Hartwell Area: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Minute Man National Historical Park

Dietrich-Smith, Deborah; Hammond, John; Weyer, Stephanie

The Hartwell area is part of Minute Man National Historical Park (NHP), located in Middlesex County, sixteen miles northwest of Boston, Massachusetts. Established in 1959, the park preserves the sites of the Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775 and the “shot heard round the world” that began the Revolutionary War. Four discontiguous management units of Minute Man NHP (Battle Road, North Bridge, Wayside, and Barrett’s Farm) comprise an area of approximately 1,040 acres of land in the towns of Concord, Lincoln, and Lexington. The largest of the units, the 800-acre Battle Road Unit, preserves part of the route along which British Regulars fled back to Boston under relentless Colonial fire. The Battle Road is the spine of the unit running in an asymmetrical, linear route along present-day Lexington Road (Concord), North Great Road (Lincoln), and Massachusetts Avenue (Lexington), parts of which are also designated as State Route 2A. The Battle Road is set within a landscape of farmhouses, barns, stone walls, fields, woodlands, and hedgerows, all remnants of the area’s agricultural past. While there are some areas of post-historic development associated with private residences and park operations within the boundaries of the Battle Road Unit, it nonetheless retains much of its historic low-density, agricultural appearance. This contrasts with areas immediately surrounding the unit that have been heavily developed, such as Hanscom Air Force Base just to the north and its associated military housing areas. The 226-acre Hartwell area is centrally located within the Battle Road Unit, in the town of Lincoln. The focus of this landscape is a section of the original Battle Road and the Bloody Angle, a set of distinct curves in the road that witnessed intense fighting. This part of the Battle Road was bypassed in the early 1800s by the North Great Road (Route 2A) and is now part of the unpaved pedestrian-only Battle Road Trail. Among the historic houses along the Battle Road in the Hartwell area is the Ephraim Hartwell Tavern, a restored Colonial-style house and inn built in 1732- 1733 and now one of the park’s most popular tourist sites. It is surrounded by a small lawn and fronted by a row of mature maple trees and a stone wall, while nearby are a small enclosed pasture, a larger open field and orchard, and the McHugh Barn. Other historic resources in the Hartwell area include the Sergeant Samuel Hartwell House, of which only the foundation and chimney now remains, the Captain William Smith House, and the Rego House, which is now a Ranger Station. Stone walls still line the Battle Road and demarcate old agricultural fields. Some of the fields have been restored to their open condition, while many others are now dominated by successional woodlands. The park has removed most of the contemporary private residences built in the Battle Road Unit when the region became suburbanized in the early- to mid-20th century. The park has constructed a parking lot and restroom along busy Route 2A, and trails and interpretive waysides that provide access to a vernal pool and other features off the Battle Road Trail. There are also several commemorative monuments and stone markers in the area.

Hartwell Area: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Minute Man National Historical Park

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