Abby Epplett, Historian

I go to Portsmouth, NH so often that this is my fifth installment of quick history stops. The city is highly walkable with wide sidewalks, crosswalks with traffic lights, and streets lights. On this trip, I went back to the public gardens at Prescott Park, learned about historic buildings, took a rest on Four Tree Island, and even saw a very large boat pass under Memorial Bridge.

Happy New Year, and welcome back to my blog after my winter holiday break! In July 2025, I took a daytrip to the Greater Portsmouth area and visited many history-themed attractions, including botanical gardens, a historic house, a boat tour, and quick history stops. The first post in the four-part series focuses on Fuller Gardens located in North Hampton, NH. This had been on my list of places to visit for several years, but the stop had eluded me. I was glad to have the opportunity to visit at last.

During a long weekend in late May and early June, I visited Philadelphia, PA to see historic sites and watch a professional track & field meet. This is my third post about Independence National Historical Park , a part of the United States National Park System (NPS) that focuses on the American Revolutionary War. During this post, I will describe Franklin Court where the house of Benjamin Franklin once stood, art found throughout the park, and a relaxing garden.

Do you love mill stones and anchors? Charles “Charlie” Dolbeer “Doddie” Spohr and Margaret Ellen “Skip” King Spohr sure did. Spohr Gardens in Falmouth, MA holds their lifetime collection of mill stones, anchors, and a few ship bells along peaceful walkways lined with plants. While I arrived past flower season during my five-day trip to Cape Cod in August 2024, I could still enjoy the solitude of a walk beside the quiet lake.

In August 2024, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. On day four, I went to Highfield Hall & Gardens in Falmouth, MA. The museum delivered on the name and more with art galleries, a guided highlights tour, and nearby walking trails. Although I did not get a chance to see a play during this visit, the property also hosts the Falmouth Theatre Guild .

In August 2024, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. My first stop was Heritage Museums & Gardens (HMG) in Sandwich, MA. The first part of this six-part miniseries focused on the gardens , second part on J.K. Lilly III Automobile Gallery , and the third covered small buildings . In the fourth installment, I look at the art installations on the grounds.

In August 2024, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. My first stop was Heritage Museums & Gardens (HMG) in Sandwich, MA. The first part of this six-part miniseries focused on the gardens , while the second part focused on J.K. Lilly III Automobile Gallery . This third part will focus on small buildings, and one canoe, located throughout the grounds.

In August 2024, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. My first stop was Heritage Museums & Gardens (HMG) in Sandwich, MA. The first part of this six-part miniseries focused on the gardens. This second part will focus on J.K. Lilly III Automobile Gallery located near the entrance to the museum.

In August, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. My first stop was Heritage Museums & Gardens (HMG) in Sandwich, MA. While I spent half a day at this location, this fantastic venue was packed with so many outdoor activities and indoor history that I could have easily spent a leisurely day on the grounds. I certainly plan on going back! My coverage of HMG will be a six-part mini-series within the Cape Cod Adventure series beginning with an overview of the gardens.

Last Saturday — June 15, 2024 — I went on an adventure in New Bedford, MA. My second major stop on the trip was the Rotch-Jones-Duff House & Garden Museum (RJD). This property was designated a National Historic Landmark as William Rotch, Jr. House in 2005 . The self-guided tour allowed visitors to explore two floors of the house plus an extensive rose garden while learning the histories of the three families who lived there.

This post begins a new series! I took a trip to the Berkshires in western Massachusetts during mid July 2023 and visited many historic places along the way. My first stop was Ashintully Gardens in Tyringham, MA , ruins of a grand estate currently preserved by The Trustees of Reservations . According to the official website of the Trustees, this organization “is here to protect and share the Massachusetts places people love for their exceptional scenic, historic, and ecological value”. I have visited several parks managed by the Trustees, many of which will appear in future blog posts.

Fully called Jardín Botánico de Santiago Profesor Eugenio de Jesús Marcano Fondeur , the botanical gardens in Santiago, DR take advantage of the Carribean weather to grow plants and create ecosystems from around the world. Professor Marcano was a botanist (plants), entomologist (bugs), herpetologist (reptiles), and speleologist (caves) who greatly contributed to the understanding of natural sciences in the Dominican, especially the Cibao Valley. He died in 2003 at age seventy-nine, just one year before the beginning of the botanical garden project named in his honor. According the official website of the garden, the area became part of Sistema Nacional de Áreas Protegidas or SiNAP (National System of Protected Areas) under the name Monumento Natural Saltos de la Tinaja (Rocky Pool Waterfalls Natural Monument) . The garden itself was named in 2015. When I visited, the park was free and open to the public while quietly undergoing further construction. One of my favor...

Back in January 2023, while seeing family in western Michigan, I visited the Garden of Honor Memorial , also called Veteran’s Park , in Allendale Community Park of  Allendale Charter Township , about twenty-five minutes southwest of Grand Haven . Designed and constructed twenty-five years ago in 1998 by a local artist, the impressive but controversial memorial contains statues of soldiers and civilians surrounding an eagle-topped obelisk. The eight represented  conflicts include the War of 1812, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, and Gulf War.

For major stop four on the third day of my three-day trip of the Portsmouth, New Hampshire area, I visited Moffatt-Ladd House & Garden , also known as the William Whipple House. Constructed between 1760 and 1763, this house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a stop on the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail .

In early September, I took a three-day trip to the Greater Portsmouth, New Hampshire area. On my first stop, I visited Strawbery Banke, an amazing living history museum in Portsmouth. The organization is named after the original village founded in New Hampshire by English colonists in 1623, and its ten-acre property was a community called Puddle Dock until the 1950s.

My second stop on my adventure in Maine was Hamilton House , located in South Berwick just down the road from Sarah Orne Jewett House Museum & Visitor Center . These Georgian style homes were built around the same time, with Hamilton House constructed around 1785 by wealthy privateer Jonathan Hamilton. He copied and enlarged the architectural features seen at Jewett House. Notable similarities include the layout of the houses, three-story buildings with four rooms on the main floor, a grand central staircase, and a wooden arch in the atrium, reminiscent of a ship’s hull. Hamilton House is more traditionally decorated than its counterpart across town, with Neoclassical wallpaper and white trim. The owner of this opulent manor paid double the taxes of the next best house in town. Due to the high price in upkeep and the economic downturn surrounding the Jefferson Embargo of 1807 and the War of 1812, the Hamilton family was forced to sell the house during the second generation....

In mid August of 2022, I took a trip to southern Maine, visiting six properties owned by Historic New England houses over the course of two days. The first of these houses was Sarah Orne Jewett House Museum & Visitor Center , once home to a local romance novelist. Compared to Willa Cather for her use of “local color”, or using dialectical spellings for speech alongside detailed descriptions of the landscape and the people in it, Jewett’s books shared the stories of Maine characters familiar to her and her neighbors.

On the same trip where I visited Canterbury Shaker Village and Castle in the Clouds , I rode a train on Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad and saw art on the Meredith Sculpture Walk in Meredith, New Hampshire . Sitting between Lake Waukewan and Meredith Bay, the town of Meredith is a relaxing getaway, less busy than nearby towns border Lake Winnipesaukee and filled with history.

During the same trip where I visited Canterbury Shaker Village , I took a trip to Castle in the Clouds  (formerly called Lucknow ) and the nearby Brook Walk . Located in rural Moultonborough, New Hampshire, the overlooks from this area provide an unmatched view of nearby mountains, lakes, and rivers.

On the same day that I visited Frederick Law Olmsted NHS , I perused a pair of parks in Brookline, MA.