Baldwin House
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The Baldwin House is a fine Colonial American mansion located at 2 Alfred Street, Woburn, Massachusetts. It is currently a restaurant Chinese Restaurant called Sichuan Garden. The historic 1790 House is very close by, across the Middlesex Canal.
The original Baldwin House was built in 1661 by Henry Baldwin, one of Woburn's first settlers. In 1803 his grandson, noted engineer Col. Loammi Baldwin, greatly enlarged the house to its current form. (This younger Baldwin, known as the Father of American Civil Engineering, created the Middlesex Canal, and lent his named to the Baldwin apple discovered nearby.) At that time its grounds were 212 acres in extent. On the south, between the house and the canal, was formerly a beautiful garden, with walks and trees, superior to anything in the region. All traces have long since disappeared.
All told, six generations of Baldwins lived in the house as documented in John Farmer's Genealogical Register of the First Settlers of New England: Henry Baldwin from 1661 to 1697; Henry Baldwin, son of the above; then James Baldwin; Loammi Baldwin, son of James, to 1807; he put on a third story. Benjamin F. Baldwin, 1807 to 1822; Loammi, Mary, and Clarissa Baldwin, from 1822 to 1836. George R. Baldwin from 1836 to November, 1887 (or to death, October 11, 1888.) After leaving the family's ownership it became various a boarding house and a restaurant.
The house is nearly cubical in form, three stories tall, with false ashlar front facade and clapboarding elsewhere, full-height pilasters at the corners, and a balustrade above the eaves. The entry door is ornamented with a classic pediment and lights, and further graced by an elegant Palladian window above.
In 1971 the house was moved to its current site, immediately adjacent to the Middlesex Canal, from its original location just west of Main Street at the Route 128 rotary (now commercial sprawl).
There was debate about using the property as a restaurant but ultimately the plans were approved as being sufficiently respectful of the historicity of the site.
