Founded in 1884 by Mrs. William Ames, whose daughter Daisy Dwight was one of Lincoln’s first nine students, Lincoln School was named in honor of John Larkin Lincoln, a Brown University Professor with a strong commitment to the education of girls and young women. Lincoln moved to its present site on Butler Avenue in 1913, expanding its campus and physical plant in the ensuing years to accommodate the School’s growing N-12 academic program, its Infant and Toddler Center, and its arts and athletic programs. In 1924, Lincoln School began its formal association with the Yearly Meeting of Friends for New England as a Quaker school. While Lincoln’s affiliation with the Yearly Meeting of Friends ended in 1972, Lincoln maintains a strong commitment to its Quaker traditions and is accredited by the Friends Council on Education.
The original building, the central component in this complex, is the stuccoed Georgian Revival building with segmental-arch-pedimented center entrance and projecting pedimented end pavilions. Built at the same time as the residential neighborhood that surrounds it, the building adopted the same architectural vocabulary as the houses that surround it. Just at the time it was built, Architectural Record advised that a “…school building… must conform to practical requirements [and] must at the same time have some measure of attractiveness and dignity in its appearance, but it should not be made imposing.” Lincoln School easily achieved that goal and continues to serve its constituents well after almost a century.
– 2011 Festival of Historic Houses Guidebook
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