Fruitlands Museum

Over ninety years ago, Clara Endicott Sears discovered she had bought a gentleman’s farm on land that had once sheltered Bronson Alcott’s ill-fated Utopian experiment in communal living known as Fruitlands.

Fruitlands lasted a mere seven months, but Sears helped rescue it from oblivion by turning the Alcott farmhouse into a house museum to celebrate the Transcendentalists’ vision. Between 1914 and 1945, Sears’ museum, named after Alcott’s commune, grew to include Native American art and artifacts, a Shaker collection, and a Picture Gallery of American vernacular portraits and Hudson River School landscapes.

Each museum: Fruitlands Farmhouse; the Shaker Museum—the first in this country; the Indian Museum and the Picture Gallery celebrate a unique spiritual encounter with the New England landscape, with the mind, and with the heart.

The Shaker Museum at Fruitlands was originally constructed in the Harvard Shaker Village in 1794 as an office. Miss Sears moved it to the Fruitlands Museums in 1920 after the Harvard Shaker village closed.

An Inspiring Place - Fruitlands Today. Fruitlands’ staff and board take great pride in preserving and sharing this rich cultural legacy. A national landmark and historic district, visitors come to Fruitlands to discover landscapes - real and imagined - the Shakers’ inventiveness and spirituality, the Transcendentalists’ idealism, the Native Americans’ identification with the soul of the land, and the Hudson River painters’ inspired visionary works.

Come and be inspired by treasures as small as an Inuit ivory figurine and as expansive as the views from Prospect Hill, which take in Mt. Monadnock to the north and Mt. Wachusett to the west. Behind every door and throughout our museums and trails - objects, ideas, and stories will inspire, instruct, and renew your engagement with the past and the present.

HOURS

Open: May 13 to October 31. Weekdays: 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Weekends & holidays: 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Guided tours by reservation.

ADMISSION

Adults: $10.00
Seniors and Students (w/ a college id): $8.00
Children (4 - 17yrs.) $2.00
Groups: Please call in advance and make a reservation to take advantage of our group discount. For a group of 10 or more people, one dollar off admission - $9.00 for adults, $7.00 for senior/students.
School groups (and other groups of children such as scouts): $5.00 per student. 1 chaperone for every 10 students required.

LOCATION & DIRECTIONS

From Boston: Take route 2 west, about 40 minutes, to exit 38a. The ramp directs vehicles south on Rt. 111. Shortly after the exit, take the first right onto Old Shirley Road. Go straight about 2 miles, and the road will turn into Prospect Hill Road. Go up the large hill and the museum entrance will be on the right.

From points west and south into Connecticut: Take Rt. 84 east to the Mass Pike. Take the mass Pike east to 290 east. Follow 290 to 190 north. 190 ends at Rt. 2. Follow Rt. 2 east to exit 38a. The ramp directs vehicles south on Rt. 111. Shortly after the exit, take the first right onto Old Shirley Road. Go straight about 2 miles, and the road will turn into Prospect Hill Road. Go up the large hill and the museum entrance will be on the right.

From points north: Take Rt. 495 south to Rt. 2 west. Take Rt. 2 west, about 4 miles, to exit 38a. The ramp directs vehicles south on Rt. 111. Shortly after the exit, take the first right onto Old Shirley Road. Go straight about 2 miles, and the road will turn into Prospect Hill Road. Go up the large hill and the museum entrance will be on the right.

From points south: Take Rt. 495 north to Rt. 2 west. Take Rt. 2 west, about 4 miles, to exit 38a. The ramp directs vehicles south on Rt. 111. Shortly after the exit, take the first right onto Old Shirley Road. Go straight about 2 miles, and the road will turn into Prospect Hill Road. Go up the large hill and the museum entrance will be on the right.

From points west: Follow the Mass. Pike east to 290 east. Follow 290 to 190 north. 190 ends at Rt. 2. Take Rt 2 east to exit 38a. The ramp directs vehicles south on Rt. 111. Shortly after the exit, take the first right on to Old Shirley Road. Go straight about 2 miles, and the road will turn into Prospect Hill Road. Go up the large hill and the museum entrance will be on your right.

View (and print) a map courtesy of Mapquest.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Fruitlands Museums
120 Prospect Hill Road
Harvard, Massachusetts 01451
Telephone: 1-978-456-3924
Fax: 1-978-456-8078
Email: mayson@fruitlands.org

Web Site: www.fruitlands.org

Additional Information: Shaker Manuscript Collection Guide

Additional Information: Online Shaker Research Materials

For information on activities and events
at Fruitlands Museum,
please go to our Calendar of Shaker Events