Boston Flora

Tag: National Register Of Historic Places

  • Thursday, February 25, 5:30 pm – Julian Abele: Architect and the Beaux Arts, Online

    The Presdervation Society of Newport County’s focus on great architects continues on Thursday, February 25, at 5:30 p.m. EST with Julian Abele: Architect and the Beaux Arts with Dreck Spurlock Wilson, a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects and President of the Landscape Consortium Ltd. in D.C. He is a Senior Construction Program Manager at Delon Hampton & Associates, Engineers, published his newest book in 2020 entitled Julian Abele: Architect and the Beaux Arts. He has also contributed a number of publications to the field of architectural history around topics relating to African American Architects and Landscape Architects. Wilson holds a B.S. in Urban Planning from Iowa State University. And an M.A. in Urban Studies from the University of Chicago.


    No less impressive is the pioneering African-American architect at the heart of his talk. Julian Abele (1881-1950) overcame the racism and segregation of his time to design more than 100 buildings, including 21 listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Fans of The Elms will know that he is also credited with designing its famous Sunken Garden.
    Follow this link to register. Free, but registration required.

  • Thursday, October 5 – Saturday, October 7 – America in Bloom National Symposium

    The 2017 America in Bloom National Symposium is coming to New England for the first time this October.  The Town of Holliston will host the event October 5 – 7, and attendees from out of state will lodge at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel & Conference Center.

    The conference kicks off with an East Coast Garden Tour on Thursday, October 5 from 10 – 4, advance registration required. If you want to experience horticultural heritage in the Boston area at its best, this tour is for you! We’ll start by visiting one of the oldest and finest garden centers in the Boston area, Weston Nurseries. Known for offering exceptional plants and garden ideas, this nursery in Hopkinton, MA also has an amazing railroad garden. After touring the garden center we’ll enjoy lunch hosted by Peter Mezitt, fourth generation nursery owner. Then we will head to The Gardens at Elm Bank in Wellesley, MA, headquarters of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Here we will enjoy special tours of 12 display gardens, including an historic Olmsted Italianate Garden as well as the Bressingham Garden designed by English nurseryman Adrian Bloom. The last stop on the tour is to Wellesley College, rated one of the most beautiful small college campuses in the country. We will have a special tour of their botanic garden which now focuses on the fundamental role of plants in nature and culture. The cost is $50 and includes lunch. Tour is limited to 50 people so register early.

    If you prefer, take a tour of the Urban Farming Institute from 1 – 4. If you believe in sourcing local, fresh food, don’t miss this tour! The Urban Farming Institute is a brand-new concept in the historically-diverse Roxbury/Dorchester/Mattapan neighborhoods of Boston. The Institute’s mission is to develop and promote urban farming as a commercial sector within the city and to create green collar jobs for residents. It is also committed to engaging its urban community in building a healthier and more locally-based food system. The Fowler-Clark-Epstein Farm, currently under reconstruction, is becoming the center for celebrating the agricultural heritage of the Boston area as well as the cultural and historic heritage of this unique community. On this tour, you will see first-hand the work the Institute is doing to enable urban farming through farm creation, farmer training, public education, and policy change, and how the Institute brings people in urban neighborhoods closer to food production. Your tour leader is Barbara Knecht, partner in “Strategies for Cities.” Barbara has brought 30 years of developing urban land for public good and a love of all things edible to her work developing urban farm sites. The cost is $35. Tour is limited to 11 people so register early.

    Prior to that evening’s silent auction and cocktail reception there will be a Mayor and Elected Leaders Reception, and later, a Celebration Dinner.

    The Symposium begins in earnest on Friday, with a Keynote Presentation by Ken Kruckemeyer, board member of LivableStreets Alliance and partner in “Strategies for Cities.” Ken specializes in the design of civil infrastructure focusing in pedestrian and bicycle corridors as well as roadway and bridge design. Historic preservation has become a fundamental tool for strengthening communities. When understood as a combination of physical and human attributes, it can provide a framework for communities to build on their assets and improve health, affordability, prosperity, and well-being. Historic preservation can make it possible to achieve a wide range of public goals, including small business incubation, affordable housing, sustainable development, neighborhood renewal, heritage tourism, and economic development. By examples primarily drawn from his Boston experience, Ken will address the importance of historic preservation and the role that walkable corridors play in an effective immersion in the historic character of a community.

    Friday brings a host of panel presentations such as Creating a Sense of Place Downtown, and a How-To Guide to Improving Your Town Through Horticulture. Afternoon and evening tours of the Freedom Trail and the Rose Kennedy Greenway, plus Mount Auburn Cemetery, are on offer.

    On Saturday the Showcase of Innovation continues, and America in Bloom President Katy Moss Warner will take a brief look at collective successes in her morning Keynote Speech. A lunch and Holliston Walking Tour round out the afternoon, and that evening, the America in Bloom Awards Banquet will take place.

    Full registration is $345, and by registering online at http://www.americainbloom.org/Symposium/Registration.aspx before September 8 you will receive a discount. You may also call 614-453-0744, or email aib@AmericainBloom.org.

  • Saturday, May 7 – Sunday, June 5 – Junior League of Boston’s 45th Annual Show House

    Celebrating the 45th Anniversary of Show House, the Junior League of Boston will host the 2016 Decorators’ Show House at the 1854 Nathaniel Allen House in Newton, Massachusetts. This premier design event will be held May 7, 2016 through June 5, 2016 and will feature the creative talents of the Boston area’s finest designers.

    Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, the Nathaniel Allen House was the site of the earliest co-educational school in the country and was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Owned by the Newton Cultural Alliance (NCA) since 2012, the property will support small and medium sized performances and cultural events. The proceeds from Show House will support the mission of the JL Boston, and the NCA will be the benefactors of the designers’ wonderful work. For general inquiries or questions, please contact the 2016 JL Boston Show House Chairs, Pamela Berutti and Susan Moussalli, at showhouse@jlboston.org. Tickets are now on sale at https://www.jlboston.org/system/ticket_list/?fundraiser_id=8

  • Saturday, December 6, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Concord Museum Holiday House Tour

    On Saturday, December 6, 2014, eight of Concord’s most beautiful private homes will be professionally decorated in the holiday spirit by local and Boston-based interior designers. Guests will be welcomed inside the front doors of these gracious private residences to visit the charming ground floor rooms. From Colonial to Victorian to Shingle Style and more, each house will be decorated in a different holiday theme. The Concord Museum welcomes you to spend the day in Concord, a small town with a big history, and enjoy the elegant streets, charming cafés and shops, as well as the many historic homes. And new this year, enjoy treats from Trail’s End Café at ticket pick-up, and take a break midway through your tour for complimentary cider and cookies at the Colonial Inn!

    The Guild of Volunteers is organizing this event as a benefit for the education initiatives of the Museum. The House Tour Co-Chairs are Kelly Benkert and Aura Bruce. Tickets may be purchased online at http://www.concordmuseum.org/holiday-house-tour.php, at the Museum, or by phone through December 4: $40 Members, $45 Non-members; after December 4 or day of: $50. No refunds; no photography. Tickets and maps must be picked up at the Museum the day of the tour.

    Special Offer from the Colonial Inn:
    Concord’s Colonial Inn, built in 1716, has a long and distinguished history of hospitality and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The hotel is located in downtown Concord within easy walking access to local shops, the Concord Museum and attractions including the Minuteman National Historical Park. Overnight accommodations for the Concord Museum’s Holiday House Tour are discounted to $119 per night for our Prescott Wing. Please call 978-369-9200 and mention this ad while booking.

  • Sundays, October 2 – October 30, 2:00 pm – Visionaries, Innovators and Provocateurs: The Eclectic Men and Women of Forest Hills

    Explore one of Boston’s hidden treasures: a 250 acre Victorian cemetery and arboretum listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and dedicated to nature, art and remembrance.  Every Sunday in October, tour Forest Hills (95 Forest Hills Avenue in Boston) with an expert guide.  On October 2, historian Elise Ciregna will present A Library of Life Stories.  There are more than 100,000 people buried at Forest Hills.  Hear some of their stories and view their monuments – some lavish and dramatic, and others modest or mysterious.  On October 9, social historian Dee Morris explores some fascinating families and their Neighbors.  Forest Hills is made up of many family lots, with entire families laid to rest next to one another.  These lots are next to other ones, creating a neighborhood of Victorian families.  October 16 brings A Visit With E.E. Cummings.  Tour guide Jonathan Clark explores the work and themes of innovative poet E.E. Cummings, whose playful style and daring typography (ee cummings, anyone?) made him one of the most influential poets of the 20th century.  The Women of Forest Hills will be the topic on October 23.  Dee Morris leads visitors through the stories of some of the most celebrated and fascinating women of 19th and 290th century Boston.  A hotbed of feminism and firsts in the Victorian era, Boston gave rise to such pioneers as suffragette and abolitionist Lucy Stone, historian-author Annie Haven Thwing, and others both notable and notorious.  Visit the graves of artists, politicians, School Board activists, even spirit mediums.  Finally, on October 30, there will be the Victorian Spiritualism Tour, just in time for All Hallows’ Eve.  Spiritualists believed that death was a transition to a new form of existence.  People who had “crossed over” could be contacted through seances and spirit guides.  Visit some of the religious leaders and practitioners, as well as skeptics, of this controversial 19th century movement.  Each program is $9, and Forest Hills has free parking and is accessible by T.  For directions and more information, visit www.foresthillstrust.org.

  • Saturday, June 19, 9:00 am – 12:00 noon – The Fells 19th Annual Plant Sale

    The Fells in Newbury, New Hampshire, is one of New England’s finest examples of an early 20th-century summer estate. Stroll the length of the 100-foot Perennial Border, discover the Old Garden, hidden behind masses of rhododendron, and admire the view of Lake Sunapee from the formal Rose Terrace and renowned hillside Rock Garden where a brook trickles to a Japanese water lily pool. The Fells is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a restoration project of The Garden Conservancy.

    On Saturday, June 19, from 9 – 12, The Fells nursery staff offers an outstanding selection of quality perennials and shrubs from regional nurseries as well as those propagated and field dug from The Fells very own gardens. Get friendly advice from expert Fells gardeners! Open to members 8-9am and to the general public at 9am. Members, bring your membership cards and save 20%! Rain or shine. Held in The Fells Gatehouse Courtyard.  For directions, log on to www.thefells.org, or call 603-763-4789.

    http://www.newburynh.org/Public_Documents/NewburyNH_Photos/FellsGarden.jpg

  • Sunday, November 15, 4:00 pm – Forest Hills Cemetery Book Party

    Join author Anthony Sammarco and The Forest Hills Educational Trust on Sunday, November 15 at 4:00 pm at Forest Hills Cemetery, 95 Forest Hills Avenue in Jamaica Plain, for the launch party of Mr. Sammarco’s new book, Forest Hills Cemetery, 1848 – 2008.

    This new photographic history of Forest Hills Cemetery  celebrates the 160th anniversary of the cemetery. This book is lavishly illustrated and sales will benefit the Trust’s education and preservation projects.

    Laid out in 1848 as a rural garden cemetery by Henry A.S. Dearborn,  its 275 magnificent acres have been the resting place of people of all walks of life, ethnicities, religion and race. Among these are poet Anne Sexton, playwright Eugene O’Neill, ee cummings and William Lloyd Garrison.

    Forest Hills’ landscape is a museum of sculpture, art and monuments that chronicle the Victorian age to the present. The first crematorium in the United States was here and prominent Bostonian suffragette Lucy Stone was the first person to be cremated at Forest Hills in 1893. An active cemetery and an all embracing place, Forest Hills offers a bucolic and picturesque setting for the “gathering of generations,” and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

    Anthony Sammarco has written over fifty books in the Arcadia series, and is a trustee of the Forest Hills Educational Trust and teaches at the Urban College of Boston.  For more information, and for directions, log on to www.foresthillstrust.org.

  • Saturday, October 17, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm – 41st Annual South End House Tour

    The South End Historical Society (SEHS) presents its 41st Annual South End House Tour on Saturday, October 17, from 10 – 5.  This self-guided tour of private homes and public spaces begins at the Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont Street, where you pick up your tickets and guidebook.  Tickets are $25 each, and may be purchased on line at www.southendhistoricalsociety.org.  For more information, call 617-536-4445, or email admin@southendhistoricalsociety.org.

    The South End Historical Society  is a group of interested citizens that recognizes the unique architectural and cultural history of the South End of Boston. Through the efforts of the society, the South End has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the largest Victorian brick rowhouse district in the United States.

    During its first thirty years, the SEHS has worked continuously to retain the Victorian integrity of the South End and reintroduce the greater Boston area to the South End with its annual House Tour as well as numerous historical programs and events. The SEHS also encourages research, conservation, and education to protect and promote interest in our local historic buildings, monuments, and sites.

    The South End Historical Society is one of the primary contributors to the preservation of the South End and a supporter of its ongoing revitalization.

    http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/06/29/travel/hours.395.1.jpg