Lane, Job, House

-The Job Lane House in Bedford, built in 1664, is a saltbox with center chimney. It faces south with the west gable toward North Street. It is surrounded on three sides by fields. The remaining pines and hardwood of the once dense woods are still found on the east part of the property. The house has had several additions, one in the form of a large shed extension on the north rear. This shed roof is slightly raised above the main house but follows the sloping salt box roof linem Another shed, about 12 feet long, extends from the west side of the house toward the street. The enclosed entrance porch is a much later addition and hopefully will be removed when the house is restored.

Five bays wide with a center entrance on the facade, the house retains its original lines in spite of alterations to the windows, which have been replaced and enlarged, and the shed additions. Originally covered with clapboards, the house was rehabilitated in 1900 and at this time recoveredwith shingles. Because of this new exterior fabric, it is not evident whether the house was originally a salt box or if the rear shed extension was a later, 18th century addition; the roof line has an unbroken slope to the rear, a possible argument that today's building form is original. The foundation is stone and the facade has plain corner posts.

The house is one bay deep in the main section with one window in the shed extension on the first floor and another beneath the slant of the shed roof on the second floor. There is a small attic window under each gable and secondary entrances on both the west and rear elevations.

0I16115 The Job Lane House, Bedford, was built in 1664 by Job Lane andis the oldest dwelling in town. VThe original 1,500 acres of land were purchased by Lane from Fitz-John Winthrop, grandson of the first governor of Massachusetts. At that time, Bedford was part of the town of Billerica, a small inland settlement with a few scattered farms. The southern part of the town extended toward what was called "the wilderness" in early deeds. When Bedford was incorporated in 1729, one-half of the new town was taken from Billerica, placing all of the Winthrop grant in Bedford. The estate was surveyed after the death of Job Lane in 1697 and divided among his heirs. Job Lane and his descendants were prominent in town, church, and military affairs.

The house was one of those ordered garrisoned by the Colonial authorities for the protection against the Indians during King Philip's war in 1675. As the house was on the northern outskirts of town, it was of continuing military significance during the period of constant Indian threat, until the Revolutionary War. John Lane (son of the builder) and his son Job, both held military rank. Another Job Lane, also a resident of the old house, responded-to the alarm on April 19, 1775, and was wounded in Concord. When his son inherited the house, the will stated that the "old back kitchen" was to be reserved for the use of the neighbors in the area as a schoolhouse.

Because of its little-changed interior and in spite of its exterior additions, the house has architectural significance as an example of the skills and art of the housewright who chopped down the timber for building, and then turned it into beams and boards for construction of a house which woula last over 300 years.