Lectures & Walking Tours   

Did you know that there is a river running through Brookline Village? Boston's Muddy River is a significant part of Frederick Law Olmsted's Emerald Necklace, a string of parks from Boston Common to Franklin Park. For years the river has been easy to ignore, hidden as it is by stone and earthen walls, scrubby plants, bridges, and wide busy streets. Recently, a $93 million restoration aimed at flood control has exposed the river's beauty. Join us to stroll from Brookline Village to the Charles River in Back Bay, following the river's path. We will visit the famous Dutch House, Longwood, the Landmark Center, and the Fens with its rose garden, war memorials, and victory gardens. We end at Charlesgate for a glimpse of the river as it wends its way beneath roadways and bridges to the Charles. Meet at the Brookline Village T-stop, 31 Station Street.

Go back in time to the 1850s when Brookline's Beacon Street was still a narrow country road. By 1890, Frederick Law Olmsted had transformed it into a wide boulevard lined by apartment blocks and stores and included the nation's second electric trolley line. Join us for a stroll from Cleveland Circle to Audubon Circle as we talk about the development of Beacon Street over the years, including important historical moments as well as more contemporary changes and its reconstruction. You'll learn about the Beaconsfield Terraces, hidden paths, Stoneholm, Brandon Hall, "Taxpayer Buildings," and Coolidge-Bros. Market, S.S. Pierce, tiled MBTA Spanish-style shelters, Richmond Court, Amory Park, Longwood Mall, Cottage Farm, St. Mary's, and Audubon Circle. We'll discuss the zoning, layout, and architecture of the street, and how politics and the values of the day shaped changes. We'll cover about two miles and end at Audubon Circle. Meet at the CVS parking lot in Cleveland Circle.

During the late 19th century, a network of pedestrian paths and walks was constructed to facilitate the passage of citizens up and down Corey and Aspinwall Hills to the new Beacon Street Boulevard streetcar line. Beacon Street, widened in 1887 according to plans drawn up by Frederick Law Olmsted, afforded such easy access to Boston that mansions were built for wealthy families abutting the stylish street. On this walking tour of the paths, we will cover all the stairs and terraces that comprise the great circuit of pedestrian walks, from Summit Path to Claflin Path, ending where the tour began. The history of the paths, the architecture around them, and the story of the lost paths will be recounted. This is a long, strenuous walk that covers several miles of mostly stairs, but those who join may drop out at any point along the way and hop onto the Green Line to return home.

Shawmut Peninsula is the promontory of land on which Boston, Massachusetts was built. In other words, downtown Boston was originally a hilly little peninsula almost surrounded by water. Over the past 400 years, a series of landfills terraformed this tiny outpost into the bustling metropolis it is today. Come trace Boston's original shoreline and see how cutting down a series of hills and hauling in earth from the suburbs allowed the creation of Back Bay, Beacon Hill, West End, Mill Pond, and Haymarket and complicated the construction of the Big Dig. Meet on the steps of the Arlington Church just outside the Arlington MBTA Green Line Station which is downtown, across from the Public Garden.