Member Institutions

Old Ordinary
21 Lincoln St.
Hingham
(781) 749-0013
Built in the 1680's, with later additions, this house museum was operated as an "ordinary" or tavern serving an "ordinary meal of the day." Its 14 rooms contain an extensive collection of 17th, 18th and 19th century furnishings, tools, and local artifacts. Periodic special exhibits display additional pieces from Historical Society and member collections.

Hull Lifesaving Museum
1117 Nantasket Ave, Hull
781-925-5433
The museum preserves the region’s lifesaving tradition and maritime culture through collections, exhibits, research and service to others. The deeds, traditions and ethics of nineteenth century coastal lifesavers – Skills, Courage and Caring – are the foundation of the museum’s exhibits and programs.

Cohasset Historical Society
Pratt Building
106 Main St.
Cohasset
(781) 383-1434
The Cohasset Historical Society, founded in 1928, owns and operates three buildings, all listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Pratt Building, where the Society moved in 2003, houses the Society’s archives and library, and features year-round, changing temporary exhibits and programs.

Capt. John Wilson House
4 Elm St.
Cohasset
(781) 383-1434
The Society’s two seasonal museums are located in the center of Cohasset Village at 4 Elm Street: the newly restored and interpreted 1810 Wilson House contains period household furnishings; the ca. 1754 Bates Ship Chandlery/Maritime Museum displays marine artifacts that help to recreate Cohasset's long seafaring history.

Cudworth House
First Parish and Cudworth Roads
Scituate
(781) 545-1083
Zephaniah Cudworth built this 1797 dwelling around the chimney of a previous structure dating from the 17th century. Exhibits feature life through the ages of the Cudworth House, from the Colonial Kitchen to the Victorian Parlor. The Cudworth Barn is stocked with period tools and house a coach once used by the Marquis de Lafayette.

Scituate Lighthouse
Lighthouse Road
Scituate
(781) 545-1083
The Old Scituate Lighthouse on Cedar Point was built in 1811, which makes it the second oldest in Massachusetts. During the War of 1812 it was home to the Bates sisters, known as the "American Army of Two" for their role in
defending the Town from the British.

Scituate Maritime & Irish Mossing Museum

301 Driftway, Scituate
781-545-1083
Set in the 1739 residence of Capt. Benjamin James, the Maritime & Irish Mossing Museum holds six exhibits telling the story of the Portland Gale, Scituate’s many shipwrecks, Thomas W. Lawson’s ill-fated seven-masted schooner, and more.

Mann Farmhouse
Greenfield Lane and Stockbridge Road
Scituate
(781) 545-1083
Several generations of the Mann family lived in this 1825 cape. The farmhouse's artifacts include Pilgrim furniture, carpenters' and shoemaking tools, children's toys, and early farming equipment, reflecting the Mann family's past as farmers, sea captains, soldiers, sail makers and teachers.
The nationally recognized Wildflower Garden displays mostly wild and native plants.

Winslow House
Webster at Careswell Streets
Marshfield
(781) 837-5753
Built in 1699 by the Honorable Isaac Winslow , grandson of Mayflower passenger Edward Winslow. This family manor house, "Careswell," was named for their ancestral home in England. Come and hear about the Winslow families who lived and raised their families here as we chronicle over 200 years of daily life in early America.

Daniel Webster Estate
238 Webster Street
Marshfield
(781) 834-0548
Daniel Webster, great Statesman, Lawyer, Orator, Senator and Secretary of State, lived in Marshfield from 1832 to his death in 1852. His original home burned in 1878 and his daughter-in-law Caroline White Webster built today’s Queen Anne-style mansion on the same foundation and incorporated many details in honor of her famous Father-in-law. The building is a fine example of work by Boston architect, William Gibbons Preston —completed in 1880 and recently restored to its original beauty.

Alden House Historical Site
105 Alden St.
Duxbury
(781) 943-40492
Homestead of the famous Pilgrims John and Priscilla Alden. Built in the mid-1600's, the house grew through three centuries into a large, comfortable dwelling occupied by Alden descendants until the 1920's. Furnished with period antiques, the Alden House provides an intimate experience of family life in early New England.

King Cæsar House
120 King Cæsar Road
Duxbury
(781) 934-6016
Built in 1809, the house belonged to Ezra Weston, known as "King Caesar" for his prominence in shipbuilding and worldwide trade. Represented as it appeared in 1820, the house displays Federal period furnishings and artifacts pertaining to shipbuilding in Duxbury. Two galleries feature rotating exhibits.

Capt. Gershom Bradford House
931 Tremont St.
Duxbury
(781) 934-6016
A fascinating time capsule, the house was donated to the Duxbury Rural and Historical Society furnished with family belongings. It offers an opportunity to glimpse the home of a successful Duxbury mariner much as he left it in 1840.

Major John Bradford House
50 Landing Road
Kingston
(781) 585-6300
Built ca. 1714 by Major John Bradford, grandson of Pilgrim Governor, William Bradford. Overlooking the Jones River in the then North Precinct of Plymouth, the house served as the Bradford homestead for 62 years. Enlarged and rebuilt in 1750 into the center-entrance saltbox seen today, it was lived in continuously until it was purchased by the Jones River Village Club, predecessor of today's Historical Society, in 1921.

Jones River Marine Ecology Center
55 Landing Rd., Kingston
Located on the site of a historic boatyard, the Center promotes marine and river science, habitat restoration projects, and eco-friendly water-based recreation and skills development such as classic boat building.

Pilgrim Hall Museum
75 Court St.
Plymouth
(508) 746-1620
A gallery museum in the heart of Plymouth. It tells the story of America's founding through exhibitions of authentic 17th century Pilgrim possessions, including peregrine White's cradle, the only portrait of a Pilgrim (Edward Winslow) painted from life and the earliest American-made sampler, embroidered by Loara Standish.

Spooner House
27 North St.
Plymouth
(508) 746-0012
Five generations of one family lived here from before the American Revolution into the 20th century. This 1749 house, with its original furnishings, gives an intimate view of Plymouth history after the Pilgrims, including stories of local mariners, merchants, patriots, slaves and reformers.

Jenney Grist Mill
6 Spring Lane
Plymouth
(508) 747-4544
The Jenney Grist Mill is a working gristmill reconstructed in 1970 on the site of the original mill built in 1636 by Pilgrim John Jenney. The first mill ground corn continuously for 213 years and was the beginning of industry in our country. Today a costumed miller gives guided historical tours of the mill and grinds corn using the same technology as used in 1636.

Jabez Howland House
33 Sandwich St.
Plymouth (508) 746-9590
The only surviving house in Plymouth lived in by Mayflower Pilgrims (John and Elizabeth Howland). Built in 1667, the house was purchased by Jabez Howland and occupied by him and his parents. The museum houses period furniture, letters from famous descendants (Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill) and archaeological artifacts.

Harlow Old Fort House
119 Sandwich St.
Plymouth
(508) 746-0012
Sgt. William Harlow built the house in 1677 for his family of 10, and worked as a cooper, farmer and soldier. Costumed interpreters offer tours of the 17th-century homestead and demonstrate daily activities of colonial American life.