Historic New Bedford

Heralding in the holiday season, the residents of New Bedford’s historic neighborhoods will once again open their beautifully restored homes for the New Bedford Preservation Society’s 18th Annual Holiday House Tour - December 5th Candlelight Tour (4 to 8 p.m.) and December 6th Afternoon Tour (1 to 5 p.m.). Enjoy the spirit of the yuletide at this holiday event - a must for architecture and history enthusiasts!

New Bedford - Even though the weather is turning colder and winter is fast approaching, now is the perfect time to think about painting your house next spring. If you own a historic home, choosing paint colors can be a daunting task. There are a number of things to consider – the architectural style of your house, what colors were typically used on that style, and how many colors should you use. If you need help choosing colors that would be appropriate for your house, there is a free workshop coming up that will help get you started.

New Bedford, Massachusetts- The developers of Riverside Landing are donating 24-foot long beams of sought after southern yellow pine to the preservation of New Bedford’s historic schooner Ernestina. The beams will be carefully extracted as part of the demolition process of the remaining Fairhaven Mills structure.

New Bedford, MA, August 1, 2008— The 2008 Working Waterfront Festival takes place in New Bedford, America’s largest commercial fishing port, on Saturday and Sunday, September 27th & 28th. This free, family-friendly event opens the waterfront to the public with a rare look into commercial fishing America’s oldest industry. 

The public is cordially invited to an Open House for the Akin Archaeology Project on Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at the Elihu Akin House, 762 Dartmouth Street, Dartmouth, Massachusetts. The all day open house from 9:30 A.M. – 4:00 P.M. will feature tours of the Akin House and site including a display of the artifacts uncovered and processed during this summer’s field session.

The public is cordially invited to the first Annual Meeting of the Dartmouth Heritage Preservation Trust on Thursday, July 31, 2008 from 5:00 – 7:00 P.M. at the historic Dartmouth Grange, 1133 Fisher Road, Dartmouth. The event is open to the public. Refreshments will be served following the brief business meeting and special guest lecture.

Guest Speaker – Dr. Christina Hodge, Elihu Akin House Archaeologist

NEW BEDFORD, MA (7.19.08) - - The Operation Clean Sweep Anti-Litter Campaign has planned a Saturday morning cleanup in Ward 1 on Saturday, July 19th from 8 – 11 am.   Here’s the chance for able, civic-minded residents to step forward and help make their neighborhoods cleaner places to live and nicer places to visit.

The Dartmouth Heritage Preservation Trust (DHPT) and the Wamsutta Club of New Bedford are pleased to announce the establishment of a restoration fund for the James Arnold Mansion (William J. Rotch House/Wamsutta Club), 427 County Street, New Bedford, Massachusetts. The DHPT, a 501 (C ) 3, non-profit preservation organization can now accept, hold and disperse gifts to be used for historically appropriate faithful repairs and restorations at one of New Bedford’s most historically and architecturally important properties. All donations and gifts to the fund are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

New Bedford, Massachusetts-The editors of This Old House online have named New Bedford one of the top 12 best places in America to buy an old house.  

Join Us! The Dartmouth Heritage Preservation Trust is recruiting volunteers for the second summer of the Akin House Archaeology Project.  Join Dr. Christina Hodge, students from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and other volunteers from July 7th through August 6, 2008, at the 1762 Elihu Akin House located at 762 Dartmouth Street. We will be digging for the past in Dartmouth and expanding our knowledge of the families who lived in the house and used the land. It's the perfect opportunity to work outside while learning local history and finding artifacts. Last summer 5,926 fragments of ceramic, glass, bone, brick, and other finds from the 18th through 21st centuries were uncovered, cleaned and catalogued. Help us to explore new areas of the site!

(New Bedford, May 28, 2008)   Downtown New Bedford will be the place to be on Sunday, June 22 from 12 noon - 4 PM for the Second Annual Taste Our SouthCoast Festival. Presented by Pier Fish, the event will feature local restaurants and caterers serving their best and most sought after recipes under two tents at Custom House Square.

The June 12th NB Cultures AHA! night celebrates the arts, histories and architecture of many of the groups that comprise our diverse community engender the uniqueness that is New Bedford. The whaling history of New Bedford will be explored along with cultural samplings from Cape Verdean, Portuguese, Polish, Irish, Lebanese and Azorean. Other cultures featured include the culture of fishing community and youth skateboard culture.  Ethic sounds this evening include Portuguese Fado, jazz, Celtic, plus more! New exhibits abound as well as the grand opening of the Art Room at the New Bedford Public Library.

(NEW BEDFORD, MA) – The Candleworks Restaurant, located at 72 North Water Street in New Bedford will be closed the week of Memorial Day for a mini facelift - New owner Jared Morgado is updating the look and enhancing the feel of the beloved establishment. “Memorial Day week is typically a slow week for the restaurant and we thought closing during this time would be the least inconvenient for our patrons.”  During the brief closing, the restaurant will get new seating for the main dinning room, a fresh coat of paint, refinishing of the woodwork, updated lighting and new patio furniture - the patio will open for the summer with the re-opening of the restaurant on Sunday, June 1.

New Bedford, Massachusetts-The Downtown New Bedford Business District will grow again this week with the grand opening of a full-service florist shop on Purchase Street.  Ana Grochmal, proprietor of “The White Bouquet,” a successful florist shop previously established in South Dartmouth has relocated her business to a Downtown New Bedford storefront at 763 Purchase Street.  The White Bouquet is a full service florist shop that provides services for weddings and all special occasions.

NEW BEDFORD, MA – On Saturday, April 5, 2008 the downtown New Bedford AHA! (Art History Architecture) cooperative project will host a fundraising event - AHA! Fast Forward.  The event will begin with a Sunset Tapas Dinner and Wine Cruise on the New England Fast Ferry (boarding at 5:30 p.m./departing at 6 p.m.) followed by a waterfront Dessert and Dancing Reception at the ferry terminal from 8 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.  The terminal, at 49 State Pier, New Bedford, will be transformed for the evening into a stylish night spot. A cash bar will be available and there will be a silent auction full of unique items. 

New Bedford's Hetty Green and Fall River's Lizzie Borden, perhaps the two most infamous women to ever come out of Southeastern Massachusetts, were contemporaries in both time and place.

“Muddy March” AHA! Night celebrates the earth beneath our feet and the feel of clay in our hands. Visitors may try their hand at the potter’s wheel, watch the creation of life-sized mud paintings and learn about how quahoggers dig in the muck for the savory seafood. On exhibit will be ceramics by local artists that are both intricate and functional. This evening will also feature several artist lectures from recently opened exhibits, live music and the much anticipated Echo Performing Art Festival at the Whaling Museum. Participating AHA! venues will be open late offering a variety of exhibits, live music, shopping and fine dining.

White Knight Gallery, New Bedford - The downtown community bows its head in respect to two pioneers in its burgeoning arts and business community, Alda Roderiques and Marybeth Vargas, who are retiring as of this month. For the past seven years, the store and its owners have been a steadfast part of the tight-knit William St. community. 2007 marked the stores’ tenth year in business, the first three of which were in Acushnet. Since their bold move to New Bedford, these ladies’ influence has stretched up and down the block, eventually  side-by-side with stores like Solstice, Artificial Marketplace, Joe Piper’s, Simmons Brothers and No Problemo, to name a few. Not to mention the growing number of artists and musicians working upstairs and selling their art downtown.

AHA! invites you to celebrate Black History Month. This month the focus is on the rich cultural history and contributions of people of color to the city of New Bedford.

AHA! will be joining First Night as a FREE venue on December 31st from 5-9pm with a "Fire and Ice" celebration in downtown New Bedford. AHA! Program Director Lee Heald states that AHA! received over $90,000 in in-kind support in 2007 from local non-profit venues and businesses and that this evening is as a way of showing appreciation to the downtown community and partner venues.

New Bedford, Massachusetts- The City of New Bedford Planning Department has completed a survey and planning project to amend its nomination for the County Street National Register Historic District.  A public meeting to present the research and findings associated with the new nomination will be held on Monday, December 17, 2007, 6:30 PM at the Rotch-Jones-Duff House & Garden Museum at 396 County Street.

Museums are often looked upon as bastions of the “old.”  They are home to items, both natural and man-made, that can date back millions of years.

To herald the holiday season, residents of New Bedford’s historic neighborhoods will once again be opening their beautifully restored homes for the New Bedford Preservation Society’s 16th Annual Holiday House Tour - December 1 and 2.

The New Bedford Whaling Museum, like many of the cultural organizations in New England (and the rest of the world for that matter), has much more to it than meets the eye.  For every object on display there are 50 in storage.  For every elementary or high school that visits, there are dozens of students.  And for every story contained within its walls, there are thousands more yet to be told.

The New Bedford Whaling Museum welcomes over 100,000 visitors through its doors each year.  These guests are treated to ship models, whale skeletons, beautiful scrimshaw pieces, photographs, weaponry, household items and thousands of other objects that, together, tell the story of whaling in New Bedford.

WHALE HOSTS WALKING TOUR OF NEW BEDFORD WHALING NATIONAL HISTORCAL PARK & DOWNTOWN on THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 2007 at 6:30PM

Attia Clothing is located in Historic Downtown New Bedford at 173 Union Street. Attia is the premier clothing boutique North of Providence and South of Boston. Attia Clothing is redefining the image for New Bedford and South Eastern Massachusetts style. The boutique will carry labels such as 7, Joe’s Jeans, Paper Denim and Cloth, Citizens and True Religion, along with many of the recently discovered and undiscovered designers.

On Saturday, August 18 from 7-11 p.m., the New Bedford Whaling Museum will hold its second annual summer party, Over the Top – Under the Stars.  Like last year’s Over the Top, this event will be held in the most unique space on the South Coast – the Museum’s plaza and Jacobs Family Gallery, under the hanging bones of the blue whale.

Last week, the Whaling Museum hosted the annual teacher institute, Portraits of a Port, in which educators from New Bedford Public schools gathered at the Whaling Museum’s Research Library to explore, learn, and share ideas about incorporating aspects of local history into their curriculums. The focus this year was on the people and places of New Bedford during the time of the Civil War, 1860-1865.

New Bedford, Massachusetts- Secretary of the Commonwealth, William Francis Galvin acting in his role as Chairman of the Massachusetts Historical Commission, recently announced that the City of New Bedford has been selected for a matching grant allocation of $30,000 from the Massachusetts Historic Commission’s Round 13: Massachusetts Preservation Projects Fund pending reauthorization of the capital accounts and the availability of sufficient allocated funds. This year’s highly competitive round of funding received seventy-nine applications with New Bedford being selected as one of eighteen recipients.