While we Greenfield Garden Club members were on a trip to Waltham, MA, to see the Lyman Greenhouses we also visited Stonehurst, the beautiful house built for summer visits by Robert Treat Paine.

I am calling this the reception room, but you can see there is a little room where the entry door is before coming into this large space. There is built in seating, and a beautiful golden marble fireplace, but am not really sure how the space would have been used. Nowadays the house is used for events – like weddings and receptions! I wish I had had a wide angle lens to take this photo.

I do understand the function of this handsome study.

I doubt this was really a ballroom, especially since there are nice bookshelves on the wall opposite the fireplace. But our friends held their wedding and reception at Stonehurst and there was dancing in this room.

This room was originally the kitchen, but over time a big kitchen was built on the other side of  this cabinet wall. Note the little pass-through. Nowadays caterers use that big functional kitchen.

This lovely little room, named Bow Parlor, is built under the grand wide staircase .

I was very glad for these explanatory posters.

Stonehurst was built as a summer retreat and the builders used heavy stone and oriented the house to catch summer breezes as well as the view. Our friends confirmed that they were very cool inside the house on a blistering July day.  H.H. Richardson  and Frederick Law Olmstead cooperated on many projects. I’ll have to come back and see what Olmstead created for the landscape.

Visitors are invited to stroll the grounds designed by Olmstead, or they can hike woodland trails that wind through the 100 acres of woodland of surrounding Storer Conservation Lands.