Wakefield Estate

The bee, from her industry in the summer,

eats honey all the winter.

-   Proverb

It's been a busy summer of exploration and learning at the Wakefield Estate!
Ten local high school- and college-age students joined our summer crew as landscape interns. Trees were pruned, woodland paths restored, flower beds weeded and dozens of trees catalogued and added to our new plant collection database. Other students participated in our third annual Summer Archaeology Institute, unearthing artifacts that add to our understanding of the estate's occupants dating back to the early 1700s. While archaeology students dug in the earth, a graduate student form Tufts dug in the attic of the mansion, uncovering many more rare and important items that help tell the story of those that came before us. Thanks to all our interns and students this summer for a job well done!

  

-Mark Smith

Executive Director

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

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2011 intern crew 

2011 Interns Leave Behind a Great Impression

This week, our 2011 Wakefield Estate Landscape Interns will complete their sixth and final week and they have proven to be a fantastic crew. This year's crew consisted of ten students, eight from area high schools and two from UMass Amherst. The interns have done exceptional work sprucing up the formal gardens and trails throughout the property, helping care for the sheep and chickens, and continuing our efforts to rehabilitate overgrown and poorly maintained areas of our collection. Our two UMass Amherst students served as Landscape Documentation Interns, helping us develop and implement a system to properly document the estate's horticultural collection. We wish all our interns the best of luck in the school year ahead.

 

More Discoveries by Wakefield Fellows

For a second summer, the Wakefield Estate engaged a "Textile Collection Fellow" whose job was to explore and catalogue items still unearthed in the mansion's attic. Liz Holbrook, a graduate student of Tufts University's Museum Studies program, took on the challenge and made some great discoveries, including a cache of pre-Civil War garments and personal accessories. Other fellows from an array of graduate programs continue their research on the buildings, archives, archaeology, book and mineral collections.

 

Save the Date

for our Autumnal Equinox Evening Garden Tour 

Join us for our first annual autumnal equinox evening garden tour, Thursday, September 22nd from 6:00-8:00 pm. As with our mid-winter evening tour, we will illuminate parts of the garden and the statuesque forms of some of the estate's oldest trees. With the moon well on the wane towards its new moon phase on the 27th, it should be a splendid display. Watch our website, Facebook page, and September's e-newsletter for more information.

Mary M. B. Wakefield Charitable Trust is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
Staff:
Mark Smith, Executive Director - email: [email protected]
Erica Max, Landscape Supervisor and Educational Coordinator - email: [email protected]
Dave Cafaro, Grounds and Building Maintenance - email: [email protected]
For more information, call us at (617) 333-0924 or check out our website at wakefieldtrust.org