June Walking Tours

Exploring Northampton: Parsons Brook Greenway

A Walking Tour with Laurie Sanders, Co-director & Naturalist

Tuesday, June 10, 2025 | 9:30 - 11:30 am & 1 - 3 pm

Monday, June 23, 2025 | 5 - 7 pm

During the last twenty years, the City of Northampton has protected more than 100 acres in the Parsons Brook Greenway. This landscape is underlain by outwash plains that were deposited 16,000-13,000 years ago, when braided glacial streams, choked with sands and sediments, flowed into Glacial Lake Hitchcock. Today, this area includes a mix of habitats, nearly all of which have been highly manipulated by people during the last fifty years. Join co-director and naturalist Laurie Sanders on a two-hour loop in a portion of the conservation area.

Limited to 15.

Pre-registration required.

Sliding scale admission: $15-25.

Northampton Fires & Firefighting

A Walking Tour with Josh Shanley

Sunday, June 22, 2025

Saturday, June 28, 2025

10 - 11 am

Walk through downtown with retired Northampton firefighter Josh Shanley as he describes the history of fires and firefighting in Northampton, the topic of his 2023 book.

He will describe how major fires in the 19th century shaped Northampton’s architecture. He will also tell the story of the City’s fire department – from its establishment in 1857, when hose wagons and hand tubs were pulled by volunteers, to today when Northampton Fire Rescue responds to more than three thousand calls each year.

Limited to 15.

Pre-registration required.

Sliding scale admission: $15-25.

Women's History in Life & Death:

A Walking Tour of Bridge Street Cemetery

with Elizabeth Sacktor, Museum Educator

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

5 - 6 pm

Join Elizabeth Sacktor for a walking tour of the Bridge Street Cemetery, where we’ll explore how Northampton has remembered women after their death.

Using gravestones to study women’s history, lets us understand which women Northampton has deemed worthy of remembering, and which are forgotten. The tour will visit the graves of 10 women buried at Bridge Street Cemetery, from 1776 to 1923, from early 18th century midwives to the first Indigenous woman to attend Smith College. Each woman has a story to tell, and through examining the grave itself and the material remnants of their lives, we will uncover these stories together.

The tour involves walking and standing for about an hour on uneven ground, so comfortable walking shoes are recommended.

Limited to 15.

Pre-registration required.

Sliding scale admission: $10-25.

Immigration to Northampton: A Walking Tour

with Elizabeth Sacktor, Museum Educator

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Thursday, June 26, 2025

10 - 11 am

Join Historic Northampton’s Elizabeth Sacktor on a walking tour of downtown Northampton as seen through the theme of immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries. The tour will be a non-chronological exploration of how Northampton’s many immigrant populations worked and built community amid changing sentiments and discrimination. 

Hear the stories of two Irish men executed for a crime they did not commit. See the former home of a successful Jewish family who turned their clothing business into a Northampton staple. Learn about the ways Puerto Rican women made a name for themselves for their fine needlework. Visit the site of a former Chinese Laundry and learn about the U.S.’s first laws limiting immigration based on race.

Together, we will ask questions about what it means to be American, what it means to be from Northampton, and how our home is shaped by the communities with whom we share it.

Limited to 15.

Pre-registration required.

Sliding scale admission: $15-25.

Photographic Images:

• Photographs of Parsons Brook Greenway by Laurie Sanders.
• Ruins of the First Congregational Church after a fire in 1876.
• Photograph of Bridge Street Cemetery by Laurie Sanders.
• Simon Cohn (at right) and possibly Marcus Cohn in front of Cohn's clothing store, circa 1890s, on the current location of Sweetie's Candy Store at the corner of Main and Pleasant streets.

Refund Policy: All sales are final. There are no refunds for time conflicts or change of mind reasons. A partial refund may be requested for medical reasons by emailing info@historicnorthampton.org.

HISTORIC NORTHAMPTON

46 Bridge Street

Northampton, MA 01060



Directions to Historic Northampton

info@historicnorthampton.org

413-584-6011

www.historicnorthampton.org