… That one of Lincoln’s foremost builders started with house plans from a mail order 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 8th 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 a house on Old Lexington Road, 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 were quickly busy raising a family (four boys, 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.
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 the boards so that they could be put to good use despite the tree’s fate.
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 Donaldson’s Glendale Dairy of guernsey cows functioned until 1947 on land on Weston Road acquired from John H. Pierce.
Donaldson, Malcolm. Donaldson, Robert D., “27 Tower Road, 1954,” Lincoln Town Archives, accessed June 2, 2026, https://lincolntownarchives.omeka.net/items/show/36.
Donaldson constructed his first house in Lincoln in 1895, on Tower Road, using plans bought through a mail order catalogue (similar to this catalogue from 1893).
His later projects included moving the Old Town Hall from its second site beside what is now First Parish Lincoln to its third (and current location) on Lincoln Road across from what is now the Town Offices building. In use as a general store and post office, the Old Town Hall was kept open during its ride on rollers one-third of a mile down the hill from Bedford Road to the new site on Lincoln Road.
The Center School (now Town Offices) was completed by Donaldson in 1908. (Click here to see the present-day Town Offices, renovated after about 100 years of use). Scattered along the south side of Trapelo Road are many houses displaying Donaldson’s craft, including one that was created from a piece of a house on Weston Road, cut off and rolled across the field. More than ninety Lincoln buildings were constructed or altered by Donaldson, including the Farrington Memorial, the current Massachusetts Audubon headquarters, and the Storrow/Carroll School.
Example of a sleeping porch built by R.D. Donaldson on Old Lexington Road.
R.D. Donaldson placed a distinctive mark on the town’s architecture, with a style that has been described as “vernacular.” A unique feature of the Donaldson style is a sleeping porch, designed for cool sleeping without bugs during the summer, plus fresh air—felt to be healthy.
From A Rich Harvest by John C MacClean, p. 497
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 era of the 1950’s and 60’s, they all lived at one time or another in Lincoln Center’s “Fertile Valley” neighborhood with families totaling eleven grandchildren. The original Donaldson house in Lincoln is now occupied by one such grandson, with another grandson and two great-grandchildren still currently in town.
Robert Douglass Donaldson, builder of Lincoln, died in 1964 at the age of ninety-four.
Craig Donaldson (grandson of R.D. Donaldson)
The Lincoln Historical Society
June 2026
To explore this topic more, currently (as of 6/2/26), there is a small special exhibit about R.D. Donaldson at the Lincoln Public Library done by Katie Tranquada, one of the reference librarians, in the display case across from the Reference Desk. Also, explore the Robert D. Donaldson Collection, compiled by Malcolm Donaldson and Robert Loud in the Lincoln Town Archives and Robert Loud’s biography titled, R.D. Donaldson: a Vernacular Carpenter.
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