Meriam's Corner: Cultural Landscape Report, Minute Man National Historical Park, National Park Service
Donahue B and Hohmann H. 1994. Meriam's Corner: Cultural Landscape Report, Minute Man National Historical Park, National Park Service. Cultural Landscape Report. Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation; NPS Northeast Regional Office. Northeast Regional Office/Boston
Meriam’s Corner, located in the town of Concord, Massachusetts, is part of the Minute Man National Historical Park. The site is on the west end of what is now known as the Battle Road Unit, stretching between Concord and Lexington and marking the route of the Running Battle that signaled the onset of the American Revolution. It was this location where the first shots between Colonial Minutemen and British Regulars were exchanged. Meriam’s Corner was the home and farmland for five generations of the Meriam family, from 1637 to 1871. After the war, the landscape was again used for agricultural purposes, evolving from 18th-century subsistence farming to 20th-century market gardening practiced by recently arrived European immigrants. After WWII, agriculture was replaced by development as the Boston suburbs expanded. The Cultural Landscape Report (CLR) is part of a larger project to plan development of the Meriam’s Corner area within Minute Man National Historical Park. This CLR outlines the history of the Meriam's Corner site, identifying its role in the military activities of 1775 as well as within the broader context of the area's agricultural history and land use patterns. It was therefore necessary to expand the study area beyond the 1.77-acre site presently known as Meriam's Corner, given that much more land was originally associated with the Meriam Family. For clarity and efficiency, the study area was limited to about 75 acres around the immediate site, despite the fact the Meriam family members also owned farmland in areas beyond what is shown in the figures.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Donahue, Brian; Hohmann, Heidi
- Date of Issue
- 1994-08
- Publisher
- Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation; NPS Northeast Regional Office
- Units
- MIMA , NER
- Keywords
- Agriculture, American Revolution, Archeology Study, Battle Road Unit, Burke House, Concord, Development, Family Chronology, farmland, Geneaology, historic structure report, Landscape management, Market Gardening, Revolutionary War, Subsistence Farming