More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.
Our recent visit to Gloucester, Mass. included a hike at Ravenswood Park; a visit to the north shore town’s Main Street (there’s lots to see including two bookstores); and a great take-out lunch from local favorite The Causeway.
In a small New Hampshire town on the Massachusetts border, art-lovers flock to a long-abandoned ski area. There, they wander the woods to view sculptures made of stone, steel, wood, and other materials in the same setting where, decades ago, thrill-seekers sped straight down black diamond trails.
At the Andres Institute of Art in Brookline, NH, artists from all over the world have contributed pieces to what is New England’s largest outdoor sculpture and hiking park. And new art is created and installed on the 140-acre hill every year at this hidden gem, which is free, fun, and open to the public year-round, dawn to dusk.
Over 100 thought-provoking, original works of art are nestled along walking trails all over the mountain, just waiting for visitors to view and enjoy the experience of a personal connection with nature combined with a chance to see large-scale art created on-site.
The park is the brainchild of engineer and innovator Paul Andres, who in 1996 purchased Big Bear Mountain and moved into the house at its peak. There, he was able to combine his lifelong love of nature and passion for art to devote a portion of the property to a sculpture park. Once Andres joined forces with sculptor and long-time Brookline resident John M. Weidman, there was no stopping the pair, and the Andres Institute of Art was born. What started as a few works in the front yard of Andres’ house has turned into a full-blown outdoor museum, with art placed among the many trails that criss-cross the mountain.
Start your visit by picking up one of the maps available in the parking area. An Andres Institute trails map is a curious thing — all at once necessary, inscrutable, and practically useless. Maybe the map is itself a work of art, and I’m too obtuse to understand it. I don’t know. Sometimes it map helped. But sometimes I consulted mine, looked up and around, and wondered if I had perhaps strayed to the edge of a flat world, one where beyond there were beasties waiting to devour me. Still, you need one of those maps if you’re to have a chance of really enjoying the place. Think of it as just one tool. Having your hiking wits about you is another. Basically, you can’t get all that lost on a 613-foot-high, 140-acre mountain, right? Also, there are signs here and there, so that’s one more tool in your kit.
Relax, you’re here to hike and enjoy art. If you bring children, fantastic. They can run and shout and actually touch the art. Even normally reluctant, complaining young hikers will be kept so busy looking for the next sculpture that before they know it, they’ll be at the top of the mountain and it will be time for a snack or lunch. If you bring a dog, also great. Just keep that member of the family on a leash, and it’s all good.
During my visit, I walked the Summit Loop with the goal of enjoying my bagged lunch with a view of the Monadnock Mountains range. Pro tip: when you get to the cell phone towers, you’re at the top, it just might not be 100% obvious. Here’s where your hiking wits come in. Where are cell towers placed? At the tippy top of wherever it is they are — church spires, sky scrapers, mountains, right? OK, you’ve got this. Walk a little further, poke around a bit, and before you know it, the Monadnock range will be arrayed before you, over a dozen peaks, great and small. To the left, there’s Barrett Mountain. Straight on, there’s Mt. Monadnock. Over to the right, Pack Monadnock. What you’ve got in front of you is a whole list of future adventures.
All that and art, too. You made it. Plop yourself down on the old bowling alley seating and enjoy the amazing view that include, of course, a perfectly placed, massive stone sculpture.
Once a year, several artists from all over the world travel to the Institute to immerse themselves in its rural character and create their art as part of the Bridges and Connections International Sculpture symposium. The artists travel to the Andres Institute for a 3-week stint to craft what are often multi-ton works. The program is part short-term residency, part cultural exchange. Artists stay with locals who sponsor their stay, and work with volunteers who groom and prepare sculpture sites, and operate the heavy equipment needed to properly place the works.
According to the Andres website, “The artists are paid a small stipend for their attendance, but the real reward is that they are allowed to create whatever sculpture they like and to place it wherever they want on the mountain. The Institute provides tools and materials to help each artist realize his or her vision.”
The result is beautiful art hidden in plain sight among the natural backdrop of a New Hampshire forest.
The best part about the Andres Sculpture Park is that it’s unique and charming, with an original sculpture at every bend. The mountain itself, immovable and unchanging, serves as host to a this constantly growing work-in-progress that attracts an increasing number of artist applicants who vie for the four coveted spots per year.
We arrived for our visit to the Institute late-morning on a Saturday and enjoyed an easy, breezy socially distanced experience. The mountain was peopled but not crowded, and visitors were quick to don their masks upon approaching others. We’re told that a nice side trip is to stop off at the New Kun Garden Chinese Restaurant down the street for their Thai ice cream roll, followed by a dip at Potanipo Pond. We opted to hit one of the many farm stands in the area for organic produce and homemade baked goods.
Andres Institute of Art
98 Rte. 13
Brookline, NH 03033
603-673-8441
Open year-round, dawn to dusk.
Parking is plentiful.
There is a port-a-potty in the parking lot, but it was off limits when we was there due to COVID.
There is no water available, so be sure to bring your own.
This is a carry in/carry out park.
Downloadable maps are available online.
SPONSORED POST: Let Wellesley Transportation help you and your family with all your transportation needs. Owned and operated by Thomas Shinnick since 1995, Wellesley Transportation, formerly known as College Taxi, has been proudly serving Wellesley and the surrounding communities for over 90 years. Originally established in 1926, Wellesley Transportation provides on-time airport, local and long-distance transportation in luxury vehicles. For reservations, call or text 781-235-2200.
If the idea of driving to the airport exhausts you before you even start your trip, let Wellesley Transportation’s professional licensed livery service get you there. Trade in the stress of fighting traffic and finding parking for a reliable, service-oriented, and safe experience.
All Wellesley Transportation drivers are commercially insured and registered, with spotless driving records.
Wellesley Transportation can:
Transport you both locally or long-distance
Pick up visitors from the airport and bring them to your door
Meet you or your visitors at convenient designated limo areas at the airport
Get all passengers and baggage safely into the vehicle
Thomas’ excellent communication skills will ensure that you will get the right vehicle to transport your entire party to your destination. For reservations, call or text 781-235-2200.
You won’t find 2 more different places than Wellesley and Nashville. And that, of course, is the beauty of what people from either place will find visiting the other.
Nashville has so much to offer that you just don’t come across in Wellesley:
On and under the surface, Nashville is more suited to grown-up visitors than families, though granted, we didn’t seek out activities such as the acclaimed zoo. We also traveled without renting a car, so confined our excursions to those within a reasonable walk, run or ride-share.
I should mention that neither Mr. nor Mrs. Swellesley is much of a country music fan. We recognized some names and songs, but weren’t bowing at Music City’s altars like some visitors. We descended upon Nashville to attend a late-October journalism conference called the LION Publishers Summit, and take in the sights while there.
We started off strong, taking a quick look at daytime Broadway after checking in to our hotel, which had a guitar-shaped pool we regrettably never used. Guitars are everywhere in Nashville, and southern charm and manners were alive and well, too. We made a concentrated effort to be friendly, and more or less succeeded.
We grabbed lunch at Acme Feed & Seed, which boasts a steady stream of customers and juicy brisket sandwiches. We ate on the rooftop bar, which
I recently had the opportunity to step back in time to post-Edwardian England at “Downton Abbey: The Exhibition,” appropriately venued at The Castle at Park Plaza in Boston. If you were a fan of the upstairs-downstairs British historical period drama which won 15 Emmys and three Golden Globes, you simply must go, darling. It’s been absolutely ages (ok, since 2016) since the PBS show wrapped up after six seasons of family drama, social commentary, and absolutely fabulous costumes. You need a Lady Mary fix, admit it.
For the uninitiated, Downton Abbey followed the divine and dramatic lives of the Crowley family, who were to the manor born and lived “upstairs.” Meanwhile “downstairs”, their servants lived a somewhat parallel existence of good times and bad, but without all the money and fabulous bespoke clothing. Downton Abbey was a place where everybody knew their place, and deviance from social standards was not permitted. But Mrs. Patmore cooked so beautifully, and the parties were jolly, so to be a spoilsport about it all would be really quite bad form.
You’ve got until September 29th to see all the sets, costumes, and historical exhibits. No RSVP required, but you can get your tickets ahead of time here. It’s always an open house situation at an inherited cozy little 300-room place in the English countryside. The exhibition is open daily from 10am to 6pm, with the last ticket sold at 4:30pm. Expect to spend between 60 and 90 minutes exploring Downton Abbey. Guests are welcome to stay for as long or as little as they would like during hours of operation. The exhibition is fully accessible for the mobility impaired.
If you can’t make it to Boston by the exhibit’s September 29th closing date, you can always catch the exhibit at Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina, where the Downton denizens will spend the holiday season. You can also catch up with the family later this month on the big screen. The Downton Abbey movie is set for release on September 20.
Viking Cruise line was the presenting sponsor of Downton Abbey: The Exhibition. Now there’s an outfit that knows how to explore the world in comfort.
The Wellesley High School PTSO website keeps expanding, like the minds of its scholars, in an effort to keep families in the loop on all that is available to students. Their niftiest new page tells you everything you need to know about school-sponsored trips. Did you know that through the Science Department, your family can host a Swiss student in September, and then a Swiss family will host your student in April?
There are also trips to France and Spain through the Art Department, to Houston through Key Club, to Peru through World Challenge, and more.
No, the travel doesn’t come free. Trips range in cost from $2,000 – $4,700. It’s not cheap to broaden one’s horizons, but over the years we’ve heard families rave about their kids’ experiences.
Contact the PTSO with any questions or suggestions. [email protected]
SUPPORT SWELLESLEY: Here’s how to Advertise and/or Donate to support our independent journalism venture
It’s smack-dab middle of winter here in New England, a time when it can seem easier to just hibernate at home rather than venture out into the cold, bleak world. Let me encourage you to join the resistance to such inactivity with a road trip to the New Bedford Whaling Museum, a nearby lunch at the family-friendly Whalers Tavern, followed by a constitutional on a little-known New England beach frequented all winter long by locals and their dogs.
New Bedford in the early 19th century was the world’s busiest whaling port in the world’s richest city. Whaling was at the center of everything in the busy port town, a place that was populated by the Wampanoag Indian nation before Europeans landed onshore. In the early 1600s English settlers took a look around the coastal area, took note of its favorable position, and came back fifty years later to settle the area. That didn’t go well for the thousands of Wampanoag residents who soon found themselves at war with the European colonists. Significantly reduced in number by disease and ruthless war tactics, the Wampanoags were quickly pushed off land they had occupied for perhaps thousands of years.
It’s a dramatic story, and the museum’s exhibits showcase the area’s history, the whaling industry, and its impact not only on New Bedford but globally. Not to be missed (and impossible to do so): five massive whale skeletons, the world’s largest ship model (the Lagoda), and America’s longest painting. Every room in the museum, opened in 1903, is devoted to all things whaling — paintings, costumes, ship models, maps, an astonishing number of scrimshaw arts and crafts, and more.
The whaling vessel Lagoda takes center stage in one of the galleries as the world’s largest ship model. To call it a model ship, although accurate, almost fails to give it its due. The 1/2 scale replica looks ready to set sail at a moment’s notice, and visitors are welcome to climb right aboard and imagine what it must have been like to make Lagoda both home and office for anywhere from six months to four years, just as 19th-century sailors did.
Whale hunting was deadly to whales, of course, and it also was risky business for the hunters. A small boat of about six or eight men would row within hurling distance of a 150-ton whale and let fly at least seven harpoons into whichever part of the mammal they could hit. The whales often didn’t welcome the attention, and there are several paintings in the museum that depict seriously angry whales getting their revenge on hapless sailors, most of whom were non-swimmers.
Which brings us to author Herman Melville, who in 1841 shipped out from New Bedford on the Acushnet. His experiences on that whaling ship helped form his great American novel Moby Dick. In chapter 20 of the 585-page tome, Melville describes The Seamen’s Bethel, a small wooden structure just across the street from the museum and included in the admission fee. Built in 1832 as a non denominational church, Melville’s narrator, call-me Ishmael himself, described how sailors bound for their dangerous work on the sea would stop in to offer up prayers before they set sail: “In the same New Bedford there stands a whaleman’s chapel and few are the moody fishermen shortly bound for the Indian or Pacific Oceans who failed to make a Sunday visit to this spot.”
Also in the museum is the 3,000 square foot Casa dos Botes Discovery Center for kids. Don’t miss the observation deck on the top floor of the museum for a great view of the New Bedford harbor. The door out to the deck doesn’t lock behind you, even in the dead of winter. I nervously checked that out for you.
The New Bedford Whaling Museum
18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, MA 02740
(508) 997-0046
Hours, January through March:
Tuesday – Saturday 9 am – 4 pm
Sunday 11 am – 4 pm
Admission: Adult $17; seniors (65+) $15; students (19+) $10; Child/youth $7; under 3 free
Tickets include admission to the Mariners’ Home.
About three-tenths of a cobblestone-street mile from the museum is a great family friendly lunch spot that likely becomes a different sort of lively with a more adult crowd come evening. The staff told us to sit anywhere, so we took a high table in the bar area and perused the menu. I started out with the excellent Quahog Chowder made with applewood smoked bacon, onions, celery, red bliss potatoes, and plenty of chopped quahogs. Next up for me was the arugula salad with sun-dried tomatoes and generously portioned sushi-grade ahi tuna, very fresh and a nice light counterpoint to the richness of the chowder. My companion ordered the BLT on a buttered toasted bun, downed it, and left full and happy.
Other menu items that looked tempting: Shark Bites, locally caught, breaded, and deep fried and served with Cajun remoulade; lobster quesadilla; burgers; grilled chicken sandwich; Korean BBQ pulled pork sandwich; chourico melt; soba noodle bowl; and more. Show up Monday – Friday, 3pm – 6pm for raw bar buy one, get one free littlnecks and oysters. They have a full bar, so plenty of chaser options.
Whaler’s Tavern
24 N Water St, New Bedford, MA 02740
(774) 206-6303
About eight miles away via cottage-lined Sconticut Neck Rd. (plug in West Island Town Beach, Fairhaven, MA into GPS) you can find a little-known beach overlooking Buzzards Bay. During the off season you can just pull into the lot, a casual and muddy affair when we stopped by, and join the locals and their dogs as they enjoy the general solitude.
I probably wouldn’t plunk my family down there for a summer day. The sand was covered with seaweed, and the swimming area was quite rocky. But for beach walking a couple miles in either direction on firm footing you can’t beat it, and the sunsets must be amazing. Avoiding the Cape Cod bridge traffic is also another plus that locals swear by.
MORE:
Beyond Wellesley: sneak peek at the renovated Hood Museum at Dartmouth College
Beyond Wellesley: Family fun at Versus arcade in Boston
Beyond Wellesley: a visit to a North End restaurant in Boston
More pictures from our New Bedford adventure:
