News
Longyear's Houses Open For Season
April 27, 2009
Visitors this year will notice how restoration projects large and small are bringing the houses into closer historical proximity to the way they were when Mrs. Eddy lived there.
The snow has melted and major league baseball is well into its spring schedule, all of which means it’s time for the doors of Longyear’s historic houses to swing open for the 2009 season.
Visitors this year will notice some interesting changes. A series of restoration projects are bringing the houses, step by step, closer to the way they were when Mrs. Eddy lived there.
So on a tour this year, you can expect to learn not only about Mary Baker Eddy’s time at a particular house, but also about the restoration projects that have taken place since Mrs. Eddy lived there.
House schedules this year began this week with the May 1 opening. This season, five of Longyear’s eight houses will be open by appointment only: the Massachusetts houses at Lynn, Chestnut Hill (Chestnut Hill house above), and Stoughton, and two of the three New Hampshire houses, Rumney, and North Groton. Because hours are subject to change, please check for house schedule updates at Longyear’s website.
With Phase One of the Concord, N.H., exterior restoration now complete, this house promises to be a popular destination this summer. The slate roof and pumpkin-colored clapboards of the house where Mrs. Eddy lived from 1889 to 1892, give visitors more of the look and feel of the house as it was during Mrs. Eddy’s time there.
And inside, some of the rooms have also been given a historic reinterpretation. This year, the Concord house will be open for tours on Mondays, Saturdays, and by appointment.
Four of Longyear’s houses will be open during the weekend of the Annual Meeting of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston. Three Massachusetts houses – Lynn, Chestnut Hill, and Swampscott – and the house in Concord, New Hampshire, will offer free tours from 1 pm to 4 pm on Saturday, June 6, and Sunday, June 7.
The Lynn house, which is in the midst of a major restoration, will be open for tours on a limited basis the rest of the season.
