Special Event:  Bring Family Photos Home for the Holidays

Saturday, November 12, 2016
11:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Edmund Fowle House
28 Marshall Street
Watertown, MA 02472

Drtad and Harry Boyajian of Oxford Studios in Cambridge preserved the history of many Watertown families in classic style studio portraiture in the 1940s and 50s.  When the bothers left the business, the proofs were given to the Boyajian family.  Harry's son, David, has donated photos of Watertown residents to the Historical Society of Watertown.

The HSW invites you to peruse listings sorted by surname and by street address of these family portrait proofs, then visit the Fowle House during a Bring Family Photos Home event to pick up photos of family, friends or neighbors at no charge so you can get them to those who will appreciate them most.  Enlarged, framed prints of the photos would make very memorable holiday gifts.

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

November Public Program

Massachusetts and the 19th Century China Trade
A slideshow lecture by Doug Stewart

Wednesday, November 9, 2016
7:00 PM
Watertown Savings Bank Meeting Room
Watertown Free Public Library
123 Main Street
Watertown, MA 02472

Two hundred years ago, greater Boston was the richest corner of the nation, thanks to the tea, spices, porcelain, silk and other luxury goods that daring local shipmasters brought back from East Asia.  The early nineteenth-century China trade merchants of Massachusetts included the new nation's first millionaires.  Many Boston area institutions, from McLean Hospital and the Museum of Fine Arts to Theodore Lyman's Waltham estate, were built in part with wealth derived from the China trade.

Between the American Revolution and the War of 1812, Salem was the heart of the China trade.  That is why its municipal seal depicts not a Puritan or a witch on a broomstick, but a Sumatran gentleman in a silk robe and slippers with a volcano in the background.  In 1807, well before the first income tax law was enacted, import duties paid at the Salem customs house alone accounted for 5% of all federal revenue.

Learn about the impact and influence of the China trade in Massachusetts through this lecture.  The involvement of Watertown residents Edmund Fowle Jr. and John Perkins Cushing (known in China as "Ku-Shing") will be discussed.

Ipswich resident Doug Stewart is a freelance magazine writer whose stories have frequently appeared in Smithsonian, as well as Time, Discover and American Heritage.  He is also the author of The Boy Who Would Be Shakespeare: A Tale of Forgery and Folly.

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

Special Event:  Book Sale, Historical Banner Walks, Discounted Memberships

Faire on the Square 2016

Saturday, September 24, 2016
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 to peruse new book offerings, including Watertown Records Volume 5-6, Watertown Records Volume 8, selected Watertown High School yearbooks and Coolidge/Crawford family histories.  Copies of Crossroads on the Charles and discounted copies of Watertown Echoes - A Look Back at Life in a Massachusetts Town and Images of America - Watertown will also be available for purchase.

Free walking tours highlighting Watertown's new historical lamp pole banners will depart from the Civil War Soldiers' Monument located in Saltonstall Park at 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM.  The banners depict eleven prominent men and women who made historic contributions in Watertown and beyond and were made possible through the generosity of the Watertown Savings Bank.

Historical Society memberships will be discounted by 50% during Faire on the Square.  There is no better time to join!

September Public Program

Harriet Hosmer - Watertown Sculptor
A lecture by Father Joseph Curran

Sponsored by:
The Watertown Free Public Library
The Historical Society of Watertown

Wednesday, September 14, 2016
7:00 PM
Local History Room
Watertown Free Public Library
123 Main Street
Watertown, MA 02472

Join Father Joseph Curran in the library's beautifully-restored Local History Room for a lecture on the art and colorful life of Watertown sculptor Harriet Hosmer (1830-1908). Reverend Curran, former pastor of the Sacred Heart Church in Watertown's East End and the foremost authority on Hosmer, will trace her rise from obscurity to the courts of Europe and the most distinguished circles in her native America.  Following the presentation, Father Curran will lead attendees on a tour of the Watertown Free Public Library's unparalleled holdings of the sculptor's work.

Ms. Hosmer is widely considered to be the most distinguished female American sculptor of the 19th century.  Her work is on view in museums throughout the country, including the Saint Louis Art Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum.

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

Special Event:  Ringing of the Bells

Boston Charter Day

Wednesday, September 7, 2016
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 Wednesday, 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 2016's theme is Passionate Puritans: Marriage, Love and Sex in 17th Century Massachusetts.  Find out if Puritans were as fun-hating and dour as we're lead to believe they were.  Long-standing myths about the Puritans will be debunked.  Boston Charter Day events run through October 26.  All events are free, but registration may be required.

Special Event:  Explore Watertown's East End/Coolidge Square Shopping Area

Sponsored by:
Live Well Watertown
Watertown Recreation Department

Joined by:
The Historical Society of Watertown

Thursday, August 18, 2016
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Uncommon Grounds
575 Mount Auburn Street
Watertown, MA 02472

Join co-facilitiators Audrey Jones Childs and Ilana Hardesty in front of Uncommon Grounds to learn about the history of the Coolidge Square shopping area.  Proceed on a culinary/culture tour of Coolidge Square that will end at The Apartments at Coolidge School Auditorium with a presentation featuring the history of Watertown's East End and samples from area markets and eateries.

Ms. Jones is Vice President of the Historical Society of Watertown, a 3rd generation East End resident and a frequent lecturer on the history of Watertown.

Ms. Hardesty has taught healthy cooking programs in Greater Boston for many years and is now enrolled as a student in the Gastronomy Program at Boston University.  In her first course, the Anthropology of Food, she was able to combine her food interests with her love of Watertown, where she has lived for almost 20 years, focusing on the history of Armenian settlement and foodways.

This event is partially funded by The Marshall Home Fund.

This program is free, but registration is required.  RSVP by August 10th to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  Please note: parking will NOT be available in the Uncommon Grounds lot.

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

Saturday, July 16, 2016
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 our new nation in Watertown on July 18, 1776.  The signing of the first treaty negotiated by our 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.

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.  Visitors will also be able to view two ongoing exhibits: Watertown and the Civil War and A Mi'Kmaw Woman's Award Winning Legacy.

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.