Sights in New England
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Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
The Gardner is filled with almost 2000 priceless objects, primarily European, including outstanding tapestries and Italian Renaissance and 17th-century Dutch paintings. The four-story greenhouse courtyard is a masterpiece and a tranquil oasis that alone is worth the price of admission.
This museum was home to ‘Mrs Jack’ Gardner herself until her death in 1924. It remains a monument to one woman’s taste for acquiring exquisite art.
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National Museum of American Illustration
Well worth the pain it takes to arrange a visit (one needs advance reservations for time-specific tours), this acclaimed museum features an impressive collection of Maxfield Parrish’s impossibly luminous works in color, NC Wyeth prints, Norman Rockwell’s nostalgia and the illustrations of other American graphic heavy weights. The goods are displayed within the palatial Vernon Court (yet another mansion, this one from 1898) set within Olmstead-designed grounds. No kids under 12.
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Mugar Memorial Library
The special collections of BU’s Mugar Memorial Library are housed in the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, an outstanding 20th-century archive that balances pop culture and scholarly appeal. Rotating exhibits showcase the holdings, including papers from Arthur Fiedler’s collection, the archives of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr or the correspondence of BU alumnus Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.
Hours posted are for the archives; exhibit hours may vary depending on their exact location in the library.
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Maria Mitchell Association
The Maria Mitchell Association is devoted to Maria (pronounced 'Mariah') Mitchell (1818-89), who was America's first female astronomer. Astronomy was no mere hobby on Nantucket: the nearly 100 whaling ships based here navigated by the stars, and the Mitchell family calibrated ships' instruments. Maria is revered for discovering a comet in the 1840s, beating some of the world's leading scientists.
The association runs the Maria Mitchell Birthplace House, Vestal St Observatory and Loines Observatory.
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Asticou Terraces & Azalea Garden
Asticou Terraces & Azalea Garden, designed in 1900, is simply lovely. This 200 acre garden is laced with paths, little shelters and ornamental Japanese-style bridges. Azaleas and rhododendrons bloom profusely from mid-May to mid-June. Don’t neglect to wander up the garden’s Thuya Lodge, the depository of botanical books, where there’s a reflecting pool and well-tended perennial gardens. The terraces zigzag through the woods and down to the water.
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Maritime Aquarium
This aquarium focuses on the marine life of the Long Island Sound, including sand tiger sharks, loggerhead turtles and harbor seals, whose daily feedings at 11:45am, 1:45pm and 3:45pm are a real treat. IMAX movies are also shown throughout the day for an additional fee. For a more hands-on experience, take a 2½-hour cruise on the research vessel Oceanic (per person $20.50). Cruises depart at 1pm daily in July and August, and on weekends in April through June and September.
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Axiom
You know this place is going to be cool and cutting edge, by virtue of the fact that it is attached to the T station. Indeed, the contemporary glass and steel space is unique in Boston for its dedication to exhibiting artists who are working in the ‘new media.’ Blurring the line between technology and artistry, the exhibits explore ways to use video, audio and other unexpected media to look at the world. At the time of research, Axiom was hosting the first annual one-minute film festival.
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John Paul Jones House
The John Paul Jones House was a boardinghouse when America’s first great naval commander resided in Portsmouth. Jones, who uttered, ‘I have not yet begun to fight!’ during a particularly bloody engagement with the British, is believed to have lodged here during the outfitting of the Ranger (1777) and the America (1781). The marvelous Georgian mansion with gambrel roof is now the headquarters of the Portsmouth Historical Society.
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Lovells Island
Two deadly shipwrecks may bode badly for seafarers, but that doesn’t seem to stop recreational boaters, swimmers and sunbathers from lounging on Lovells’ long rocky beach. Some of the former uses of Lovells are evident: European settlers used the island as a rabbit run, and descendent bunnies are still running this place; Fort Standish dates from WWI but has yet to be excavated. With facilities for camping and picnicking, Lovells is one of the most popular Harbor Island destinations.
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Hooper-Lee-Nichols House
Now the headquarters of the Cambridge Historical Society, this c 1685 Georgian mansion is open for architectural tours, which show off the massive stone fireplace in the Chandler room and hand-painted wallpaper in the Bosphorous room. This is just one of many spectacular colonial-era residences on Brattle St. Lined with mansions that were once home to royal sympathizers, the street earned the nickname Tory Row.
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Penobscot Marine Museum
Just north of Camden on US 1 lies Belfast, a sleepy often-overlooked town, of grand architecturally eclectic houses and a diverse population mingling in the galleries and cafés of town. Five miles northeast, Searsport has a fine historic district with its share of 19th-century mansions. Searsport is also home to the superb Penobscot Marine Museum, housing Maine’s biggest collection of mariner art and artifacts, which are spread through a number of historic buildings.
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Benefit Street
Immediately east of downtown, you'll find College Hill, where you can see the city's colonial history reflected in the 18th-century houses that line Benefit Street on the East Side. These are, for the most part, private homes, but many are open for tours one weekend in mid-June during the annual Festival of Historic Homes. Benefit St is a fitting symbol of the Providence renaissance, rescued by local preservationists in the 1960s from misguided urban-renewal efforts that would have destroyed it.
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Wampanoag Homesite
The Wampanoag Homesite replicates the life of a Native American community in the same area as the Plimoth Plantation during the 1600s. Homesite huts are made of wattle and daub (a framework of woven rods and twigs covered and plastered with clay); inhabitants engage in traditional crafts while wearing traditional garb. Unlike the actors at the English Village, these individuals are not acting as historic characters, but are indigenous people speaking from a modern perspective.
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Henry B duPont Preservation Shipyard
At the Henry B duPont Preservation Shipyard you can watch large wooden boats being restored. Be sure not to miss the Wendell Building, which houses a fascinating collection of ships' figureheads and carvings. Close by is a small 'museum' for children seven and under. The Seaport also includes a small boat shop, jail, general store, chapel, school, pharmacy, sail loft, shipsmith and ship chandlery - all the sorts of places that you'd expect to find in a real shipbuilding town of 150 years ago.
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Trash Museum
JRun by the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority (CRRA), it enlightens visitors on earth-friendly recycling techniques. A viewing platform overlooking the sorting operation takes center stage while cool sculptures made from trash and wormy composting displays plug the green side of it all. You'll also get the scoop on CRRA's trash-to-energy program that fuels a billion kilowatts of green electric power annually. To get to the museum take I-95 to exit 27, which dumps you right at the site.
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Halibut Point Reservation
Only a few miles north of Dock Sq along MA 127 is Halibut Point Reservation. A 10-minute walk through the forest brings you to yawning, abandoned granite quarries, huge hills of broken granite rubble, and a granite foreshore of tumbled, smoothed rock perfect for picnicking, sunbathing, reading or painting. The surf can be strong here, making swimming unwise, but natural pools can be good for wading or cooling your feet. A map is available at the entrance; parking costs $2.
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Flume
To see this natural wonder, take the 2-mile self-guided nature walk that includes the 800ft boardwalk through the Flume, a natural cleft (12ft to 20ft wide) in the granite bedrock. The granite walls tower 70ft to 90ft above you, with moss and plants growing from precarious niches and crevices. Signs along the way explain how nature formed this natural phenomenon. A nearby covered bridge is thought to be one of the oldest in the state, perhaps erected as early as the 1820s.
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Pleasant Valley Wilderness Sanctuary
This 1300-acre wildlife sanctuary has 7 miles of pleasant walking trails through forests of maples, oaks, beeches and birches. It’s not uncommon to see beaver here if you come at dawn or dusk. A nature center is open daily, and you can arrange canoe trips on the Housatonic from here. To reach the sanctuary, go north on US 7 or MA 7A. Three-quarters of a mile north of the intersection of US 7 and MA 7A, turn left onto W Dugway Rd and go 1.5 miles to the sanctuary.
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Great House Site
Besides being an urban plaza, the aptly named City Sq is also an archaeological site. Big Dig construction unearthed the foundation for a structure called the Great House, widely believed to be John Winthrop’s house and the seat of government in 1630.
Winthrop soon moved across the Charles to the Shawmut Peninsula, and the Great House became the Three Cranes Tavern, as documented in 1635. Informative dioramas demonstrate the remains of the kitchen, the main hall and the wine cellar.
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Decordova Museum & Sculpture Park
The magical DeCordova Sculpture Park encompasses 35 acres of green hills, providing a spectacular natural environment for a constantly changing exhibit of outdoor artwork. As many as 75 pieces are on display at any given time. The entry fee includes admission to the onsite museum, which hosts rotating exhibits of contemporary sculpture, painting, photography and mixed media. Note that admission to the sculpture garden is free when the museum is closed.
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Historic Camden
Camden has range of architectural gems, including former estates dating from the early 1800s, a pretty congregational church (1834), an 18th-century schoolhouse and a plethora of striking 19th-century mansions. Many of these buildings are private residences, but you can wander the tree-lined streets of Chestnut and High Streets for a glimpse back in time. The chamber of commerce distributes a free brochure listing 30 or so historic buildings you can see on a 2.5-mile walk through town.
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Southern Vermont Natural History Museum
Marlboro is a short distance off the Molly Stark Trail (VT 9), a road named for the wife of General Stark, the hero of the American Revolution's Battle of Bennington. The VT 9 brings you to the top of Hogback Mountain (2410ft), where you’ll find the Southern Vermont Natural History Museum, an interesting little place that features mounted specimens of more than 600 New England birds and mammals as well as a small center devoted to live raptors.
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Great Wass Island Nature Conservancy
Just off the southern tip of the Jonesport Peninsula, a few miles from the town of Jonesport, Great Wass Island is a standout, a 1540 acre reserve under the control of the Great Wass Island Nature Conservancy. In order to maintain the integrity of the reserve for those who most appreciate it, the way to it is not well marked. Parking at the trailhead is also limited, but the cars parked there bear license plates from many different states. This is bird-watching for the cognoscenti.
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Montague Bookmill
On an unassuming road in the sleepy town of Montague you’ll find the Montague Bookmill, a converted cedar gristmill from 1842 whose multiple rooms contain plenty of used books (many academic and esoteric) and couches on which to read them. Its westward-facing walls are punctuated by large windows that overlook the beautiful sight of the roiling Sawmill River and its waterfall. There are also some outside decks over the water where you can take your coffee.
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Vermont Institute of Natural Science
Learn all about raptors and other birds of prey at the Vermont Institute of Natural Science, just before you reach Quechee coming from Woodstock. It houses two dozen species of raptors, ranging from the tiny, 3oz saw-whet owl to the mighty bald eagle. The birds that end up here have sustained permanent injuries that do not allow them to return to life in the wild. The three self-guided nature trails are delightful for hikes in summer or for snowshoeing in winter.
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