Brooks, Daniel, House

L Moved - Unexposed (Check One) 8 Original Site The Daniel Brooks House is sited on a three acre lot located at Brooks Rd. in Lincoln, approximately three hundred yards from the southern border of Minute Man National Park and two hundred yards north of Route 2. The original building, completed before 1695, was a typical late seventeenth century dwelling of two and one half story frame construction, with one room on each floor, an entrance on the west side, and a ridge roof. About 1700 a two story, two room addition was added to the east side of the main building; the result was the present five bay wide facade and one bay width.

Another entrance was opened in the north side of the new addition, and the large chimney, which had been on the east wall of the old portion, was replaced by the present brick stacks on the north slope of the roof. In the early nineteenth century a two story ell with two rooms per floor was added to the western portion of the north elevation and a center entrance with a country federal surround was added to the south facade. Presently the house rests on a foundation of rough granite boulders and has been sheathed with butted wooden shingles; the roof is covered with black asphalt shingles. The windows throughout are six over nine double hung sashes. Inside, the Brooks House displays a typical central hall plan with a large room opening to either side of the entry.

Features of the interior noted by the Historic American Buildings Survey include exposed chamfered beams in the first floor main rooms, gunstock corner posts and wide, wooden pegged floorboards.

10.1te The Daniel Brooks House, described by the Historic American Building Survey (1962) as, "...one of the finer preserved examples of early American small houses," is the ancestral home of Lincoln's prominent Brooks family and remained in 'their possession for over two hundred thirty years. Built in 1695 by Daniel Brooks for his new bride, the house is in remarkably original condition with significant seventeenth and early eighteenth century interior features. The first Brooks to settle in Lincoln (then part of Concord; Lincoln was incorporated in 1754)was Thomas, who had established himself there by 1635.

It was his grandson who built the present structure and helped develop the surrounding village, where for two centuries the Brooks family operated a tannery, a tavern, and a brick kiln. Unbaked bricks used for insulation between the house's frame and plaster walls, as well as baked bricks used in fireplaces, chimneys, and hearths, came from the Brooks Village Brick Yard. A fifth generation owner of the house was Brigadier General Eleazer Brooks, highest ranking officer in the area during the Revolution. Called "a splendid athlete, self-educated and a dangerous foe in discussions, " Brooks was a member of the Committee of Correspondence and of the Provincial Congress.

After being commissioned by John Hancock, the General saw action at Concord, Ticonderoga, Dorchester Heights, White Plains, and Saratoga. His extensive records and letters docu- menting the Revolution have survived to give a graphic account of the War years. General Brooks' public career spanned a period of thirty-seven years, from 1774, when he was elected Representative to the General Court, until 1801, when, as a State Senator, he resigned in a letter to Governor John Hancock and expressed his disillusionment with the greed and immorality rampant in politics.