July 2009

1884: Technologies in Transition Tours

Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, 12:00 - 3:00 p.m.

2009 marks the 125th anniversary of the founding of the City of Waltham in 1884. The year Waltham grew from a town to a city, the Paines made grand plans to add on to their Waltham country house, Stonehurst. In their new home, the Paines experimented with the latest household technologies, while holding on to time-tested traditions. Discover how people in 1884 lived with the old and the new as Waltham changed around them. 

June 1st-August 31st

Historic Waltham Inc. Essay Contest: “Waltham's History-The Nation's History”

$1000 prize!

Stonehurst is a proud participant and partner of the 2009 Historic Waltham Essay Contest.  Any Waltham student entering grades 4-8 is eligible to enter this year’s contest.  Stonehurst will offer free admission to students and their families between June 1^st-August 31^st 2009 for visitation and research on a Stonehurst topic of choice.

Stonehurst staff will be available throughout the summer to meet with students for tours of the estate, informational interviews, and guidance on how to approach an essay topic.  We will also provide information packets containing information about Stonehurst, its architects, and the Paine family.  Please call us at 781-314-3293 to arrange a private tour and consultation time.

Interested students should also be sure to visit the following website for detailed information on how to enter the contest:  www.historicwaltham.org

We look forward to helping you learn more about Stonehurst and its influence and impact on Waltham’s history and the nation’s history!

Waltham Public School Programs

Waltham third-graders playing on Glacier Rock

Because Stonehurst is municipally owned, its relationship with the local public school system is unusually close.  School programs are presently offered to all of Waltham's third-grade students and to several Waltham high school classes.  Schools from towns outside of Waltham interested in participating in our "Shaped By Nature" program for grades 3-5 may contact Stonehurst at 781-314-3293 for more information about scheduling and tailoring this program to meet specific needs.

This school program, designed for grades 3-5 uses historical artifacts, documents and the the city-owned site itself to teach timeless ideas about our relationship to the natural and built environment.

Stonehurst teachers visit each classroom beforehand to introduce students to museum archival practices and the importance of primary source materials in learning about the past.  Students are introduced to Lily Paine, the youngest daughter of the Paine family, through hands-on artifacts and Lily's travel journal, which she hand wrote during a trip her family took to Europe and the Middle East in 1890-91.  Through Lily's own words, students come to see that Lily was a child who not only admired and respected, but lived in complete harmony with nature.

Lily's father Robert Treat Paine, was a philanthropist and housing reformer. Her family loved the natural world and believed that all living things are shaped by their environment. They hired architect Henry Hobson Richardson and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted who shared their love of nature to design their country home, an earth-friendly house in Waltham built of boulders taken directly from its hilltop site. Within and without, Stonehurst has strong connections to the earth.

Visiting the estate itself, students look through the lens of history at sundials, life cycles, vernal pools, open space and architecture designed for healthy living, and learn that habitats for humans--like all organisms--provide for their basic needs.

These "old" ideas that are so powerfully expressed at Stonehurst are forward looking even today.

A collaboration between the Waltham Public School System, the Friends of Stonehurst and the City of Waltham, Jeannette A. McCarthy, Mayor.