Home Sweet Home

BY VICTORIA ABBOTT RICCARDI

The Trustees cares for a variety of extraordinary historic houses and buildings among its 120-plus reservations, including seven National Historic Landmarks and four more on the National Register of Historic Places. Often set among spectacular landscapes, Trustees historic houses showcase more than three centuries of diverse architectural styles, from the Colonial Era to the Modern movement. The collection includes nine house museums—furnished with many of the homes’ original paintings, textiles, furniture, and decorative arts—which bring alive the history and stories of the people who inhabited them.

If you’ve never visited the Trustees historic houses, now is a better time than ever to make the trip—staff have been hard at work cataloging the collections, designing new tours, and developing creative exhibitions and exciting programs to bring the stories of these special places to life. Here’s a quick peek at some of the programs, tours, and events that are on tap for the spring and summer.

THE CRANE ESTATE, IPSWICH

The Richard T. Crane Jr. family’s 59-room, English-inspired seaside manor house has for many years hosted concerts, theatrical performances, and a variety of engaging programs. This spring and summer enjoy George Herman’s play A Company of Wayward Saints in the estate’s Italianesque Casino Complex. Eleven performances begin June 14.

Imagine talking to a butterfly… what would you ask? Presented in the estate’s stunning gardens, the Castle Hill Butterfly Encounter is an interactive program featuring a giant monarch butterfly brought to life by puppeteer and actor Lucas Milliken. He’ll recount adventures of growing up in the milkweed patch, metamorphosis, and his amazing journey across continents.

Castle Hill’s popular tours have recently expanded, as well. See the property from inside and out with Castle Hill House & Gardens tours or savor the late afternoon views from the Great House roof on the Castle Hill Golden Hours tour.

LONG HILL, BEVERLY

NAUMKEAG, STOCKBRIDGE

THE FOLLY AT FIELD FARM, WILLIAMSTOWN

The Bloedel family’s mid-century modern home at Field Farm has long functioned as a bed and breakfast, where guests and visitors alike enjoy a curated collection of contemporary sculptures dotted around the bucolic landscape. But one of the most unique features of the property—the family’s jewel box of a guesthouse, The Folly (built in 1965)—has mostly been experienced only from outside. This June, visitors will once again be able to tour the newly refurbished Folly, with its beautiful curves, eyebrow windows, glass walls, and large sliding glass portals framing views of Mt. Greylock and the Berkshire hills. Don’t miss the retro kitchen with custom designed features like a blender-mixer built into the counter!

FRUITLANDS MUSEUM, HARVARD

Clara Endicott Sears’s summer estate and site of a short-lived 19th-century transcendentalist community, offers some fresh programs and new art installations this spring. In addition to seeing the Fruitlands Farmhouse and Shaker Gallery on the Visions of Utopia tour, you can visit these spaces on your own. Consulting interpreters will be on-hand in each building to answer questions.

On the third Saturday of each month, May through October, Trustees’ Associate Curator of Native American Art, Tess Lukey, will spotlight a piece from the museum’s renowned permanent collection. And in June, artist Rachel Hayes’s largescale abstract textile piece, Transcending Space will be on display in the Art Gallery, with a companion work installed overlooking Fruitlands’ famous hillside vista.

With its glorious garden spaces and woodland trails, the home of the Sedgwick family has recently been revitalized as a dynamic center for horticultural learning.

Long Hill hosts its first annual Garden Symposium (May 6 & 7) featuring an internationally renowned group of plant specialists and horticultural professionals. Enjoy lectures and workshops across this spectacular garden property on topics ranging from drought-tolerant garden design to edible flowers.

Sunday Afternoon Tea debuts on the garden terrace this spring, with a spread including hot tea, sandwiches, scones, and mini pastries. Music and sound are also new features in the gardens this year. The Long Hill team provides a series of mindfulness prompts to enhance your garden viewing and listening experience, or you can soothe your heart and soul with Sounding Healing guided relaxation programs.

THE MISSION HOUSE, STOCKBRIDGE

In the early 18th-century, John Sergeant established a mission for the Mohican people in the southern Berkshires. The Mission House is the home Sergeant built around 1742. The house and gardens have received recent updates, and occasional tours of the interior of the house are planned for the summer and fall.

Come June, visitors can also view an expanded version of Mohican Miles, an exhibit curated by the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Community, in the Carriage House. Newly titled Our Lands, Our Home, Our Hearts the display provides a detailed look at centuries of the tribe’s survivance and highlight’s the Mohican culture’s vibrance and connection to the area now known as Stockbridge.

The Choate family’s Gilded Age, 44-room, shingle-style home in the heart of the Berkshires, elegantly situated overlooking 48 acres of spectacular gardens and vistas, Naumkeag ushers in some exciting new options this season. And visitors will discover new and more accessible pathways through the gardens this year, as well.

Memorial Day weekend kicks off Naumkeag’s self-guided tours with many new areas of the house featured, including some unexpected places—don’t forget to check the closets! Coming this summer, look forward to the arrival of new full house tours that include the never-before-seen third floor. Also new is the Spill the Tea summer program, consisting of multiple talks highlighting Naumkeag’s history and stories of the Gilded Age.

THE OLD MANSE, CONCORD

The center of Concord’s political, literary, and social world for over a century, and home to Ralph Waldo Emerson and later, Nathaniel Hawthorne, among others, “the Manse” hosts some exciting programs this season. Popular tours include Flipping the Script: The Women of the Old Manse which shares the stories of the women who lived in the Manse from the time of the

Revolutionary War through the mid-20th century, and If These Walls Could Talk, which details the history behind the wallpaper and graffiti in the house.

Bring the kiddos for the Family Friendly Tour, which shares stories about how people lived during the Revolutionary War, and the child-friendly Nature of Stories series, which returns by popular demand. Held outdoors, these free story time programs focus on different aspects of the natural world and include art activities to explore nature further.

STEVENS-COOLIDGE HOUSE & GARDENS, NORTH ANDOVER

The Coolidge family’s early-20th-century estate features a gracious home surrounded by gorgeous gardens, and the coming months bring a host of garden- and flower-focused programs. In addition to the annual Mother’s Day Floral Workshop the Garden Tour series, and the Father’s Day Bash, this season also offers the chance to see the house’s second floor for the first time. Don’t miss Helen Stevens Coolidge’s bedroom and its newly conserved wallpaper. And Stevens-Coolidge’s concert series in the gardens will be back again this summer, as well, featuring an expanded line-up of musical performances.

The Trustees’ historic houses are buzzing with activity like never before. If you’re familiar with these special places, stop by and see what’s new for 2023. And if you’ve never visited some of these homes, now’s the time to discover them! For more about the histories of these houses, along with up-to-date hours, tours, and program details, visit thetrustees.org/ historicspaces.

Victoria Abbott Riccardi is a Newton-based freelance travel, food, and lifestyle writer,