Driver slams car into ancestral home of Abraham Lincoln built in 1650 and claims she had swerved to avoid a squirrel
- The woman, 19, was driving her 2014 Audi Q7 east on North Street in Hingham around 6:35 a.m. on July 15 when she drove off the road and into the home
- ‘The driver said she swerved to avoid a squirrel in the road and drove off the right side of the road, over the sidewalk, and into the front of the house,’ cops said
- Cops said the driver, who was sitting on the sidewalk when they arrived, and the residents inside the home were not injured
- The teen was ticketed for failing to stay within marked lanes
A Massachusetts driver who crashed into the ancestral cottage of Abraham Lincoln claims she swerved to avoid a squirrel.
The woman, 19, was driving her 2014 Audi Q7 east on North Street in Hingham around 6:35 a.m. on July 15 when she drove off the road and into the 17th century home, the Hingham Police Department said in a press release.
‘The driver said she swerved to avoid a squirrel in the road and drove off the right side of the road, over the sidewalk, and into the front of the house,’ cops said.
Cops said the driver, who was not identified, was sitting on the sidewalk when they arrived.
The driver and the residents inside the home were not injured. The teen was ticketed for failing to stay within marked lanes.
A Massachusetts driver who crashed into the ancestral home of Abraham Lincoln claims she swerved to avoid a squirrel
The woman, 19, was driving her 2014 Audi Q7 east on North Street in Hingham around 6:35 a.m. on July 15 when she drove off the road and into the home
Cops said the driver, who was sitting on the sidewalk when they arrived, and the residents inside the home were not injured
The vehicle was later towed from the home after it smashed halfway into the historic cottage
Will Keefer, 9, told WHDH that he woke up when he ‘heard a loud boom’ from the car smashing into the home.
‘I looked out the window and there was a car stuck halfway through the house,’ he said. I got my parents to call 911. It was pretty crazy.’
Photos posted to social media by the police department showed the front of the vehicle destroyed on the bed of a tow truck after it had smashed halfway into the home.
It was not clear how fast the teen had been driving when she wrecked her Audi, of which the original sticker price of which ranged from $47,700 to $64,900 according to Carfax.
The homeowners said they will have the history home repaired, Zenger News reported.
The cottage was built in 1650 by President Abraham Lincoln’s fourth great-grandfather Samuel Lincoln, an English settler who bought the land in 1649, according to the Library of Congress.
It sits just down the street from the historic Samuel Lincoln House at 170 North Street, which was built in 1721 and also home to generations of the late president’s family. The home was designated a historic location in 1930.
‘Samuel Lincoln, ancestor of President Abraham Lincoln, and one of the eight early settlers of Hingham bearing that name, purchased this land in 1649,’ reads the historic sign depicted at the home.
‘Seven generations of Lincoln descendants lived here.’
The five-bedroom, 5,100-square-feet Samuel Lincoln Home is currently listed for sale for $1.86 million.
According to The Patriot Ledger, the cottage sits across the street from another historic home – that of Benjamin Lincoln, whom there is no evidence to suggest was related to the family of Abraham Lincoln.
The Samuel Lincoln Cottage is pictured unscathed in a Google Street View image
The home was built in 1650 by President Abraham Lincoln’s great-grandfather Samuel Lincoln, an English settler who bought the land in 1649
The Benjamin Lincoln House sits at 181 North Street in Hingham and was built in 1666. According to the Hingham Historical Society, it was the home of the town’s ‘most famous resident.’
Lincoln was the fourth Lincoln to own the home, which was built by his great-grandfather Thomas.
Benjamin Lincoln served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and formally accepted the British surrender at Yorktown as George Washington’s second in command.
He then served as the first United States Secretary of War from 1781 to 1783 and remained active in early American politics.
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