Historic Northampton

Upcoming Events

Growing Gardeners

Sunday, June 4, 2023 | 11 am to 2 pm

A benefit fundraiser for the Bridge Street School Sprouts Gardens at Historic Northampton

Come to Historic Northampton for hours of family fun, including great music, children’s activities, free plants, refreshments, and more!

This event will help raise funds to create all new garden spaces and a brand new, beautiful garden shed for the Bridge Street School’s Sprouts Gardens, which are located on the grounds of Historic Northampton.

Free. Donations encouraged.



Rain date: Sunday, June 11, 2023

In partnership with the Ward 3 Neighborhood Association and the Meadow City Conservation Coalition.

Paradise East Open Mic Night

On the Grounds of Historic Northampton

Friday, June 9, 2023 | 6 - 8 pm

Please join us for the Kick-Off of the 2023 Season of Paradise East

Open Mic Night.

Take advantage of Arts Night Out and then come to the grounds of Historic Northampton to enjoy a relaxing evening of performances by your friends and Valley neighbors.

Music, poetry, comedy, dance … name your talent and please share it! Bring a chair, blanket and picnic to Historic Northampton's grounds. Each performance will be about 5 minutes long. Children and teens encouraged; all welcome.

Performers take note: Microphones, full sound system, and sound engineer on-site.

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Revolution and Rebellion: It Happened Here

A Walking Tour with Nick DeLuca, Program Manager

Wednesday

June 14, 2023

9 - 10:30 am

Thursday

June 15, 2023

9 - 10:30 am

Saturday

June 17, 2023

9 - 10:30 am

In the 1770s and 1780s, the American Revolution and subsequent events fractured Northampton and its families. In this walk through downtown, we will learn about local revolutionaries — among them Joseph Hawley, Seth Pomeroy, and Joseph Maminash, Jr. (Mohegan/Podunk/Nonotuck) — and Tory loyalists, such as Israel Williams and Timothy Dwight.

Historic Northampton Interpretive Program Manager Nick Deluca will discuss how the revolution transformed downtown and helped create the conditions that led to Shays Rebellion, an uprising of western Massachusetts farmers who mobbed the Northampton court in 1786 to stop farm foreclosures.  Their actions, and others, led to the creation of the United States Constitution.

Pre-registration is required.

Limited to 18 participants.

Sliding scale admission: $10 to $25 per person.

Learn More & Register

Reading Frederick Douglass Together

On the Grounds of Historic Northampton

Sunday, July 2, 2023 | 11:30 am

Come together to read aloud Frederick Douglass’s 1852 speech, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"

Copies of Douglass’ speech will be distributed to all in attendance. The public is invited to take a turn reading a passage or to just listen. The event is free and open to the public.

The speech was first delivered in 1852, in Corinthian Hall, Rochester, New York to the Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. The themes addressed in the speech still resonate with Americans more than 150 years after they were written. Now more than ever, the speech forces us to reckon with the legacy of slavery and the promises of democracy.

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Frederick Douglass had strong ties to the Northampton Association of Education and Industry in Florence and spoke in downtown Northampton in the 1840s about slavery and the abolitionist movement.

Reading Frederick Douglass Together is funded by Mass Humanities and co-sponsored by State Representative Lindsay Sabadosa.

Rain date: Monday, July 3, 2023 at 11:30 am

200 chairs will be available. Feel free to bring your own chair.

​During the reading, the grounds are closed to dog walking.

Certified service dogs only, please.



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