| |
 |
Massachusetts Massachusetts
|
 About New England’s Foliage
Every autumn throughout New England, diminishing length of daylight and falling temperatures induce trees to shed billions of tons of leaves. Preceding this preparation for winter the trees present a spectacular color show. Leaves that have been green all summer turn to brilliant shades of yellow, orange, and red.
These color changes are caused by transformations in leaf pigments, primarily the green pigment chlorophyll. During summer, the leaves of trees are producing sugar from carbon dioxide and water by the workings of light and chlorophyll. Chlorophyll causes the leaves to appear green.
The shorter days and cool nights of autumn set off changes in the tree. One is the growth of a corky membrane at the base of the leaf stem, which interrupts the flow of nutrients into the leaf. This stops the production of chlorophyll in the leaf, and the green color of the leaf fades, allowing the reds, oranges and yellows to burst forth. The best autumn colors are produced when dry, sunny days are followed by cool, dry nights.
Color may begin to appear in isolated spots in far northern New England the first week in September. Typically, the color change begins at the higher elevations and in the northern part of the region mid-September and moves southward through mid-to-late October, ending in southern New England coastal areas at the end of October.
Visitors who travel to see our spectacular foliage are known as, “Leaf-Peepers.” While on your excursion do stop at country stores, orchards, local restaurants and shops. We have suggested some routes for you to drive. We also suggest that you try some backroads. Get a local map, and don’t worry about getting lost. You’ll always bump into a main road sooner or, hopefully, later.
|
|
Arnold Arboretum
The Arborway
Jamaica Plain, MA 02130 
Phone: 617-524-1718
This 265 acre site is part of the emerald necklace of Boston parks designed in the late 1800s by Frederick Law Olmsted. The arboretum is a major center for plant research, with about 14,000 woody plants representing nearly 5,000 botanical classifications.
Hours: Visitor Center open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays; and noon-4 p.m. Sundays. Closed holidays. No charge.
|
|
 Ashintully Gardens
Sodem and Main Roads
Tyringham, MA 01238
Phone: 413-298-3239
Fax: 413-298-5239
A rushing stream, native deciduous trees, a rounded knoll, and rising meadows are blended into an arrangement of both formal and informal beauty. Garden features include the fountain pond, pine park, rams head terrace, bowling green, regency bridge, and trellis triptych.
Hours: Mid-June to mid-September, Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, 1-5 p.m.
|
|
Ashumet Holly Wildlife Sanctuary
Off Nathan Ellis Highway
East Falmouth, MA 02536
Phone: 781-259-9500
Toll-Free: 800-AUDUBON
Hours: May-August, daily, dawn to dusk. Fee charged.
This preserve features groves of holly, as well as a colony of barn swallows. Sixty-five varieties of holly trees are planted throughout the sanctuary. Self-guided trails take visitors through the sanctuary.
|
|
Berkshire Botanical Garden
Routes 102 and 183
Stockbridge, MA 01262
Phone: 413-298-3926
A center for horticultural and environmental education, this 15-acre garden features intimate country landscapes, colorful perennial and annual gardens, a terraced herb garden, pond garden, rock garden, ornamental vegetable garden, display greenhouse, woodland interpretive trail, and gift shop.
Hours: May to October, daily, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Fee charged.
|
|
Bidwell House
Art School Road
Monterey, MA 01245
Phone: 413-528-6888
This home, built in 1750, has been restored and features 18th century gardens, as well as indoor exhibits.
Hours: Memorial Day-October 1, Thursday-Monday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Fee charged.
|
|
Boston Public Garden
Boylston, Arlington, Beacon and Charles Streets
Boston, MA
Phone: 617-723-8144
The Boston Public Garden, located in the heart of Boston, is adjacent to the Boston Commons. Together, these two parks are the northern end of the Emerald Necklace, a long string of parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. The Public Garden is bounded on the south by Boylston Street, on the west by Arlington Street, on the north by Beacon Street, and on the east by Charles Street, which divides the Public Garden from the Boston Common. The Public Garden contains formal plantings and a four-acre lake where the Swan Boats, a famous Boston tourist attraction, operate. People can sit in the ornamental swan-shaped boats, which are pedaled around the lake by a guide. A famous feature of the Boston Public Gardens is a set of bronze statues based on the main characters from the children's story Make Way for Ducklings.
|
|
Botanic Garden of Smith College
15 College Lane
Northampton, MA 01063
Phone: 413-585-2740
Lyman Plant House and Conservatory houses tropical collections and exhibition gallery. Arboretum features woody plant collection and specialty gardens: Rock Garden, systematics garden, Japanese garden, woodland and wildflower garden, knot garden, and perennial garden.
Hours: Daily year-round. Free.
|
|
Chesterwood
Williamsville Road, one mile south of Routes 183 and 102
Stockbridge, MA 01262
Phone: 413-298-3579
This mansion was the summer home of sculptor Daniel Chester French. Exhibits feature French’s work and life, as well as 19th century furnishings and a garden.
Hours: May-October, daily, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Fee charged.
|
|
 Destination Plymouth
Plymouth makes an excellent destination for your group or bus tour! With so many things to do in such a small centralized area you should be able to drop off your passengers and park your bus for the day. The Waterfront and Downtown areas of Town are loaded with attractions, shops and restaurants all within an area that is approximately 1 mile from end to end. Just north of the Downtown, the National Monument of the Forefathers sits waiting for tour busses, and to the south Plimoth Plantation, the living history museum of 17th century Plymouth, welcomes groups with open arms. Please call 1.800.USA.1620, or visit our website to learn more about these attractions for more group tour information.
|
|
 Eleanor Cabot Bradley Estate
2468B Washington Street / Route 138
Canton, MA 02021
Phone: 781-821-2977
Once a Colonial farmstead, the property was transformed into a country estate. The property includes a country house, landscaped grounds, and a complex of farm and estate buildings, manicured lawns, a walled garden, and a brick-edged garden. Visitors may explore more than 60 acres of meadow and woodland along three miles of trails.
Hours: Year-round, daily, sunrise to sunset. No charge.
|
|
Garden in the Woods
180 Hemingway Road
Framingham, MA 01701
Phone: 508-877-7630
The New England Wild Flower Society maintains this garden, the largest landscaped collection of wildflowers in the northeastern United States. Self-guided walks detail the foliage.
Hours: April 15-June 15, daily, 9 a.m.-7 p.m.; June 16-October 31, daily, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; after October, trails close for the season. Museum Shop remains open with winter hours. Fee charged.
|
|
Glen Magna Farms
Ingersoll Street
Danvers, MA 01923
Phone: 978-774-9165 978-777-1666-garden tour
Mansion built in the 19th century features decorative gardens and a teahouse.
Hours: Gardens open Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-dusk; Saturday-Sunday, 9 a.m. to noon. A guided tour of the house and gardens is offered May-July. Reservations required. Fee charged.
|
|
Harvard University Museums
24 Oxford Street and 11 Divinity Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: 617 495-3045
Botanical Museum contains the world famous collection of Blaschka glass flowers, hand-blown detailed glass models of dozens of flower species. It’s like a garden made of glass.
Hours: Daily, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Fee charged.
|
|
 Heritage Plantation
Pine and Grove Streets
Sandwich, MA 02563
Phone: 508-888-3300
Open: April 1-October 31, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; November 1-December 31, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
The gardens, on 76 acres of gently rolling hills next to Upper Shawme Pond, are a showplace of distinctive rhododendrons with larger flowers in vivid colors. They usually bloom from late may through mid-June. Other items of horticultural interest include: a holly dell and day lily, herb, hosta, and heather gardens. About 900 daylilies bloom from mid-July to August. The property also includes a labyrinth.
Hours: January, February, March, by appointment or program registration; April 1-October 31, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Fee charged.
|
| top of listings |
|
Jeremiah Lee Mansion
161 Washington Street
Marblehead, MA 01945
Phone: 617-631-1069
Stroll through the historic gardens at this 1768 mansion. The site also features exhibits of military and maritime items, antique children’s toys and furnishings, and examples of decorative arts from the 18th and 19th centuries.
Hours: June through October, Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Fee charged.
|
|
John Whipple House and Garden
53 South Main Street
Ipswich, MA 01938
Phone: 508-356-2811
The house was built in the 1650s and moved to its present site in the 1920s. With more than 60 authentic Colonial flowers and herbs, the garden in front of the Whipple House represents a traditional housewife’s garden of the 17th century. The plantings are made up mostly of herbs that would be used in cooking and for medicinal purposes.
Hours: May 25-October 22, Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Sunday, 1-4 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays by appointment only. Tours begin on the hour. Fee charged.
|
|
La Salette Shrine
947 Park Street, Route 118
Attleboro, MA 02703
Phone: 508-222-5410
These historic statuary gardens were designed as areas for meditation and worship. During the Christmas holiday a unique and decorative light display is offered.
|
|
 Long Hill
572 Essex Street
Beverly, MA 01915
Phone: 978-921-1944
Fax: 978-921-1948
From 1916 to 1979, Long Hill was the summer home of author Ellery Sedgwick and his first wife, Mabel Cabot Sedgwick, an accomplished horticulturist and gardener. Five acres of cultivated grounds are laid out in a series of separate garden rooms and accented by garden ornaments, structures, and statuary.
Hours: Year-round, daily, sunrise to sunset. No charge.
|
|
 Lowell Holly
South Sandwich Road
Mashpee & Sandwich, MA 02563
Phone: 508-679-2115
Email: seregion@ttor.org
Open: Year-round, daily, sunrise to sunset
Lowell Holly’s 135 acres feature stands of a wide variety of holly trees, rhododendrons, and mountain laurel, but the property’s most intriguing feature may be its two peninsular knolls, jutting into Mashpee Pond and Wakeby Pond. Both vantage points offer spectacular views over these large ponds. Mashpee and Wakeby ponds are renowned for their exceptional trout, smallmouth bass, chain pickerel, and bluegill. Four miles of carriage paths and footpaths connect all points of interest, including two small sandy beaches. Activities at the reservation include swimming, fishing, boating, bicycling, birdwatching, hiking, food concessions, restrooms, bathhouses, and wheelchair access. Year-round parking area is free to all. Seasonal parking area is available Memorial Day through Labor Day. Fee is $6 per car or motorcycle. Boat landing fee is $6 for daily landing fee or $40 for seasonal permit.
|
|
Lyman Estate and Greenhouses
185 Lyman Street
Waltham, MA 02452
Phone: 617-893-7232
One of the finest examples of a Federal period country estate in America. The mansion, greenhouse complex, and 37 acres of land are owned and maintained by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. The greenhouses, which are typical of structures that adorned landed estates in the 19th and early 20th centuries, shelter grapevines planted in 1870, 100-year-old camellia trees, and other exotic plants.
Hours: Year-round, Monday-Saturday, 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. The mansion is open by appointment for group tours.
|
|
Lynn Woods
Great Woods and Penny Brook Roads
Lynn, MA
Phone: 617-593-7773
This 2,200-acre municipal forest is the perfect spot for hiking, rock climbing, bird watching, cross-country skiing or just enjoying the view. A rose garden adds to the scenery.
Hours: Sunrise to sunset. No charge.
|
|
Martin House Farm
22 Stoney Hill Road at Route 6
North Swansea, MA
Phone: 508-379-0376
The Martin House Farm is a rare example of an 18th and early 19th century farm which still retains the character of its original setting. It consists of the house, two barns and cultivated fields surrounded by dry stone walls and woodlands. A rose garden is a stunning feature.
Hours: May 1-November 1, Wednesday-Sunday, noon-4 p.m. Closed holidays. Fee charged.
|
|
Massachusetts Literature
From John Winthrop’s 1630 sermon exhorting fellow Puritans to create a “City on a Hill” in their new land to Lowell native Jack Kerouac charting a course for the 1950s Beat Generation, Massachusetts is a cradle of original thinking and expressive writing. One hub of Massachusetts-based literature is the Boston-Cambridge-Concord circuit, where the literary and political awakening known as the American Renaissance flowered in the four to five decades bracketing 1850. The renaissance was driven by luminaries like poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson, novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, and philosopher-essayist Henry David Thoreau. Other thinkers and writers of the time who also shared the ideas, publishers, and even the houses of these men included novelist Herman Melville, the Alcott family of educators and writers, the essayist and women’s right advocate Margaret Fuller, the abolitionist writer Harriet Beecher Stowe, and many others.
Common ground for many of these thinkers was the philosophy of Transcendentalism, pioneered in this country by Emerson. Transcendentalism asserted that divinity is inborn in the human soul and that an individual’s own perceptions and intuitions were the most legitimate path to religious truth. (The definition was so vague, however, that Charles Dickens wisecracked during a visit to New England in 1842 that he was “given to understand that whatever was unintelligible would be certainly transcendental.”) Another topic that found common ground among these writers was the abolition of slavery, a fiery issue whose literary epicenter, in fact, was further north, in Brunswick, Maine, where Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, an important spark of the Civil War.
The connections among the Transcendentalists and other orbiting writers were many: Hawthorne met Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Calvin Stowe, husband of the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, as a student at Bowdoin College in Maine. Hawthorne purchased his home, Wayside, in Concord from the Alcott family, which had called the house Hillside. Longfellow’s poem Evangeline was based on a theme that Hawthorne proposed and handed over to him. Melville dedicated Moby Dick to “the genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne.” Hawthorne rented the Old Manse in Concord from Emerson. Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, and Alcott are all buried at Authors’ Ridge in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord.
Many of the homes and workplaces of these authors still exist and are open to the public.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1883)
Sometimes called the Sage of Concord and the éminence grise of the mid-19th century American Renaissance, Emerson was a preacher, philosopher, and poet. He wrote and preached on the harmonic connection between people and nature, and the relationship between the human soul and the Divinity, which he called the Over Soul. He was an abolitionist, a crusader for justice, and utopian, and a loyal supporter of other artists and crusaders of the time. The Emerson House, where he lived from 1835 to 1889, located at 28 Cambridge Turnpike in Concord, is now a museum.
The Old Manse
269 Monument St.
Concord, MA 01742-1837 
Phone: 978-369-3909
The Old Manse was built about 1770 by The Rev. William Emerson, grandfather of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Now a National Historical Landmark, it sits alongside the Concord River near the North Bridge, where armed resistance of the Revolutionary War took place on April 19, 1775. Ralph Waldo Emerson drafted his famous essay “Nature” at the Old Manse. Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife, Sophia, rented the house as their residence in the mid-1840s. Hawthorne named the house in 1846 to commemorate a newly published collection of his short stories titled Mosses from an Old Manse. The house includes two centuries of family furnishings, including Nathaniel Hawthorne’s writing desk. A self-guided tour offers views of a vegetable garden based on one planted by Henry David Thoreau as a wedding gift to the Hawthornes. Guided house tours are offered. A self-guided landscape tour brochure is sold in museum shop.
Ralph Waldo Emerson House
28 Cambridge Turnpike
Concord, MA 01742-3700
Phone: 978-369-2236
Hours: Mid-April to October — Thursday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Sunday, 2 to 4 p.m. Closed November to mid-April
Fee charged
Emerson lived in this home from 1835 until the time of his death in 1882. Touring the home offers an intimate view of Emerson’s life and times.
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
Born in Salem, Hawthorne attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, where he met Calvin Stowe, husband of Harriet Beecher Stowe, and became lifelong friends with Franklin Pierce, the future president, and the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. His writing successes acquired a strong foothold with the publication in 1837 of Twice-Told Tales, followed by Mosses from an Old Manse (1846), The Scarlet Letter (1850), and The House of the Seven Gables (1851). The seven-gabled house in Salem that inspired the story is open to the public. The Nathaniel Hawthorne House, where the writer was born, has been moved to the seven gables property and also is open to the public. Hawthorne became acquainted through his wife, the former Sophia Peabody, with the Emerson and Alcott families. In 1842 the Hawthornes rented the Old Manse in Concord, an Emerson family home. Hawthorne, in fact, named the house in honor of a collection of his stories written there. In 1852, the Hawthorne family purchased a home in Concord from Bronson Alcott and moved there, renaming it The Wayside (the Alcotts had called the house “Hillside”). The third literary inhabitant of Wayside was Harriett Stone Lathrop, who wrote the Five Little Peppers series of children’s books in the early 20th century under the pen name Margaret Sidney.
House of the Seven Gables
54 Turner St.
Salem, MA 01970-5633
Phone: 978-744-0991
E-mail: info@7gables.org
Hours: January 13 to June 30 — 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; July 1 to October 31 — 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; November 1 to December 31 — 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free parking and continuous guided tours.
The House of the Seven Gables — which constitutes its own national historic district on The National Register of Historic Places — also is called the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion. Built in 1668, it is the oldest wooden mansion that survives in New England. The grounds of the house also contain Hawthorne’s birth home, which was moved there from its original site a few blocks distant.
The Nathaniel Hawthorne House
The Nathaniel Hawthorne House, a modest structure of Georgian style, was built in about 1750 and was originally located on Union Street in Salem. It was moved in 1958 to the property that contains the House of the Seven Gables. It was in this modest home that Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 to Elizabeth and Nathaniel Hathorne. (The author added a ‘w’ to the spelling of his name as a young man.)
The Wayside
455 Lexington Road
Concord, MA 01742-3727
Phone: 978-318-7826
Hours: May through October. Call Minute Man National Historical Park at 978-318-7826 for days and hours of operation.
Located on the Battle Road in Concord, The Wayside was home to the Louisa May Alcott and her parents and sisters, who called the home Hillside. Bronson Alcott sold the house in 1852 to Nathaniel Hawthorne. A later literary resident was Harriet Stone Lathrop (Margaret Sidney). A free exhibit called “The House, Its Authors and the Creation of an American Literary Heritage” provides a good general overview of the people and events of this time and place.
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)
A child of the gifted and nonconformist Alcott family, Louisa May Alcott is best known for her novel Little Women (1868). She was also the daughter of Amos Bronson Alcott, an experimental educator of that time, and Abigail May Alcott, one of the first professional social workers in Massachusetts. Her sisters, Anna, Louisa May, Elizabeth, and May, were the models for Alcott’s famous novel for girls. Little Women, however enduring its appeal, was only part of Louisa May Alcott’s output as a writer. She undertook a considerable amount of serious work for adults, including poetry, stories, and nonfiction reporting, abolitionist treatises, and sensationalistic thrillers – albeit published under a pseudonym. The Alcott family’s most permanent home was Orchard House in Concord, where the family lived from 1858 to 1877, and where Louisa wrote Little Women. This home, virtually unchanged from the time the family lived there, is open to the public.
Orchard House
399 Lexington Road
PO Box 343
Concord, MA 01742-3712
Phone: 978-369-4118
E-mail: info@louisamayalcott.org
Hours: April 1 to October 31 — Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Sunday, 1 to 4 pm. November 1 to March 31 — Monday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Sunday, 1 to 4:30 p.m. The house is shown by guided tour only.
Orchard House is a combination of two houses dating to the early 1700s that Bronson Alcott bought and remodeled by attaching the smaller to the larger. At the time, the property was covered with apple orchards, leading to the choice of the name of the house. Lousia May Alcott wrote Little Women in this house and also set the scenes of the novel there. This often prompts visitors to exclaim that a walk through the house is like a walk through the novel. The house is virtually unchanged since the time of the Alcotts’ residence and it looks almost exactly as they would have known it.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
Even casual readers of American literature are familiar with the credo of Walden, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” An American essayist, poet, and philosopher, Henry David Thoreau was influenced by the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and he ultimately became one of the central figures in the Transcendentalist group of writers and thinkers of the mid-1800s. He is best know for Walden (1854), a description of his time living simply in a cabin on the shore of Walden Pond. Thoreau was born in Concord, graduated from Harvard University, and then taught school. His life took a decisive turn when he met Emerson. In 1845 Thoreau built a home on the shores of Walden Point and described his observations in A Week On The Concord And Merrimack Rivers (1849). His essay, Civil Disobedience (1849), was a result of a overnight visit in 1846 to a jail when he refused to pay his taxes as a protest against the Mexican War. He was a committed abolitionist. Although Thoreau never earned a substantial living by his writings, his works fill 20 volumes.
Walden Pond State Reservation
915 Walden Street/Route 126
Concord, MA 01742-4511
Phone: 978-369-3245
Fee charged
Walden Pond has been designated a National Historic Landmark and is considered the birthplace of the conservation movement. The reservation covers 400 acres. Mostly undeveloped woods called Walden Woods surround the reservation. The area is popular for fishing, swimming, and walking. To protect the natural resources of the area the number of visitors is limited to no more than 1,000 people at a time. Visitors are encouraged to call the park in advance and check on parking availability. A replica of Henry David Thoreau’s house is available for viewing by the public. Year-round interpretive programs and guided walks are offered.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1837-1882)
Possibly the most popular American poet of the 19th century, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his works are still studied and copied. His most famous pieces include Evangeline (1847), The Song Of Hiawatha (1855), and The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858). He was born in 1807 in Portland, Maine. His father, Stephen Longfellow, was a lawyer and congressman, and mother was a descendant of John Alden of the Mayflower. After university and some travel in Europe, Longfellow returned to Maine to work as a professor and librarian in Bowdoin College, where he became acquainted with Nathaniel Hawthorne. During a later European trip he became enamored of German Romanticism. Longfellow’s later poetry reflects his interest in establishing an American mythology. His 70th birthday was celebrated around the United States. Longfellow died in Cambridge. His image in marble is located in Westminster Abbey, London, in the Poet’s Corner.
Longfellow National Historic Site
105 Brattle St.
Cambridge, MA 02138-3407
Phone: 617-876-4491
Hours: check Web site for seasonal hours of operation.
For almost half a century, from 1837 to 1882, this was the home of one of the world’s foremost poets, scholars, and educators. The house is also significant in America’s Colonial history. As commander-in-chief of the new Continental Army, Gen. George Washington planned the siege of Boston from a headquarters at this house between July 1775 and April 1776. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime and he played a central role in the intellectual life of 19th-century America. His residence was a favorite gathering place for philosophers and artists like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Julia Ward Howe, and Charles Sumner.
Herman Melville (1819-1891)
The grandson of two Revolutionary War heroes, Herman Melville enjoyed a privileged childhood in New York City, where he was born in 1819. But when he was 11, his father went bankrupt, forcing the family to flee creditors and move to Albany. At age 22, he signed on the whaler Acushnet for a whaling voyage. Later he joined the U.S. Navy. Urged by his family, the young man began to write down the stories of his seafaring adventures, which led to the publication of Typee (1846), Omoo (1847), and other adventure stories. In 1850, while on a picnic excursion south of Pittsfield, he was introduced to Oliver Wendell Holmes and Nathaniel Hawthorne, both of whom lived in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts. Melville and Hawthorne became instant friends. Melville moved to the Berkshires, bought a farm, and named his house Arrowhead. Features and images of his beloved Arrowhead figure in many of his stories. There he wrote some of his finest works, among them his masterpiece, Moby-Dick. The book was not well received by critics, but a few lines of high praise from Hawthorne buoyed Melville’s spirits enormously. During 13 years of work at Arrowhead, he failed to earn sufficient income from his writing, so he moved his family to New York City and began work as a customs inspector. His last published work was Billy Bud, published decades after his death.
Arrowhead
780 Holmes Road
Pittsfield, MA 01201-7152
Phone: 413-442-1793
E-mail: info@mobydick.org
Hours: Open daily from Memorial Day Weekend to Columbus Day from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tours begin every hour on the hour. Tours are available in the off-season by appointment only. Fee charged.
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst to a highly educated and politically dynamic family. She began writing poems at about the age of 20, first in a conventional style and later in more experimental ways. She was exceedingly private, spending most of her time after the age of 23 alone in her bedroom. Of the 1,800 poems she wrote, only seven were published while she lived. Nonetheless, her letters show her familiarity with the works of John Keats, John Ruskin, and Sir Thomas Browne. Her sister began to get Dickinson’s poems published after Dickinson’s death. Her work is believed to have heavily influenced modern poetry, particularly through its irregular rhymes, broken meter, and unusual metaphors. She is considered among the most innovative of American poets.
Emily Dickinson Museum
280 Main St.
Amherst, MA 01002-2349
Phone: 413-542-8161
Hours: Open March through mid-December. Admission to the museum beyond the Tour Center is by guided tour only.
Emily Dickinson Museum consists of two historic houses in the center of Amherst. The Homestead was the birthplace and home of Emily Dickinson. The Evergreens, next door, was home to her brother Austin and his family. The tour begins at the Homestead and continues to The Evergreens. In addition to the library, parlor, dining room, and kitchen, visitors may see the children’s nursery, home to Emily Dickinson’s beloved nephews and niece.
Edith Wharton (1862-1937)
Edith Wharton was born into privileged society in New York City, but she cast off the strictures of a limited life bound for marriage and society. She wrote 40 books in 40 years, including The Age of Innocence, Ethan Frome, and The House of Mirth. She wrote authoritatively on many subjects, including architecture, gardens, interior design, and travel. She was the first woman to received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction; an honorary doctorate of letters from Yale University; and membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
The Mount
Route 7 and Plunkett Street
Lenox, MA 01240
Hours: May 6 to October 29 — 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fee charged.
Edith Wharton designed the house and the gardens of the Mount in 1902, using the principles she declared in her book The Decoration of Houses (1897). She believed the design of a house should respect the principles of proportion, harmony, simplicity, and usefulness. She also thought of gardens in architectural terms. She thought of her gardens as outdoor rooms and she created unique compositions suited to the house and the natural surroundings.
Concord Museum
200 Lexington Road
Concord, MA 01742-3711
Phone: 978-369-9763
E-mail: cm1@concordmuseum.org
Hours: January to March — Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m. April to December — Monday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. June through August — Sundays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Concord Museum, across the street from the Emerson House in Concord, presents a wide assortment of history an artifacts of New England from Colonial times, touching on such subjects as the American Revolution, Native Americans, abolitionism, industries and crafts, religion, and literature. The museum collection began in 1850 and the museum was formally founded in 1886. One of the museum’s greatest collections is a reassembly of Emerson’s study, with all his possessions in place as they would have been when he wrote his masterworks on the need for religious inquiry, lessons of nature, and the central of personal responsibility for the soul.
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
Bedford Street
Concord, MA 01742
Phone: 978-318-3233
E-mail: thopkins@concordnet.org
Sleepy Hollow, the largest cemetery in Concord, contains 10,000 gravesites. It was one of the first U.S. cemeteries to be designed with a wooded character and it is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. “Authors Ridge,” a hilly crest in the cemetery, is the burial place of Henry Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, and her father, Bronson Alcott. (Emerson, a member of the Cemetery Committee, served as orator during the consecration of the cemetery in 1855.) They are all buried in family plots marked by simple stones. A popular attraction of the cemetery is the sculpture Mourning Victory, also known as the Melvin Memorial. Commissioned in memory of three brothers who died during the Civil War, the memorial was created by Daniel Chester French, who also designed the Minuteman Statue at Concord’s North Bridge and the Lincoln Statue at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.’s.
Boston Athenaeum
10 1/2 Beacon Street
Boston, MA 02108-3703
Phone: 617-227-0270
Hours: Monday, 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Tuesday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Boston Athenaeum, one of the oldest independent libraries in the United States, was founded in 1807 by 14 Boston men who edited The Monthly Anthology and Boston Review. The library and its art gallery grew rapidly, through purchases and donations. Through the mid-1800s the Athenæum was the center of intellectual life in Boston. Today it owns more than 500,000 books, with particular emphasis on history, biography, English and American literature, and the arts.
Old Corner Bookstore
School and Washington Streets
Boston, MA 02119
Typical of the buildings of Boston in Colonial days, the Old Corner Bookstore was built as an apothecary for druggist Thomas Creese in 1718, and it became a literary center in the mid-19th century. The work of writers Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and others were published by Ticknor and Fields Co., whose offices was located here. Now called the Globe Corner Bookstore, the business specializes in New England and travel books and maps.
Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904-1991)
Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield in 1904 and grew up in the city’s Forest Park neighborhood. His father was a parks commissioner and was in charge of the Forest Park Zoo, a regular playground for young Theodor. In later years, Geisel, as Dr. Seuss, credited his mother with his love for rhyming because she had often talked her children to sleep with chanted rhymes. Images of Springfield can be found throughout Dr. Seuss’s work. His first children’s book, And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street, shows a man resembling the city’s mayor and police officers riding red motorcycles, typical of the Indian brand motorcycles for which the city became famous. Geisel left Springfield as a teenager to attend Dartmouth College, where he became editor-in-chief of the university’s humor magazine. Here he first began using his pen name, Dr. Seuss. Geisel continued his studies at Oxford University in England, then toured Europe and met his future wife, Helen Palmer.
Back in the United States, Geisel began working as a cartoonist and his work was published in The Saturday Evening Post. He also produced advertising art for Standard Oil for more than 15 years. During World War II, Geisel contributed political cartoons to the liberal magazine PM and made training movies with the Signal Corps of the U.S. Army. Later, Viking Press offered him a contract to illustrate a collection of children’s sayings. The first book that Geisel wrote and illustrated, And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street, was rejected 27 times before being published by Vanguard Press. Later, with the publication of The Cat in the Hat, Geisel became an established and popular children’s book author and illustrator. When he died in 1991, Geisel had written and illustrated 44 children’s books. More than 200 million copies have been sold.
Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden
Springfield Museums
State and Chestnut Streets
Springfield, MA 01103
Phone: 800-625-7738
The Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden is now open at the Springfield Museums in Springfield, Theodor Seuss Geisel’s home town. Lark Grey Dimond-Cates, Geisel’s step-daughter, sculpted the large bronze sculptures of Dr. Seuss and his most beloved characters. Clustered together at the corner of the Quadrangle green near the Springfield Library are several large groupings: Theodor Geisel at his drawing board with the Cat in the Hat at his side; a 14-foot Horton the Elephant stepping out of an open book, accompanied by Thing One, Thing Two, Sam-I-Am, Sally, her brother, and Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose; and a storytelling chair, backed by a 10-foot-tall book with the text of Oh, the Places You'll Go! with Gertrude McFuzz perched on top and the Grinch and his dog, Max, peeking around the side.
|
|
Mayflower Society Museum
4 Winslow Street
Plymouth, MA 02360
Phone: 508-746-2590
Open: July – mid-September, daily, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.; Memorial Day weekend-June 30 and mid-September to mid-October, Friday – Sunday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
The headquarters of the General Society of Mayflower Descendents is located in this 1754 home built by Edward Winslow, a Pilgrim descendant. It features furnishings spanning three centuries, a flying staircase and formal gardens.
Hours: July-Labor Day, open daily; Memorial Day weekend-June and early September-October, Friday-Sunday. Fee charged.
|
|
Mayhew Chapel and Indian Burial Ground
South Indian Hill Road
West Tisbury, MA 02568
Phone: 508-627-8687
This Christiantown memorial is the site of an Indian burial ground and the Mayhew Chapel, named after Thomas Mayhew Jr., a missionary. This site is owned by the Wampanoag Tribe and grounds are maintained by Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club. Includes a wildflower sanctuary.
Fee charged.
|
|
 Mission House
19 Main St.
Stockbridge, MA 01262
Phone: 413-298-3239
Built in 1739 and originally located atop Prospect Hill, this National Historic Landmark was disassembled, moved, and restored between 1926 and 1927. Landscape architect Fletcher Steele designed the Colonial Revival garden, which features a colonial-style dooryard garden of circular brick paths enclosed by a tidewater cypress fence. A replica of an old cobbler shop serves as the entrance to the property; a grape arbor in the Well Courtyard behind the house leads to a small Native American museum.
Hours: Memorial Day weekend to Columbus Day, daily, 10 a.m.- to 5 p.m. Fee charged.
|
|
 Mytoi
Dike Road, Chappaquiddick Island
Martha’s Vineyard, MA 02568
Phone: 508-627-7689
Fax: 508-627-3659
Japanese-style garden set within an open pine forest. Includes mixed plantings of native and exotic trees and shrubs, some rare. The garden’s signature feature is a small pond with an island that is reached by walking over an arched bridge. Winding footpaths take visitors through a birch walk, camellia dell, stone garden, and hillside garden. A rustic meditation shelter offers broad views of the garden and landscape.
Hours: Year-round, daily, sunrise to sunset. No charge.
|
|
 Naumkeag
Prospect Hill Road
Stockbridge, MA 01262
Phone: 413-298-3239
Fax: 413-298-5239
This 44-room house was the summer cottage of the Choate family, and features original furniture, ceramics, and artwork collected from America, Europe, and the Far East. Famous for its eight acres of terraced gardens and landscaped grounds, transformed from 1926 to 1956 into separate garden rooms such as the afternoon garden, rose garden, evergreen garden, Chinese garden, arborvitae walk, and linden walk. The most famous feature of the landscape is Steele’s Blue Steps, a series of deep blue fountain pools flanked by four flights of stairs overhung by birch trees.
Hours: Memorial Day to Columbus Day, daily, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission fee for non-members.
|
|
 New England Vacation Tours
Phone: 802-464-2076
Toll-Free: 800-742-7669
Fax: 802-464-2629
Email: nevt@sover.net
New England Vacation Tours are your group tour experts. We are specialists for all-inclusive tours throughout New England offering Romantic Getaways, air travel and car rental programs, and arrangements for sea cruises along the coast. We have customized chauffeur-driven & self-drive tours, corporate meeting and private party planning & transportation, as well as hotel & country inns accommodations, resort travel and vacation packages. We have escorted fly & motor coach tours to Boston, Cape Cod, Newport, ski resorts in Vermont and New Hampshire including Mount Snow and Attitash, and other destinations in Eastern Canada and along the East Coast.
|
| top of listings |
|
New England Wildflower Society
180 Hemenway Road
Framingham, MA 01701
Phone: 508-877-7630
Fax: 508-877-3658
This magnificent native plant botanical garden displays 1,500 native plant species including 200 rare and endangered species on 45 acres.
Hours: April 15-June 15, daily, 9 a.m.-7 p.m.; June 16-October 31, daily 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Trails close for the seasons after October. Fee charged.
|
|
Osterville Historical Society Museum
Parker and West Bay Roads
Osterville, MA 02655
Phone: 508-428-5861
Open: Mid-June-mid-September, Thursday-Sunday 1:30-4:30 p.m.; other times by appointment
Set in the home of a sea captain built in the 18th century, the museum features home-oriented exhibits, a boat shop and outdoor gardens. seasonally. There is an admission fee.
Hours: June-September, Thursday-Sunday, 1:30 -4:30 p.m. Fee charged.
|
|
Rotch-Jones-Duff House and Garden Museum
936 County Street
New Bedford, MA 02740
Phone: 508-997-1401
Open: Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Sunday, noon-4 p.m.
This 28-room Greek Revival mansion was built for whaling merchant William Rotch, Jr. in 1834. The house and formal gardens chronicle 150 years of economic, social and domestic life in New Bedford. The grounds encompass a full city block of gardens including a Wildflower Walk, a formal boxwood rose parterre garden, a cutting garden, a boxwood specimen garden and an historic wood lattice pergola. Fee charged.
|
|
Scenic Drives
Berkshires and Pioneer Valley
The Berkshires
Follow Route 7 north from Sheffield near the Connecticut border, to Williamstown. Route 8 runs from Sandisfield to Dalton, between two state forests. Route 183 takes you from Great Barrington to Lenox, follows the Housatonic River. Take Richmond Road, off of Route 183, just south of Tanglewood, and stop at the overlook for views of Stockbridge Bowl and the southern Berkshire Hills. Route 43 east, off Route 7, is the lower road to Williamstown. Enjoy the scenic farmland, as well as more mountainous terrain.
Sheffield - Lenox - Williamstown
The Mohawk Trail
Route 2 from Orange to Williamstown is known as the Mohawk Trail, one of America’s first designated automobile tour routes. Along the way you will come upon no less than 14 state parks and forests. How’s that for leaf-peeping potential?
Upcountry views include the Whitcomb Summit. There, you will negotiate a needle-eye turn, but not before taking advantage of the scenic overlook that offers a near-to-heaven view of hills, valleys, fields and farms, and the winding road to yet another summit, that of Mount Greylock.
Other sites along Route 2 include French King Bridge, Millers Falls; the Bissell Covered Bridge, Charlemont; and the enchanting Bridge of Flowers and Shelburne Falls.
Orange - Greenfield - Williamstown
Western Massachusetts
Colorful tours through small villages and college towns await you. Massachusetts Routes 116 and 9 wind through rolling country hills and towns. Take Rte. 116 through scenic Conway and AshfieId. Pittsfield, on Route. 9, is the first of several picturesque villages you'll travel through, including Amherst, Northampton, Goshen and Cummington. Keep your camera handy.
Pittsfield - Amherst - Northampton
Boston
Minuteman Route
From Boston, follow Massachusetts Routes 2 and 4 to Lexington. From Lexington use Rte. 2A to Concord. The road winds through brilliant autumnal countryside, and past Concord's famous Old North Bridge and Minuteman Monument. Pass through Concord Center and bear left at the fork on Sudbury Road. At the Sudbury line, this becomes Concord Road; follow it through Sudbury Center to Rte. 20. Return on Rte. 20 through Waltham, and back to Boston. Lexington - Concord
Central
Enjoy a slow and leisurely drive in sparse traffic, on the route to Quabbin Reservoir:
From Route 128, follow Route 117, or from Route I-495 take Exit 27 and take Route 117 heading to Stow from either direction. This is Massachusett's apple country. At Stow, pick up Route 62 south and west to Princeton. Go north to Wachusett Mountain Reservation, (this road has no number) where you can drive or hike to the summit for a splendid panorama of the countryside.
Return to Route 62 and head west to Barre, then south on Route 32 to Old Furnace. Follow the unnumbered road west to Hardwick, or continue on Route 32, and either way then go north on Route 32A, which runs along Quabbin Reservoir to Petersham.
In Petersham, follow Route 101 east through Templeton, Gardner, and the Ashburnhams to the junction with Route 119. If your looking for a quic drive back to Interstate 495, or route 128/I-95 you can pick up Route 2 East a few places along this stretch. Otherwise, travel east on Route 119 through the Willard Brook State Forest in Ashby and Townsend, where the brook and road run parallel. Get back on I-485 in Littleton. Traveling south on I-495 will soon bring you to the Route 2 exit. Stow - Petrersham - Ashburnham
North Shore
A tour of Cape Ann is a wonderful drive, and can be especially so during a storm. Take Route 128 North to near its end and exit onto Route 127 heading toward Halibut Point. This is a great birding spot. It is also a magnificent place to view and feel the fury of a North Atlantic nor’easter, the powerful storms centered offshore that pound the New England coastline. Wet or dry, continue to Rockport where you may view that most painted and photographed shed, “Motif #1.” Leaving Rockport continue on Route 127, or closer to shore, Route 127A. Both will bring you to Gloucester and Gloucester Harbor, America’s most famous fishing poRoute When you’re ready to leave town continue on Route 127 through the beautiful small communities of Manchester-By-The-Sea, Beverly Farms and Beverly, then back to Route 128 and the reality of life on the highway (sigh). Rockport
South Shore
Cranberry Country
The foliage of Plymouth and Bristol counties, provide unique leaf-peeping with historic towns, farms, cranberry bogs, and seaside views. From Interstate 195 East of New Bedford take the exit for Route 105. Travel north through Rochester, past the lakes to Lakeville. Leave Lakeville by going north on Route 28 to Bridgewater. In Bridgewater pick up Route 106 going east. You can take this all the way to the shoreline town of Kingston, just north of historic Plymouth. Or just before Halifax turn right on to Route 58 South, which will take you through Carver and to I-495 just outside or Wareham.
New Bedford - Plymouth - Wareham
|
|
Stanley Park
Western Avenue
Westfield, MA
Phone: 413-568-9312
Set on 300 acres, this park features a Japanese garden, rose garden and arboretum.
Hours: Open seasonally, 8 a.m. to dusk. Fee charged.
|
|
 Stevens-Coolidge Place
139 Andover Street
North Andover, MA 01845
Phone: 978-682-3580
Fax: 978-682-3580
The house’s collections include Chinese porcelain and other Asian artifacts, American furniture, and American and European decorative arts. Landscape includes a perennial garden, a kitchen and cut flower garden, a rose garden, a French potager garden with a unique brick serpentine wall, and a greenhouse complex.
Hours: Gardens: Year-round, daily, sunrise to sunset. House: Guided tours Mother’s Day through Columbus Day weekend, Sundays, 1-5 p.m.; July-August, Wednesdays, 2-4 p.m. Fee: Garden: no charge; house, fee charged.
|
|
 Tower Hill Botanic Garden
111 French Dr. / PO Box 598
Boylston, MA 01505
Phone: 508-869-6111
Fax: 508-869-0314
Email: thbg@towerhillbg.org
Experience "a world class garden, that's always in season!"
Located on 132 bucolic acres in Worcester County, less than an hour from Boston, Tower Hill is one of the largest and most comprehensive botanic gardens in the region. It is the home of the Worcester County Horticultural Society, founded in 1842 to "advance the science, and encourage and improve the practice of horticulture." The breathtaking view provides an extraordinary setting for a variety of garden styles, at once stunningly beautiful and highly educational. Stroll through a Lawn Garden, Secret Garden, Cottage Garden, Vegetable Garden, Systematic Garden, and magical woodland paths. In winter, the Orangerie is filled with flowering subtropical plants. Browse the Gift Shop and enjoy lunch at Twigs Café.
|
|
Wellesley College Botanic Garden
106 Central Street
Wellesley, MA 02481
Phone: 781-283-3049
The Margaret C. Ferguson Greenhouses contain over 1000 specimens of desert, tropical and semi-tropical species. The Alexandra Botanic Garden and Hunnewell Arboretum offer hundreds of specimen trees and shrubs in 22 acres of Olmsted-inspired landscape.
Hours: Daily, 8 a.m.-4 p.m.
|
|
 Wolfe Adventures & Tours
29 Groton Road
Shirley, MA 01464
Phone: 978-448-3600
Toll-Free: 888-449-6533
Email: info@wolfetours.com
See things you know you "should see" & others you didn't know you should!
Wolfe Adventures & Tours is primed and ready to take you wherever you want to go! Experienced and fun local guides help you on your search for great travel memories to share. We can create a customized tour for groups from 2 to 222, or you can personalize your adventure and we’ll step on your motor coach for local guiding. You can even join a group! Half, full or multi-day planning is available. Experience local cuisine, walking the streets, hiking, kayaking, and schooner sails.
It’s your vacation and you should do what you want to do! From Maine’s lighthouses to Rockport’s artist community, Gloucester’s seaport, Salem’s historic past, shots heard ‘round the world, and Boston’s tea party, we get our groups everywhere! We also know Plymouth, Cape Cod, Rhode Island, Vermont and New Hampshire. FIT and individuals welcome. We look forward to showing you our neck of the woods!
|
|
|
|
|
|
