Icon in Brown’s Wood – The Hill House

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Monitoring the guidelines from federal and state authorities, and those of Compass, MAR, and NAR  regarding the Covid 19 novel virus. See end of post for more details. Virtual Facebook Live Showing/Open House embedded below. 

Located at the top of the cul-de-sac in the Modernist enclave of Brown’s Wood in Lincoln, the Hill House is a dazzling International Style Mid-Century-Modern home. The house was designed by Walter Pierce, who planned and developed the pioneering Peacock Farm neighborhood in Lexington, and the “Peacock Farm House” design built first there (and soon replicated in other neighborhoods and towns). Unlike the Peacock Farm House, 37 Laurel is closer in design to Pierce’s own home and informed by Bauhaus and West Coast-via-Japan architectural principles. Indeed, the house is reminiscent of Marcel Breuer’s own house, also in Lincoln.

The property offers what so many buyers are seeking in Lincoln: walls of glass allowing natural light to suffuse the rooms and bring the outdoors in; an updated open floor plan in the main living area; a setting within the terrain at the end of the street not far from Valley Pond; and perhaps most significantly, a cohesive neighborhood with historic significance in an otherwise sparsely-settled woodsy town. The home offers an urbane sense of style and design. The property also comes with a highly coveted membership share in Valley Pond for swimming and (non-motor) boating. There are three bedrooms; two full baths; a master suite; a detached garage; and natural gas for cooking and heating.

If this house looks familiar with you, perhaps it was because it was a location in the 2019 movie, Knives Out.

Brown’s Wood is a neighborhood of 23 modernist homes built in the 1950s, designed by the era’s finest local modernist architects, and nestled into wooded lots on Laurel Drive, Moccasin Hill, and Conant Road in Lincoln.

The project began in May 1953 when a group of young families, inspired by Walden II and the utopian vision of Ann and Ranny Gras, met at MIT. Further inspiration came from similar planned (intentional) modernist developments, Six Moon Hill, Peacock Farm, and Five Fields in Lexington, Snake Hill in Belmont, Conantum in Concord, and Kendal Commons in Weston, some of which were built concurrent to Brown’s Wood. In 1954 Brown’s Wood was incorporated and those who had purchased options for the 23 lots reviewed and approved each member’s individual plans for houses — no Ranches, Colonials, or Capes allowed! The initial group included engineers, scientists, musicians, artists, editors, a photojournalist, and other professionals. Each house was eventually deeded a share in Valley Pond, a large swimming, boating, and recreational resource in the neighborhood, developed under the leadership of members of Brown’s Wood for the larger Lincoln/Weston community. Brown’s Wood differed from the aforementioned neighborhoods in that it was the only of the group not conceived by an architectural firm, developer, or builder. This was the project of a group of private individuals who did the work of planning, layout, incorporation, and zoning. This was set before Lincoln switched to two-acre zoning.

The architects who were commissioned included:

• Dan Compton and Walter Pierce (known for Peacock Farm)
• Henry Hoover
• Carl Koch
• Earl Flansburgh
• Arthur H. Brooks
• Stanley Myers
• Ann and Ranny Gras

From research materials: A General Statement of the Historical Architectural or Other Qualities of Brown’s Wood That Make it Appropriate for Designation as a Neighborhood Conservation District and The Brown’s Wood Story (Ruth Wales). Click below to see Ruth’s story:

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