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Preservation Massachusetts educates and empowers people to preserve and reuse historic resources that

10/30/2026

🎃 Happy almost Halloween, with a story that’s really about preservation.

The Witch House, built c. 1675, was the home of Judge Jonathan Corwin, who presided over many of the examinations during the 1692 witchcraft trials, and it’s the only structure still standing in Salem with a direct connection to the trials that is open to the public.

It almost didn’t survive. In 1944, the City planned to widen North Street, which meant demolishing the Corwin House and the neighboring Bowditch House. A group of concerned citizens formed , raised much-needed funds, and saved both by moving them out of the path of the road and restoring them. The Witch House opened as a museum in 1948 and is owned and operated by the City of Salem today.

Neighbors, a road project, and an organization still going more than 80 years later.

📸 Photo by Rebecca Beatrice Brooks. The Witch House, c. November 2015.

10/29/2026

Does your town have a historic building project and a lot of questions? Preservation Massachusetts Field Services offers free guidance to communities across the Commonwealth.

Our staff can help you:
📔 Apply the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards
📚 Research additional funding sources
🤝 Connect with other preservation partners and experts

It’s open to any community, whether the project is a barn, a town hall, or historic records. Start the conversation at preservationmass.org.

10/28/2026

Did you know? The first local historic districts in Massachusetts were created in 1955, in Boston (Beacon Hill) and on Nantucket.

At the time, there was no statewide law to guide them. Each needed its own special act. Five years later, in 1960, the state passed the Historic Districts Act (M.G.L. Chapter 40C), which lets any city or town establish a local historic district. That’s why a homeowner in a historic district may need approval before changing the exterior of their home.

It’s a good reminder that protecting a neighborhood’s character starts with a local vote. Is there a local historic district in your town?

Preservation Massachusetts helps communities understand their local options.

10/27/2026

One week from today, voters in four Massachusetts communities will see a Community Preservation Act question on the November 3 ballot.

Reading, Bellingham, and Monterey are voting on whether to adopt the CPA. Eastham, which already has it, is voting on whether to reduce its surcharge. If Reading says yes, it would become the 202nd of the state’s 351 cities and towns to adopt the Act.

If you haven’t followed the CPA, here’s what it does: it lets a community add a local property tax surcharge, matched in part by the state, to fund open space and recreation, affordable housing, and historic preservation. For historic places, it has been a quiet powerhouse. Medway used CPA funds to buy the c. 1814 Jacob Ide House in 2018, then approved another $1.25 million for the structural and accessibility work behind its October 3 grand reopening as the town’s historical museum. Boston’s City Council approved $8.15 million in FY2026 CPA grants for 23 historic preservation projects. In Canton, CPA funding is supporting ground-penetrating radar work to assess a historic cemetery.

Know your ballot, and ask your town what the CPA could do for the places you care about.

10/27/2026

Good news for a historic theater we’ve been following. When the and the Capitol Theatre in Arlington were listed for sale this summer, their future was uncertain.

CSB Theatres, a group that includes the theaters’ own longtime managers and staff, has now bought the Somerville Theatre building in Davis Square for $12 million.

Historic theaters do more than show films. They anchor squares, support nearby businesses, and give communities a shared place to gather. This outcome puts the Somerville Theatre in the hands of people who already know and care for it.

Congratulations to everyone who made this happen!

https://www.wbur.org/news/2026/10/23/somerville-theatre-purchased-csb-theatres-real-estate

📸 Ian Judge, Jay O’Leary, Ian Brownell and Jamie Mattchen of CSB Theatres above the Somerville Theatre marquee. (Courtesy CSB Theatres, Inc.)

10/26/2026

A grant story from New Bedford: in 2026, the New Bedford Historical Society received a Massachusetts Historic Preservation Matching Grant to replace the wooden gutters, fascia, and downspouts on the Nathan and Polly Johnson House.

It’s unglamorous work, and it’s what keeps a historic house standing. This one carries a great deal of history. Nathan and Polly Johnson were prominent Black abolitionists who sheltered freedom seekers at 21 Seventh Street. In 1838, the house became the first home in freedom for Frederick and Anna Douglass, and it was here that Frederick took the surname Douglass, a name suggested by Nathan Johnson. It is a National Historic Landmark and the only surviving New Bedford home of Frederick Douglass.

The all-volunteer New Bedford Historical Society bought the house in 1998, with help from and the Massachusetts Historical Commission, after it had been slated for demolition.

Letters of Inquiry are now open for the 2027 grant cycle of this same program: $135,000 in 1:1 matching grants of up to $10,000 for exterior work on nonprofit-owned historic properties, including roof, porch, and window repair.

Letters of Inquiry DEADLINE: Monday, November 2, 5:00pm.
For eligibility details, see: https://tinyurl.com/1772GrantEligibility

10/23/2026

Twenty years of celebrating the people who keep Nantucket’s history standing. Congratulations to the Nantucket Preservation Trust on its 20th annual Preservation Awards, and to this year’s four honorees.

Two stories stood out to us. Sarah Noelle McLane received the Michelle Elzay Architectural Preservation Award for the Hannah Gardner House at 6 Gull Island Lane, built around 1794. When she acquired it in 2019, the foundation had failed, windows were broken, water had caused serious rot, and there were no utilities. The restoration asked how much of the original house could be saved, and the answer was a lot: original floorboards were lifted, tagged, mapped, and reinstalled, and the central chimney with its six fireplaces was retained and restored.

George and Kathy Butterworth received the John A. and Katherine Lodge Stewardship Award for nearly five decades of caring for 23 North Water Street, built around 1793. George does much of the maintenance himself, including restoring the window sashes. It’s a reminder that preservation is often simply ongoing maintenance, done faithfully.

Also honored: Kerin and Jason Hempel and Stephens & Company for the rehabilitation of 17 Orange Street, and Harvey Jones for the gardens at 78 Main Street. Congratulations to all, and thank you to NPT for championing this work!

📸 Nantucket Current | Michelle Elzay Architectural Preservation Award winner: Sarah Noelle McLane and 6 Gull Island Lane.

10/22/2026

Why save a place? We tacked this question at last week's Historic Preservation Summit. Sometimes the answer has many layers.

In Hadley, the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum at Forty Acres has been on the National Register since 1973. In May 2023, the National Park Service created a new 114-acre “Forty Acres and Its Skirts” historic district, expanding that recognition well beyond the main house to include the Phelps Farm outbuildings and Federal-style farmhouse, a conservation area co-owned with the Kestrel Land Trust, and farmland managed under the state’s Agricultural Preservation Restriction Program.

The expanded nomination, funded by a National Park Service Underrepresented Communities Grant to the Massachusetts Historical Commission, documents the site’s connections to agricultural, women’s, Black, and Indigenous history, including three generations of enslaved workers, alongside its architecture. It’s a strong example of preservation telling a fuller story.

The work continues. The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation recently acquired the deteriorating Phelps Farm house and is stabilizing it while completing a historic structures report. Thank you to the Foundation for caring for all of it.

https://www.pphmuseum.org/forty-acres-and-its-skirts-historic-district

10/21/2026

Tonight in Charlestown: a chance to weigh in on a proposed Landmark District.

The Monument Square Landmark District Study Committee and Boston Landmarks Commission staff are holding a community meeting at 6 p.m. at the Knights of Columbus, 545 Medford St, to share a working draft of the study report and hear feedback. It’s the first of three drafts that will be released for public comment, an extra step the committee chose to add beyond what the law requires.

This effort started with residents. Charlestown voters petitioned the Landmarks Commission to study the district in 2022, and landmark designation in Boston is a petition-driven process: 10 registered voters, a Landmarks commissioner, or the Mayor can start one.

Whatever your view, this is how local preservation decisions get made: people show up and tell the commission what they think. Comments on the working draft are open through November 4 at boston.gov/monumentsquare.

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10/20/2026

Section 106 is back in the spotlight, and there’s a way to get more informed this week.

Tomorrow, Wed, Oct 21 from 2:00-3:00 p.m. ET, the is hosting a webinar, “Section 106 Under Threat: Understanding and Responding to Federal Permitting Reform,” with members of its government relations team. The focus is the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026, a Senate permitting bill introduced September 30. The National Trust has said it opposes the bill’s historic preservation provisions as currently drafted, including language that would give federal agencies significant authority to end the Section 106 process on their own determination. It has urged Congress to make changes before the bill advances, while supporting efforts to improve how Section 106 is carried out.

Section 106 is how communities get a seat at the table when federal decisions affect places they care about.

Webinar details:
https://savingplaces-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/7317915515702/WN_AKvjARViSGeAYabCbGN1pA #/registration

Gay Head Lighthouse in Aquinnah, MA | 📸: Rene Cizio
https://www.preservationmass.org/section-106-success-stories

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02360

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Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

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http://www.preservationmass.org/

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