Baldwin House

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Loammi Baldwin Mansion
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Baldwin House, Woburn, Massachusetts with a stretch of the Middlesex Canal in the foreground.
Location:	Woburn, Massachusetts
Coordinates:	42°30′8″N 71°9′29″W / 42.50222, -71.15806Coordinates: 42°30′8″N 71°9′29″W / 42.50222, -71.15806
Built/Founded:	1750
Architect:	Unknown
Architectural style(s):	Federal
Added to NRHP:	October 07, 1971
NRHP Reference#:	71000090 [1]
Governing body:	Local

The Baldwin House, also known as the Loammi Baldwin Mansion, is a fine Colonial American mansion located at 2 Alfred Street in Woburn, Massachusetts. On October 07, 1971, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

It is currently a Chinese restaurant called Sichuan Garden and is in a state of disrepair. There was debate about using the property as a restaurant but ultimately the plans were approved as being sufficiently respectful of the historical nature of the site.

The historic 1790 House is across the Middlesex Canal.

[edit] History

The original Baldwin House was built in 1661 by Henry Baldwin, one of Woburn's first settlers. In 1803 his grandson, noted engineer Col. Loammi Baldwin, greatly enlarged the house to its current form. (This younger Baldwin, known as the Father of American Civil Engineering, created the Middlesex Canal, and lent his name to the Baldwin apple, discovered nearby.) At that time its grounds were 212 acres in extent. On the south, between the house and the canal, was formerly a beautiful garden, with walks and trees, superior to anything in the region. All traces have long since disappeared under suburban sprawl.

All told, six generations of Baldwins lived in the house, as documented in John Farmer's Genealogical Register of the First Settlers of New England: Henry Baldwin from 1661 to 1697; Henry Baldwin, son of the above; then James Baldwin; Loammi Baldwin, son of James, to 1807; he put on a third story. Benjamin F. Baldwin, 1807 to 1822; Loammi, Mary, and Clarissa Baldwin, from 1822 to 1836. George R. Baldwin from 1836 to November, 1887 (or to death, October 11, 1888.) After leaving the family's ownership it became a boarding house and a restaurant.

The house is nearly cubical in form, three stories tall, with false ashlar front facade and clapboarding elsewhere, full-height pilasters at the corners, and a balustrade above the eaves. The entry door is ornamented with a classic pediment and lights, and further graced by an elegant Palladian window above.

In 1971 the house was moved to its current site to make way for expansion of a supermarket shopping area, immediately adjacent to the Middlesex Canal, from its original location just west of Main Street at the Route 128 rotary (now commercial sprawl). Remnants of the canal can still be seen near the original home site and adjacent to the Showcase Cinemas parking lot.

[edit] References

• Historic Homes & Places and Genealogical & Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Middlesex County Massachusetts by William Richard Cutter, published 1908. George Rumsford Baldwin article volume 1, pages 20-22, tells about the Baldwin Mansion.

[edit] External Links

• Nice Web version of the Baldwin article from Historic Homes and Places and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs relating to the Families of Middlesex County, Massachusetts by W.R.Cutter published 1908, pages 9-22 of [Volume 1, also see Volume 2,Volume 3, Volume 4.

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