Because my Massachusetts town takes its history seriously, kids here know more about 19th-century creative luminaries like Central Park
designer Frederick Law Olmsted, architect Henry Hobson Richardson, sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens and stained glass master John La
Farge than many students of art and architecture.
The Ames family, owners of a company that built the shovels that built the transcontinental railroad, brought those artisans to town to
create stunning buildings and open spaces for all to enjoy and, thanks to an active historical society and engaged community, our kids
learn early to appreciate that legacy and its impact on our quality of life.
History is made everywhere, every day, and discovering your town’s past can be a fun family project. And having each family member
investigate a person, place or event and record findings through photography, art, writing or music can be a fun way to share your
discoveries.
Where To Plan Your Search
Online:
Surf centuries in a few online minutes. Start with your town or county website, which likely has a history section summarizing who and
what made the place tick in days gone by. Other resources include the National Trust for Historic Preservation and
National Register of Historic Places.
Historical Societies:
Historical societies are treasure troves. Often housed in buildings of historic merit and run by eager volunteers, they’re
repositories of maps, photographs, documents and artifacts. Ask about events like slide shows, cemetery tours and historic building
open houses. My town’s historical society (housed in a Romanesque train station, a Richardson masterpiece commissioned by the Ames
family) leads frequent walking tours for all ages. Visit Daddezio for
lists of historical societies by state.
Libraries:
Again, the buildings themselves can tell stories. Their architecture can be ornate or otherwise interesting, and they were often
established by and named for benefactors who were key to a town’s development. Ask the librarian about the building’s history.
Librarians make great tour guides. Besides pointing out portraits, busts, furniture, antiques or manuscripts housed in the library,
they’ll help you find books on local history. Ask for volumes with photographs, then pore over them with your kids, looking for things
that have changed and things that haven’t. Find old images of your neighborhood, your street – maybe your house.
Armed with basic knowledge about your burg’s bygone times, grab the car keys or walking shoes and a backpack filled with snacks, pen,
paper and camera, and head out to find yesterday. Like safari-goers, keep a checklist of everything you see (or want to learn more
about), from the obvious (the 150-year-old church on the village green) to the subtle (the faded name of an old retail store painted on
a building’s side).
Where To Search
Stroll The Streets:
Note architectural details and current uses of buildings you’ve passed a hundred times but never really looked at. Go inside theaters,
town hall, inns, banks, churches, cafes, shops and businesses, the Elks or Odd Fellows lodge, the Grange. Ask people you encounter about
the buildings’ histories. You’ll likely hear some good stories.
Search For Signs:
Stop and study those historical markers you’ve been meaning to read. Read plaques on buildings, dates above doorways, words carved into
stone fountains, statues and monuments, names on the veterans’ war memorial. Consider street signs and the historical clues they
provide: Bay Road, a former Indian and Colonial path that runs through my town was so named because it linked settlements to the bay at
Boston, now Boston Harbor. And Jenny Lind, a street once populated by Swedish immigrants who worked at the Ames shovel factory, was
named for the Swedish opera singer who entranced East coast audiences in the 1850s.
Hunt For Headstones:
Cemeteries are stories in stone. You might find rows of members of prominent families (whose surnames you might have met on street
signs, businesses, plaques or public buildings). You might find soldiers. Among my town’s dozen-odd cemeteries are tiny plots where
rest Revolutionary War captains and their families. You might find clues about calamities or epidemics that touched many lives in the
same year, month or day. You might find the forbears of people who still live in town and whose links to it go back decades, even
centuries.
When I told my daughter I was writing an article about exploring local history she said, “I guess you’ll be writing about us.” Then off
she went, iPod in ears, to the old Ames shovel factory, repurposed decades ago as the town gym.
About The Author:
Lori Hein is an author, a traveling mom and a freelancer specializing in travel writing. Her book,
Ribbons of Highway: A Mother-Child Journey Across America ,
takes you around the U.S., and her blog, Ribbons of Highway,
takes you around the world. Visit her professional site at at LoriHein.com.
* This article is available for your publication, for a F-E-E.
This article may NOT be reprinted without monetary compensation and written permission from the author.
For reprint rights or comments/questions about this article, please contact the author.
|
