Historic Structures Report: Samuel Brooks House

Phillips, Maureen

Minute Man National Historical Park protects 970 acres in and around the Massachusetts towns of Lexington, Lincoln, and Concord, commemorating the opening battle in the American Revolutionary War. The Samuel Brooks house is located in Concord, Massachusetts, and is part of the Minute Man National Historical Park (MIMA NHP). The circa-1775 house had been constructed in three stages, beginning sometime before 1728. Samuel Brooks, a member of the Continental Army, lived in the house on April 19, 1775 at the time of the Concord and Lexington battle. Current treatment proposals are exploring the possibility of adapting the Samuel Brooks house, as well as the Joshua Brooks house and the buildings on the Noah Brooks tavern site across the road, to lodging and/or dining facilities. These proposals would require significant alterations that may have an adverse effect on the integrity of the structures. Little developmental history of the structures exists that would inform the proposed management objectives, necessitating an evaluation of the historical and physical evolution and identifying character-defining features for each. Of the structures, the Samuel Brooks house has had the most scrutiny, particularly in the form of a draft "Housing Rehabilitation Case Study" completed in 1990. Thus, the most intense investigative efforts for this project were directed towards the other structures, especially those at the Noah Brooks tavern site, and documentation and investigation of the Samuel Brooks house for this report focused on complementing the information in the 1990 Case Study and on identifying the house's character-defining features. This draft historic structure report for the Samuel Brooks house is an abbreviated Level II report prepared for MIMA NHP by the Building Conservation Branch (BCB) of the National Park Service's Northeast Cultural Resources Center. Preparation for this report involved historical and archival research and physical and photographic documentation of the house. The research and documentation was conducted by BCB Architectural Conservator Maureen K. Phillips, who also wrote the report. Physical investigation of the structural evolution of the house was conducted by Maureen K. Phillips and BCB Preservation Specialist Jeff Finch.

Historic Structures Report: Samuel Brooks House

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