Joseph Robbins Home Site Memorial Stone

Also called the “Alarm Stone,” this engraved memorial stone sits on the eastern side of Woodlawn Cemetery on Concord Road in Acton. The first of three memorial stones dedicated on Patriots’ Day in 1895, it identifies the home site of Captain Joseph Robbins, who led a unit of the town’s minute men. There, Captain Robbins received word just hours after midnight on April 19th, 1775 that British troops were moving on Concord. His thirteen-year-old son then reportedly went out to send word of the report to the town’s other militia leaders.

The dedication included a blessing by Rev. Franklin Parker Wood of Acton, and the reading of a paper about the history of the site by Moses Taylor, one of the town’s older citizens.

Acton’s Alarm Stone captures the pressing urgency of the moment with its exclamatory inscription:

SITE OF HOUSE WHERE FIRST
ALARM WAS GIVEN IN ACTON!
MORNING OF 19TH OF APRIL 1775
CAPT. ROBBINS! CAPT. ROBBINS!
THE REGULARS ARE COMING!!