November Public Program

Watertown Notables:  A Virtual Walk through Mount Auburn Cemetery
A presentation by Rosemarie Smurzynski

Thursday, November 9, 2017
7:00 PM
Watertown Savings Bank Meeting Room
Watertown Free Public Library
123 Main Street
Watertown, MA 02472

Maude deLeigh Hodges wrote, "Watertown, Massachusetts, was founded in the year 1630 and was the first inland settlement in Massachusetts. It began as a Puritan settlement and became a hub for trade and commerce  . . . Waves of migration brought to Watertown Puritans escaping from English religious persecution; Irish fleeing starvation and want; and Italians, Armenians, Greeks, Jews and Canadians seeking new opportunities." (Hodges, Maude deLeigh, Reddy, Sigrid, & The Watertown Free Public Library (1980).  Crossroads on the Charles:  A History of Watertown, Massachusetts.  Canaan, NH:  Phoenix Publishing)

This presentation will name and celebrate that diversity, the men and women of Watertown, and Mount Auburn Cemetery, a Watertown landmark which holds their remains and the monuments dedicated to their memory.

Rosemarie Smurzynski is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister.  She graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 1980 and has served her denomination for over 40 years.  Upon retirement from parish ministry in 2010, Rosemarie became a docent at Mount Auburn Cemetery.  The topics of her walks include notables buried in the cemetery, but also the cemetery's history, topography and structures.  Each year on the first Sunday in January, Rosemarie leads Mount Auburn's popular Cherubs & Angels walk.

This program is free and open to the public.
For more information, call Joyce at 781-899-7239.

Special Event:  Historic Banners Walking Tours

Faire on the Square 2017

Saturday, September 23, 2017
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Saltonstall Park
149 Main Street
Watertown, MA 02472

Visit the Historical Society of Watertown table at Faire on the Square and join HSW Executive Board member Mary Spiers for a free Watertown Square walking tour that will feature historic lamp pole banners depicting eleven prominent men and women who made historic contributions in Watertown and beyond.  Tours will depart from the Civil War Soldiers' Monument located in Saltonstall Park at 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM.  The banners were made possible through the generosity of Watertown Savings Bank.

This program is free and open to the public.
For more information, contact Joyce at 781-899-7239 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Special Event:  Ringing of the Bells

Boston Charter Day

Thursday, September 7, 2017
4:30 PM
Church of the Good Shepherd
Redeemer Fellowship Church
Watertown, MA 02472

The Partnership of the Historic Bostons' celebration of Charter Day each year begins with a joyous ringing of church bells in the three towns that received their present names on September 7, 1630:  Boston, Dorchester and Watertown.  Church of the Good Shepherd and Redeemer Fellowship Church in Watertown will ring their bells on Thursday, September 7, at 4:30 PM (16:30 in 24-hour notation), the same time that bells will ring in Boston and Dorchester to commemorate the occasion.

Charter Day 2017's theme is Medicine and Mortality in 17th-Century Boston.  Visit the PHB web site for a full list of Boston Charter Day, which run though October 3.  All events are free, but registration may be required.

September Public Program

The Strangers' Tomb
A slideshow lecture by author Robin Hazard Ray

Wednesday, September 6, 2017
7:00 PM
Watertown Savings Bank Meeting Room
Watertown Free Public Library
123 Main Street
Watertown, MA 02472

Robin Hazard Ray's murder mystery, The Strangers' Tomb, is set in historic Mount Auburn Cemetery during the tumultuous period before the Civil War.  A night watchman is assaulted.  An extra corpse turns up in a tomb.  How are these incidents connected--and what's next?

Ray will discuss how the histories of Cambridge and Watertown, including the growth and development of their police departments, influenced the plot of her novel.  She will also talk about the impact that some of the wider issues at play in science and society in the era leading up to the Civil War are having on the composition of the next book in her Murder in the Cemetery series, tentatively titled The Soldier's Grave.

Ms. Ray studied geology and biology at Brown University and European intellectual history at UC San Diego.  A freelance writer, editor, public speaker and media escort, she also volunteers for the Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery.  There she gives talks and tours on themes ranging from glacial geology and the history of science to gay Bostonians and Isabella Stewart Gardner's circle of friends.  She is currently collaborating with Heyward Parker James, Ph.D., on a world-historical biography of Sir Victor Sassoon.  She lives in Somerville with her husband and two black cats.

This program is free and open to the public.
For more information, contact Joyce at 781-899-7239 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Treaty Day: a Commemoration of the Declaration of Independence and Treaty of Watertown

Saturday, July 15, 2017
10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Edmund Fowle House
28 Marshall Street
Watertown, MA 02472

This annual event marks the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence to the citizens of Watertown on July 18, 1776.  The signing of the first treaty negotiated by the new nation with a foreign power, namely the St. John's (aka Maliseet) and Mi'kmaq Tribes of Nova Scotia, at the Edmund Fowle House on July 19, 1776, will also be celebrated. Special presentations by invited guests will shed light on the continued importance of the Treaty of Watertown.

The Nugumij (Grandmother) Drum from the United Native American Cultural Center in Devens, MA, will be present and drummers and singers will perform several songs to mark the occasion.  Center members and guests, dressed in their native regalia, and colonial reenactors will be present to share their stories.

The Edmund Fowle House will be open for free tours.

A basket for donations of non-perishable food items to the Watertown Food Pantry will be available.

This event is partially funded by the Watertown Community Foundation.

This program is free and open to the public.
For more information, call Audrey Jones Childs at 617-926-2577.

Annual Members Meeting with Election of Board Members and May Public Program

Monuments of Mount Auburn Cemetery
A slideshow lecture by David J. Russo

Wednesday, May 24, 2017
7:00 PM Annual Members Meeting
7:15 PM May Public Program
Watertown Savings Bank Meeting Room
Watertown Free Public Library
123 Main Street
Watertown, MA 02472

The task of every town's historical commission is to determine what historic resources exist in the community, advocate for those resources and make them more accessible to the public.  In 2013, David Russo, Chairperson of the Watertown Historical Commission, was contacted by the Massachusetts Historical Commission to follow up on an old Mount Auburn Cemetery inventory made in the mid-1970s.  David soon realized that a complete inventory would be necessary to do justice to Mount Auburn's large number of significant resources. He will describe this project and detail the process he used to identify and document 225 individual resources, including monuments, mausoleums, landscapes, buildings and even a bridge, located in this important Watertown cemetery.

In addition to his role as Chairperson of the Watertown Historical Commission, Mr. Russo currently volunteers for the Historical Society.  He also served as an HSW Council Member and Recording Secretary from 2010-2012.

This meeting and program are free and open to the public.
For more information, call Joyce at 781-899-7239.