Homes With Stories
Some homes stay with me, not for their size or design, but for the lives they’ve held within their walls. I’m fascinated by how a single room can hold laughter, love, and countless moments that linger softly long after time moves on.
Recent Posts
Gilbert Stuart Birthplace – North Kingstown, Rhode Island
Gilbert Stuart went on to fame as the portrait artist of Geroge Washington, the very image that appears on every dollar bill. Our first visit to this site was during my homeschooling days. Visiting historic houses was a part of our homeschooling adventures, and I would purposely seek out places like this, homes where history felt real […]
Fruitlands Farmhouse – Harvard, Massachusetts
The farmhouse at Fruitlands is a house that we visited often. When my daughters were volunteering at the Orchard House in Concord, the farmhouse at Fruitlands helped fill in another part of the story of the Alcott Family. It was here that Bronson Alcot attempted to create and intentional community based on transcendentalist ideals. In […]
Hammersmith – Rhode Island
In the 1990s, Hammersmith Farm in Newport opened for tours, and we made the trip to see it. The estate is best known as the childhood summer home of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and as the site of the wedding reception following her marriage to John F. Kennedy in 1953. After the ceremony of St. Mary’s […]
Gillette Castle – Connecticut
While homeschooling, we would take numerous road trips to explore historic and natural sites. It was important to us that our children know the area they were growing up in and understand the stories connected to it. Connecticut was just a short drive from our home, so many of our day trips took us there to […]
Dutch Farmhouse – New York
During our homeschooling years, many of our lessons took place on the road. We would explore historic houses throughout New England and the Hudson River Valley, giving the girls a chance to step inside the past rather than just read about it. Traveling through this part of New York also reminded us that the region […]
Jackson Homestead – Newton, Massachusetts
We have visited the Jackson Homestead in Newton many times over the years. Along with its rich local history, the house holds an important place in the story of the Underground Railroad. When I first visited it with my children, I remember seeing the iron shackles that had once been used on enslaved people. Seeing […]
Richard Nixon Birth Home – California
In Yorba Linda, California, tucked within the grounds of the presidential library, stands a small modest farmhouse where Richard Milhous Nixon was born in 1913. The house is a simple white clapboard with narrow rooms and modest furnishings. It reflects the Quaker values of his parents, Frank and Hannah Nixon: faith, discipline, humility and hard work. […]
Poe’s Cottage – Bronx, New York
Tucked inside Poe Park in the Bronx is a small, white cottage that feels worlds away from the city that now surrounds it. The modest home was the final residence of Edgar Allen Poe, who moved here in 1846 seeking quiet and relief for his ailing wife, Virginia. At the time, this was rural farmland far […]
Lilian Ngoyi – Soweto, South Africa
On our teaching trip to South Africa, we took a tour of Soweto and stopped outside a modest home that holds extraordinary history: the house of Lilian Masediba Matabane Ngoyi. Lilian Ngoyi was one of the most prominent women in the anti-apartheid movement. A trade unionist and political leader, she became the first woman elected to […]
John Ward House – Salem, Massachusetts
The John Ward House in Salem, Massachusetts, stands as one of the finest surviving examples of 17th century New England architecture. Built in 1684 for John Ward, a successful currier, the house reflects not only skilled craftsmanship but also the growing prosperity of Salem in the late 1600s. By the time this house was constructed, […]
Hillwood Estate – Washington DC
While we were at a convention just outside of Washington, D.C., we took a morning to drive over to this house, not only was the home beautiful, so was the collection inside it. Hillwood Estate was the residence of Marjorie Merriweather Post, the heiress to the Post cereal fortune and one of the wealthiest women in America in […]
Hearst Castle – California
On our family road trip down the coast of California, we stopped at Hearst Castle, the estate rising above the Pacific along Highway 1. You see if from below first. perched high on the Enchanted Hill, as if it were a Mediterranean palace transported to the rugged California coastline. The house was built for William […]
