Driver dodging squirrel hits 371-year-old house built by Lincoln’s ancestors, cops say
A 19-year-old driver narrowly avoided hitting a squirrel in the roadway on Thursday by crashing into the ancestral home of President Abraham Lincoln, according to law enforcement.
Officers were called to the Samuel Lincoln Cottage at 182 North Street in Hingham, Massachusetts, just after 6:30 a.m. on Thursday, the Hingham Police Department said. The cottage was built in 1650 when Hingham was first settled, the Boston Globe reported.
Samuel Lincoln was the president’s great-grandfather.
According to police, the driver was in a 2014 Audi Q7 when 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.”
About half the car reportedly ended up inside the house.
The driver was uninjured sitting on the sidewalk when officers arrived, police said. She was given a citation for failing to stay in marked lanes.
Residents of the home who were inside at the time of the crash were also not hurt.
The homeowners told Zenger News they were asleep upstairs when the SUV crashed into their living room. They said they plan to repair the home as well as a sign that was knocked off in the crash.
Drivers often speed near the house, NBC 10 in Boston reported. The homeowners said in the 33 years they’ve lived in the cottage, cars have hit the stone posts by their front door and nearby power poles on numerous occasions.
This story was originally published July 19, 2021 at 5:26 PM with the headline "Driver dodging squirrel hits 371-year-old house built by Lincoln’s ancestors, cops say."
