Cultural Landscape Report: Meriam's Corner

Donahue, Brian; Hohmann, Heidi

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. Meriam's Corner is located in the town of Concord, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. The 1.77-acre site is part of the Battle Road Unit of Minute Man National Historical Park, which covers approximately 770 acres of land in Concord and the neighboring towns of Lincoln and Lexington (figure 1). Located just east of the intersection of Old Bedford and Lexington Roads, Meriam's Corner was the home and farmland of five generations of Meriams, from 1639 to 1871. However, the site is primarily significant as the location where the Americans and British first exchanged shots as the British retreated to Lexington (and thence to Charleston) during the opening of the Revolutionary War on April 19, 1775. Following the Revolution the site and surrounding area saw primarily agricultural uses that evolved from 18th-century subsistence farming by Meriam family descendants to 20th-century market gardening by recently arrived European immigrants. After World War II, agriculture on the site declined as the town of Concord began the transformation to a suburban Boston community. This Cultural Landscape Report for Meriam's Corner was written as part of a larger project to plan for the further development of the Meriam's Corner area within Minute Man NHP, as directed by the General Management Plan (GMP) for the park. Therefore, it was researched and written concurrently with two other studies on Meriam's Corner: The "Historic Structure Report for the Meriam House," by NPS Architectural Conservator Barbara Yocum of the Cultural Resources Center in Lowell, and an Archeology Study, by NPS Archeologist ?, also of the Cultural Resources Center. Both of these studies and authors provided invaluable assistance in the writing and assembling of this report. The goal of this particular study was to outline the history of the broader Meriam's Corner site, and to place it in the broader context of the area's agricultural history and land use patterns. It was therefore necessary to expand the study area to beyond the 1.77-acre site presently known as Meriam's Corner, given that much more land was originally associated with the Meriam family. However, for clarity and efficiency the study area was limited to about 75 acres around the immediate site, despite the fact that Meriam family members also owned farmland in areas beyond what is shown in the figures.

Cultural Landscape Report: Meriam's Corner

Series