What we now call Lincoln Road once had two different names. The western portion of the street was named after the American President Abraham Lincoln, but the eastern end was named Hall Street after the town's first Town Hall, built on a piece of land on the eastern side of the current ANZ bank. This hall burnt down in 1882 and for a period the privately owned Theatre Royal in Queen Street served as the Town Hall.
The next Town Hall – later known as the “Opera House” – was built by the Trust Lands Trust in Hall Street, as was the nearby Government funded Drill Hall, later known as the Gaiety Theatre. Both the Drill Hall and the Opera House have since been demolished. Hall Street was originally two cart tracks wide. The town creek, long ago piped, ran along the northern side of the road. Despite having the multiplicity of halls that led to its naming, the term Hall Street was dropped and the whole street was named Lincoln Road in 1905
Pic: Abraham Lincoln, the United States President.