John Howard Pierce, a state Senator, gentleman farmer and businessman about whose affairs we know little, had the Pierce House built in 1900 in the Georgian-Revival style. The front façade of the Pierce House was designed to resemble the Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow House at 105 Brattle Street in Cambridge, MA, built in 1759. He probably had high regard for the Longfellow House because it had been the headquarters of General George Washington and later became the home of American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow for almost 50 years.
Mr. Pierce wanted the estate to become a hospital and park when he gave it to the Town in his will, but that wasn’t possible. So the wills of Mr. Pierce and his daughter Elsie, who left the Town an annual income to be used toward the House, were changed. The balance of the income left by Elsie served other great purposes, providing hospital treatment, medical and nursing care, dental and well child care for Lincoln residents going through hardships.
The Town of Lincoln considered changing the use of Pierce House and Park twice. In 1931, the Town commissioned a plan to an architect who advised tearing down Pierce House, which was in the way of his plan to build an athletic complex. The plan died a year later, when the Town ordered planting native hardwood and evergreen trees to frame the borders of the Park.
In 1945, Lincoln considered the Park as a site for a new school, but Lincoln Road was chosen instead, allowing the house to stay as a place of community gatherings and functions.
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