New England Travel Beyond Fall Foliage
Cultural Immersion, Museums, Northeast, Travel News, USA — on October 11, 2010 10:01 amNew England Travel Beyond Fall Foliage
Mention “New England” at this time of year and theconversation subject will likely turn to where to find great fall foliage.
Yes, there are all the colors of the changing season but there are treasures of
another sort.
experiential side of New England in the fall.
From Arts & Crafts architecture to steam trains and artist colonies, New
England’s multi-faceted identity goes far beyond passive leaf-peeping. The
region boasts offshore islands, bogs and river banks that are bastions of an
independent spirit, creative flair and Down East practicality.
The rivers of Connecticut, New England’s southernmost state, afford a vantage
point that can be enjoyed from vintage vessels.
A 90-minute cruise aboard the 1908 Sabino, one of the oldest
wooden, coal-fired steamboats still in operation, makes for a novel way to enjoy
the scenery along the Mystic River. Designated a National Historic Landmark in
1992, the Sabino is one of four vessels with that
distinction and can be appreciated at Mystic Seaport, one of the world’s largest maritime
museums. The historic site spans 19 acres and more than four centuries of
nautical heritage, including a re-created 19th-century village, a preservation
shipyard, marine paintings and scrimshaw, and a planetarium.
Less than a half-hour away, the 1920s Pullman Essex Clipper departs from
historicEssex Station and
chugs along the Connecticut River through scenic towns and past picturesque
farms and a millpond with waterfall.
In Deep River, passengers can disembark to board the Becky Thatcher, a
Mississippi-style riverboat, for a ride up the river to East Haddam. There, atop
hills known as the Seven Sisters, is Gillette Castle, built by Yankee scion and 19th century
thespian William Hooker Gillette.
The 24-room mansion is a tribute to the creative genius of its
owner, who designed its many secret passages, hidden compartments and ornate
carvings.
The estate sits on one hundred and eighty-four acres, most of which are open to
the public in accordance with Gillette’s will, which specified that the property
not fall to “some blithering saphead who has no conception of where he is or
with what surrounded.”
In the neighboring state of Massachusetts, between the towns of Carver and
Harwich are more than 14,000 acres of cranberry bogs. A variety of venues offer
appeal beyond the visual for history buffs, bird-watchers, foodies and
festival-lovers.
A.D. Makepeace Company in Wareham, which has been cultivating
cranberries since the 1800s and is the world’s largest cranberry grower, offers
bog tours on weekends in October. Flax Pond Cranberry Company of Carver features a screening house,
which dates to the 1890s; today the building serves as a museum of cranberry
history. And the history of all things cranberry is housed in the Harwich Historical Society Museum at Brooks Academy.
Displays chronicle early Cape Cod settlers being taught by
Native Americans to use the berry as a dye and medicine as well as food source,
and document the world’s first commercial crop in 1846 by Captain Alvin Cahoon.
Against the backdrop of the Berkshire Mountains in Western Massachusetts,
Stockbridge has long drawn a diverse cross-section of those seeking inspiration.
TheNorman Rockwell Museum is dedicated to the work of this
long-time resident, and Alice’s Restaurant, made famous by Arlo Guthrie’s
Vietnam protest song, is now run asTheresa’s Stockbridge Café.
The Kripalu Center is
a yoga retreat that attracts 25,000 annually and occupies a former Jesuit
seminary.
In the mid-19th century, Stockbridge attracted wealthy summer residents, who
built estates known as Berkshire Cottages. One such “cottage” is Naumkeag a
44-room country house designed by noted architect Stanford White, now a National
Historic Landmark and museum.
The word “naumkeag” also refers to a sanding pad used in the shoe industry.
Thomas Plant made his fortune shodding New Englanders and in 1913 built a
16-room Arts & Crafts mansion in New Hampshire’s Ossipee Mountains. Now known as Castle in the Clouds, the estate
exemplifies the architectural movement’s philosophy of living in harmony with
nature, and has a 270-degree view that includes Lake Winnipesaukee, as well as
45 miles of trails that wind through the woods and by waterfalls.
Further north, near New Hampshire’s border with Maine, is another iconic piece
of New England architecture, also built by a man who pulled himself up by his
bootstraps. By age 30, Joseph Stickney had amassed immense wealth as a railroad
tycoon. In 1905, for $1.7 million—or $38 million today—he built the Mount
Washington Hotel, bringing in 250 Italian artisans to craft an elaborate
structure in the Spanish Renaissance Revival style. A favorite retreat of
presidents, in 1944 the hotel hosted the international monetary conference that
established the World Bank. Now known as the Omni Mount Washington Hotel and Resort, the property was
declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986.
Off the coast of Boothbay Maine is Monhegan Island, 11
miles out in the Atlantic. Giovanni da Verrazano’s ship landed here in 1525,
followed by Samuel de Champlain in 1604 and Captain John Smith in 1614. Monhegan
Island served as one of the New World’s earliest outposts, harboring British
fisherman and fur traders.
Today, the island is home to an artist’s colony of international reputation.
Among the many prominent painters who have found inspiration here are Jamie
Wyeth, Edward Hopper and Rockwell Kent. The Monhegan Historical and Cultural Museum is housed in the old Lighthouse
Keepers Cottage.
Barely 2 miles long, Monhegan has about 17 miles of trails across the two thirds
of the island that is protected as a nature sanctuary. The preserve is overseen
by a trust founded in 1954 by the family of inventor Thomas Edison to protect
the island’s “simple, friendly way of life.”
From October to the beginning of June, fishermen harvest lobsters from the only
lobster conservation area in the state of Maine.
Peaks Island is
one of over 211 island—and just four year-round islands—located in Maine’s Casco
Bay. The island is accessible by a short 20-minute ferry ride from Portland, of
which it has been considered a neighborhood, since a failed secession attempt in
2006-2007. The isle has two restaurants that stay open year-round, two inns and
a grocery store whose motto is “If we don’t have it, you don’t need it.”
The same might be said for the many spirited and colorful communities of New
England.
Text and photos by Meg Pier for PeterGreenberg.com. Meg Pier covers travel
for the Boston Globe and other publications. Visit her on
the Web at www.ViewFromthePier.com.
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