Memorial Hall (Abraham Lincoln Post #11, G.A.R.) was initially constructed in 1791 as a residence for Samuel Dexter (1761-1816), an attorney and Congressman. The house’s high-style Federal period details and its large scale reflect Dexter’s prominence and advanced architectural taste of his era. A 1781 graduate of Harvard, Dexter served as a Representative in the U.S. House of Representatives (1793-1795) and in the U.S. Senate (1799-1800) from which he resigned to serve in the Presidential Cabinet of John Adams.
Located at the periphery of the built-up portion of Charlestown, the Dexter House occupied extensive grounds and was laid out as a country villa with landscaped grounds, greenhouse and notable plantings that reflected the horticultural interests of its several owners during the first three-quarters of the nineteenth century.
In 1887, the last private owner of the property, Rhodes Lockwood, Jr, sold the property to the Abraham Lincoln Post 11 of the Grand Army of the Republic which converted it to a social club house and meeting hall. On September 6, 1887, Abraham Lincoln Post 11 awarded a contract in the amount of $14,575.75 to George Morrill to renovate the house and install a meeting hall at its second storey. Work included cutting the original hip roof framing free from the structure and raising it 6’-3” as well as removing. At the same time, all second-storey partitions were removed to create a meeting hall that occupied the entirety of the house’s second storey (50’ x 45’). The building remains in the ownership of the Abraham Lincoln Post 11.