Lincoln Corners is a unique neighborhood of Greek Revival buildings and a wooden covered bridge, set among rolling hills and fields beside the Ottauquechee River. The area is already home to several well-established businesses: The Lincoln Inn, Woodstock Builders, Ibex, and LDT Ltd. among others. The attractive and historic wood paneled restaurant of the Lincoln Inn is one of Woodstock’s finest.
The hamlet of Lincoln Corners began in 1774 when Phinehas Williams arrived by ox cart from Connecticut and built a home for his family on the site of the present Lincoln Inn. The reverend Edward H. Williams, a sixth generation descendant tells us that his forebear chose this location because the land was approximately the geographic center of the town. The Dana History recounts that Williams’ son, Jesse, later built a potash works on the property, trading his product in Hartford or Boston to procure groceries and other articles of foreign produce to sell to other Woodstock settlers. He prospered with such trading, and eventually built a small storehouse which he occupied for that purpose till his removal further down the river. Just east of the Williams property, Elisha Royce built a tannery in the 1790’s, and for awhile did more business in his line than all the other tanners in town put together. In 1784, about 100 rods further east, a sawmill was put up by Phinehas Williams and Jabez Bennett. Near the sawmill in 1785, Joseph Churchill built a tavern, which was “one of the most celebrated establishments of the kind anywhere about”. It was a center of business and place of resort for transactions of a public and private character for all the neighborhood and even the regions beyond. (Dana p.43) “In 1804 the town employed Jabez Bennett to build a bridge at the Williams place. Here was a busy spot in those days, and the people of the neighborhood wanted a bridge and got one.” (Dana p.501)
The present Lincoln Covered Bridge was built in 1869 and named for the Lincoln family that occupied the Williams Homestead (Lincoln Inn) at that time. The former R.F. Wood homestead (Vorlage Ski Club) across the road, the 1860 schoolhouse (currently Woodstock Builders, Inc.), and the stone mill building (currently Northeast Supply Co.) are additional eloquent reminders of area’s long history. The orientation of the building, the landscaping, and the architecture of One Lincoln Corners are all designed to enhance and reinforce the existing interrelationships of the neighborhood, and to continue a two hundred year tradition of Vermonters doing business in a charming rural environment.
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