage garden The cottage garden is a distinct garden style that uses informal design, traditional materials, dense plantings, and a mixture of ornamental plants, ornamental and edible plants. English in origin, it depends on grace and charm rather than grandeu ...

, circa 1930. The Codman Estate was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

as "The Grange" in 1974.

References

External links

Codman Estate information at Historic New England's web site

Codman Estate rental information
{{Historic New England Houses completed in 1741 Historic house museums in Massachusetts Federal architecture in Massachusetts Museums in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Houses in Lincoln, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Historic New England Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Middlesex County, Massachusetts

See also

References

External links