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If Walls Could Talk

  • The Governor's Academy 1 Elm Street Byfield, MA 01922 (map)
Atwell postcard early 1900s002.jpg

If Walls Could Talk

The museum is pleased to partner with The Governor's Academy in a spring celebration of renewal and renovation. This presentation highlights the Academy’s 2018-19 Visiting Professional Seminar, an annual program which invites experts in their fields to design and lead a course of study to inform and inspire students.

This year Bethany Groff Dorau, North Shore Regional Site Manager for Historic New England, and other specialists in historic preservation led the students on an investigation of the Atwell House, a circa 1780 Byfield landmark (now part of the Academy’s campus) that’s undergoing renovation. Students used the house as a historic preservation field school, examining construction materials, evidence of use, and change over time. They researched deeds and other archival records and traced the lives of the people who lived and worked in the house over more than two centuries. Students will share their discoveries and explain how an old house can teach us about life, past and present, in a town, a nation, and the world.

The program will be held on the campus of The Governor’s Academy. It will begin at 6:30 pm with a reception in the Frost Building (denoted as site #13 on this campus map); the students’ presentation will begin at 7:00, followed by a short walking tour. The program is free and open to the public, but space is limited; contact us at 978-462-2681 or info@newburyhistory.org to reserve your seat.

Parking for the event is across the street from the Frost Building, in the lot in front of the Whiston-Bragdon Ice Rink (site #11 on the campus map).

Reception 6:30pm Program 7:00pm
Free and open to the public, but space is limited; contact 978-462-2681 or info@newburyhistory.org to reserve your seat
The museum’s program series is sponsored in part by the Institution for Savings.