Fruitlands Museum (TTOR)

Fruitlands Museum (TTOR)

The Trustees of Reservations Prospect Hill Road Harvard, Massachusetts 01451

Official Website
Fruitlands Museum map

About this Location

There is an admission fee to enter the property.

Explore a bygone Transcendentalist community, whose pastoral landscape houses wide-ranging collections of art and artifacts. Fruitlands Museum has a diverse collection of art and material culture on 210 acres of land, stunning views, and miles of walking trails.

In 1843, Amos Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane turned a swath of Harvard farmland into a Transcendentalist experiment in subsistence farming and Emersonian self-reliance, named Fruitlands, which ultimately disbanded after only seven months. In 1914, Clara Endicott Sears opened the grounds to the public, establishing a museum in the property’s 1820s farmhouse. Now, the 210-acre landscape encompasses five collections first established by Sears: the original Fruitlands Farmhouse; the Shaker Museum, the first such museum in the country; the Native American Museum, celebrating the history of indigenous peoples; the Art Museum, with a variety of rotating exhibits, contemporary art, and showcasing a combined collection of more than 300 Hudson River School landscape paintings and 19th-century vernacular portraits; and the Wayside Visitor Center, a classroom, education, and exhibition space.

Notable Trails

The AllTrails website has a description and map of a hike at Fruitlands Museum.

Features

  • Restrooms on site

  • Entrance fee

  • Wheelchair accessible trail

Content from Official Website

Last updated December 11, 2023