… that one of Lincoln’s foremost builders started with house plans from a Sears
Roebuck catalog?
Robert Douglass Donaldson was born in Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia, in 1870. He
migrated to Boston in 1888. Like many immigrants, he came without formal
schooling past the eighth grade, but with farming and building experience,
family and community values, and motivation.
In the banner year of 1900, he married Charlotte Alcock, daughter of Irish
immigrants, and became a U.S. citizen. In 1902, the couple acquired the house
at 7 Old Lexington Rd., the original part of which was completed by the town in
1786 as the poorhouse. At the time, Lincoln was a farm town with a scattering
of rural estates and summer homes, sufficiently close to Boston for farmers to
take their produce to market and for Bostonians to escape via road or railroad
for fresh air.
The Donaldsons quickly got busy raising a family (four boys and two girls),
expanding a contracting business, farming, and engaging in civic activities. To
his kids and grandkids as well as employees, R.D. Donaldson was well known as
“the boss.” The well-kept secret was that his bride, Charlotte, was at least
the co-boss, with her bookkeeping and communication skills. Other Nova Scotians
from his home community migrated to Lincoln for work with Donaldson, including
his brother James and the Langilles, Isaac and Claire.
<https://lincolnsquirrel.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/RD-Donaldson-photo.jpg>
R.D. Donaldson at the age of about 40 (ca. 1910).
Donaldson served as a Selectman from 1913-1939 and on the Board of Health and
the Cemetery Commission. The Lincoln chestnut tree on Lincoln Common, included
on the town seal, was salvaged by Donaldson after it succumbed to the chestnut
blight. He milled and stored the boards, some of which now line the conference
room at Town Office Building. By 1942, he was a leader of the Congregational
Stone Church on Bedford Road when it merged with the Unitarian Church to form
the consolidated First Parish, sealing the deal by handshake with Dr. Robert L.
DeNormandie. The Donaldsons’ Glendale Dairy of Guernsey cows functioned until
1947 on land at 16 Weston Rd. acquired from John H. Pierce.
Donaldson constructed his first house in Lincoln in 1895 at 27 Tower Rd., using
plans bought from the Sears Roebuck catalogue. His later projects included
moving the Old Town Hall from its adopted site beside the Unitarian white
church to its current location on Lincoln Road across from the Town Office
Building. Because it was in use as a general store and post office, the Old
Town Hall was kept open during its ride on rollers to the new site. The Center
School (now the Town Office Building) was completed by Donaldson in 1908.
Scattered along the south side of Trapelo Road are many houses displaying
Donaldson’s craft, including one that was cut off from a piece of a house on
Weston Road and rolled across the field. More than 90 Lincoln buildings were
constructed or altered by Donaldson, including the Farrington Memorial, the
current Massachusetts Audubon headquarters, and the Storrow/Carroll School.
<https://lincolnsquirrel.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Sears-Roebuck-Catalog-Home-1912.jpg>
An image from a 1912 Sears Roebuck catalog of a complete home via mail order.
This model resembles one of the R.D. Donaldson houses still standing in
Lincoln. Sears sold this house — blueprints and all building materials
delivered to the site — for $753.
R.D. Donaldson placed a distinctive mark on the town’s architecture. Rob Loud
has described the style as “vernacular.” A unique feature of the style is a
sleeping porch, examples of which are evident at 3 Pierce Hill, 1 Old Lexington
Rd., and 27 Lexington Rd.
Robert and Charlotte’s kids also placed their mark on the town. Three of the
four Donaldson boys played baseball in school and college and were members of
the Lincoln Mohawks, coached at one time by Robert. All six offspring were put
through college in pursuit of careers in business, law, medicine, hospital
care, and resort hospitality. During the 1950s and ’60s, they all lived at one
time or another in Lincoln Center’s “Fertile Valley
<https://lincolnsquirrel.com/blog/2021/03/17/recalling-lincolns-fertile-valley-era/>”
neighborhood with families totaling 11 grandchildren. The original Donaldson
house in Lincoln is now occupied by one such grandson, with another grandson
and three great-grandchildren still currently in town.
Robert Douglass Donaldson, builder of Lincoln, died in 1964.
Craig Donaldson
Lincoln Historical Society
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