Upcoming Events
What a Continental Soldier Ate & Carried
Date: September 26, 2026
Location: Front Lawns Walpole Historical Society
Please join the Walpole Historical Society for an outdoor demonstration of what it might have looked like when minutemen were preparing to march out of town.
What rations were being prepared for them?, What were they packing?
When? Saturday 26th September 1-4 pm
Where? On front lawns of the Walpole Historical Society 33 West Street across from the common.
There will be on-going cooking demonstrations by foodway historian Stacy Booth in period costume along with other historical reenactors. The contents of a minuteman’s pack will be on display and discussed. Also the museum rooms of the historical society will be open to visitors.
Coming Soon!
Tour of Old Walpole Town Hall
Led by: Jim D’Attilio and Laurie Kearney
Date: TBD (Spring of 2026)
Location: Walpole Town Hall
Copy to come
Watch for Announcements for Events like this:
Our annual holiday open house usually in December often includes historical reenactor Michael LePage playing Charles Dickens.
Walking tours led by volunteers to local cemeteries and around town. Also tours by bus to historic sites in Walpole.
Lectures on Walpole history by members of the society, typically at the common room of the Walpole Public Library. The lectures are taped and are available at Walpole Media.
A summertime open house with colonial soldiers re-enacting activities on the common across the street from the historical society.
Past Events
A lecture by Betsey Dexter Dyer, Walpole Historical Society
Date: Thursday April 30, 2026, 7 pm
Location: In the Common Room of the Walpole Public Library
Walpole Historical Society “Trivia Night” & Annual Meeting– Concluded
Date: April 16, 2026 At 7:00 PM
Location: Deacon Willard Lewis House
The Annual Meeting of the Walpole Historical Society will be held at the Deacon Willard Lewis House on April 16, 2026 at 7PM. A brief business meeting, including the election of officers, will be held, followed by Walpole Trivia with Jim D’Attilio, and refreshments.
Do you remember where this was located?
Historical Society “Christmas Open House” – Concluded
Date: December 13th
Location: Deacon Willard Lewis House
Have some mulled cider and Christmas cookies!
Listen to a special reading of “The Night Before Christmas” (“A Visit from St Nicholas”) by Sharon McMillen who will reenact the poet Clement Moore’s daughter.
Plus:
Take a guided tour of the historic Lewis House (home of the Walpole Historical Society).
Shop for the holiday in our book shop. Check out our two newest books!
Slavery in Norfolk County – Concluded
Led by: Laurie Kearney
Date: Nov. 5, 2025, @ 6:30pm
Location: Walpole Public Library
At one time, Massachusetts’ residents could legally own slaves. In 1638, captured Africans began arriving in New England, soon after the English began settling in Boston. This practice remained acceptable in the Commonwealth until a 1783 judicial declaration stated that the Massachusetts State Constitution did not support slavery.
Compared to other states, people of color, both enslaved and freed, were a small percent of Massachusetts’ population. Most lived in port towns and cities where their labor was needed on the waterfront. A lot of research has been done on enslavers and the enslaved in these large towns. Less is known about those who lived in the countryside outside of Boston. This presentation looks for Norfolk County’s enslaved and formerly enslaved population, and their lives as an enslaved person and after they were freed.
First Telephones and Electric Lighting in Walpole – Concluded
Presented by: Betsey Dexter Dyer
Date: October 16, 2025, Thursday @ 1pm
Location: Walpole COA
Electricity and telephones are absolutely essential conveniences for nearly everybody in the United States and beyond. Indeed, they are so ubiquitous and taken for granted, that it is difficult to imagine being without electricity and telephones for any length of time except perhaps on a self-imposed camping trip or during a disastrous power outage. Even a few hours without telephone service or electricity can seem to be a great hardship.
What did the very early transition look like, when neither electricity nor telephones was commonplace and neither was “essential”? In fact both electricity and telephones may have seemed at first like non-essential, frivolous, expensive and even somewhat inconvenient luxuries. Who were the early adopters? Who were the first users? And what exactly were they using telephones and electricity for? Who eventually began to think of those utilities as essential? Imagine the first owner of a telephone in a very small town like Walpole Massachusetts, with a population of about 2,500. Why would this person own a telephone at all? It must have been expensive and complicated to get it set up for the first time. And then to what end? Whom was that first user going to phone? Likewise, electricity: who decided first to have an electric wire run to their house or business and then which of their devices were powered by electricity? The very first steps seem improbable except maybe for a certain sort of hobbyist or enthusiast of new devices, willing to experiment and tinker with enticing but perhaps temperamental new technologies.
The Walpole Hotel – Concluded
Presented by: Betsey Dexter Dyer
Date: September 4, 2025 @ 7pm
Location: Walpole Public Library
The Walpole Hotel was in existence for only 19 years (1873-1892) but what an impression it made. Nearly every week the Walpole Star printed the latest goings on: loud music, late night dance parties, moonlight sleigh ride groups, bicycle clubs, maybe some drinking (which was not illegal but some thought it ought to be) , definitely billiards and cigars. Some citizens approved or at least enjoyed getting the latest gossip on the place. Others did not approve. The hotel cycled through eight landlords, a couple of them fired for excessive merriment.
This lecture will also include a discussion about how small-town weekly newspapers operated at this time; the Walpole Hotel was exactly the sort of thing that sold papers and the two young editors who were hanging out at the hotel knew it. (There was not an actual newspaper office in Walpole.) If you wanted to drop off any news for the Walpole Star, you could find a box for your suggestions in the lobby of the Walpole Hotel.
Walpole Then and Now – Concluded
Presented by: Jim D’Attilio and Philip Czachorowski
Date: July 24, 2025, Thursday @ 1pm
Location: The Walpole COA
This slide presentation discusses 26 historical photographs from Walpole Historical Society’s collection, paired with recent photos of the same locations. In this presentation, Jim D’Attilio takes us back to the time of the original 26 photographs, detailing their context and significance to Walpole’s history.