Nichols House Museum to offer final walking tour of season on Oct. 17

Beacon Hill Times
10/16/26

The Nichols House  Museum’s final walking tour of the 2026 season will take place on Saturday, Oct. 17, at 10:30 a.m. It will be a special edition of their Brahmins & Bohemians walking tours– all of which focus on Beacon Hill in the late 19th and early 20th centuries– and will highlight the Arts & Crafts movement’s impact on the neighborhood.

During the Arts & Crafts movement, many Bostonians were inspired to take up traditional crafts. Beacon Hill, with its old homes and charming character, drew these artists to live and create. Some were well-to-do residents of Chestnut and Mount Vernon Street, others lived in boarding houses on Pinckney Street, and still more settled on the Flat of the Hill, where new development in the early 20th century included studio spaces.

The tour will point out some of these artists’ former homes and studios, share about their lives and careers, and show images of their work. Among the artists featured is one with ties to an Arts & Crafts utopian community, as well as many with works in notable collections like the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. And while Beacon Hill is known for its neoclassical Federal and Greek Revival style homes, this tour will also include a few Craftsman-style buildings.

The Nichols House is offering this walking tour as part of Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026, a nationwide Semiquincentennial initiative to showcase the importance of the handmade both throughout our history and in contemporary life, presented by Craft in America. The Nichols House Museum is a participating organization, showcasing the craftworks created by Rose and Margaret Nichols, as well as the artisans and craftspeople living and working on Beacon Hill during the Nichols family’s time in the neighborhood.

Camille Arbogast, the Nichols House Museum’s Public Engagement Manager, said, “An October morning is a great time to take a walk together and explore some of the lesser-told history of the neighborhood.”

The tour will be about an hour and a half. It starts at 55 Mount Vernon St., and ends on Charles Street.

Visit https://www.handwork2026.org/participant/nichols-house-museum/, or https://www.handwork2026.org/event/arts-crafts-walking-tour/ to register and for more information.

Original article here.