Spring Walking Tours

Women's History in Life & Death:

A Walking Tour of Bridge Street Cemetery

with Elizabeth Sacktor, Museum Educator

Thursday, May 8, 2025

Tuesday, June 3, 2025

5:30 to 6:30 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, let 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

Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Saturday, May 24, 2025

10 to 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.

Exploring Northampton: A Visit to the Fire Zone

with Laurie Sanders, Co-director and Naturalist

Tuesday, May 27, 2025 | 10 am - 12 noon

Tuesday, May 27, 2025 | 1 - 3 pm

Saturday, May 31, 2025 | 10 am to 12 noon

Explore a portion of the 50+ acres of the Fitzgerald Lake Conservation Area that experienced a brush fire in November 2024 to see first-hand how the herbaceous layer is recovering. How damaging are brush fires of this size and intensity? What are the short and long-term effects of fire on a woodland ecosystem? How might this fire resemble those set by the Nonotuck?

In partnership with Broad Brook Coalition.

Important: You must be able to walk for 2 miles and over uneven ground. We will be walking on and off-trail.

Limited to 15.

Pre-registration required.

Sliding scale admission: $10-25.

William Fenno Pratt’s Downtown Northampton

with Emma John, Historian

Sunday, June 1, 2025

Sunday, June 1, 2025

10 am

William Fenno Pratt (1814-1900) was a prolific architect, who designed several buildings in Northampton and surrounding towns. Historian Emma John will lead a walk from Historic Northampton to the Academy of Music focusing on Pratt’s architectural contributions to Main Street, which include City Hall and the Smith Charities Building. We will also talk about the role of civic pride, social order, historic preservation, and the lasting legacy of Pratt’s work.

Limited to 15.

Pre-registration required.

Sliding scale admission: $10-25.

Photographic Images:

• View of the Bridge Street Cemetery, May 2, 2025. Photograph by Laurie Sanders.
• Gravestone of Sylva Church (died April 12, 1822 at age 66), Bridge Street Cemetery. Photograph by Bob Drinkwater.
• 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.
• View of Fitzgerald Lake Conservation Area after the November 2024 brush fire.
• Northampton's Town Hall was built according to a plan by William Fenno Pratt in 1849-1850. From Northampton Illustrated: Twenty-Nine Views published by the Lithotype Printing Company of Gardner, Massachusetts.

HISTORIC NORTHAMPTON

46 Bridge Street

Northampton, MA 01060



Directions to Historic Northampton

info@historicnorthampton.org

413-584-6011

www.historicnorthampton.org