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Upcoming Programs
February 27, 2010
11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Historic Trolley Tour with the Waltham
Historical Society
Depart from 760
Main Street at 11:30 am and travel first to Robert Treat Paine's
Stonehurst where Curator Ann Clifford will lead a tour of the Estate.
Upon completion of the tour, re-board the trolley and travel to the new
Waltham Watch Factory Exhibit at the Crescent Street site. A tour of the
new exhibit will last approximately 1/2 hour at which time we will
return by Trolley to 760 Main Street. Parking is available in the lot
immediately in front of the office. Questions or tickets, phone
617-448-6706 or email waltham.historical.society@gmail.com
March 27, 2010
9:30 a.m. to 12:00
p.m.
Family Festival at the Waltham Public Library
Join us for a fun-filled day of crafts and
activities based on children's books in celebration of Waltham Family
Literacy. Stonehurst's table at the festival will focus on the new book,
A Home in the Woods: Stonehurst.
This will be the first public appearance of the
new children's book published by the Robert Treat Paine Historical
Trust.
Check back soon for more details.
Cosponsored by The Waltham Public Library;
The Waltham Partnership for Youth, Communities United, Inc., Joseph M. Smith Community Health Center; the
Waltham Parent Home Program; the Waltham Family School; and the Waltham
Cultural Council.

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.
"Shaped by Nature" School Program
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.
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Waltham
third-graders
in the Great Hall at Stonehurst
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