We will take a private tour of three historic buildings Hingham Square. They’re all within walking distance, and weather and time permitting, we’ll see a number of others as we make our way through Hingham’s downtown.

The Old Ordinary

Since 1688, the Old Ordinary has been an inn, a tavern, a private home, and—since 1921—a house museum owned by the Hingham Historical Society.

Old Derby Academy

An imposing federal-style building, Old Derby Academy was a schoolhouse from 1818 to 1967. After restoration and construction of an addition, it reopened in the summer of 2017 as the Hingham Heritage Museum, offering both rotating and permanent exhibits and housing the Society’s archives.

Old Ship Church

Hingham’s First Parish, Unitarian Universalist, long called Old Ship Church, dates from 1681; it is the last surviving Puritan meetinghouse in New England.

This tour can accommodate a maximum of 20 people.

Our thanks to Paula Bagger, Ellen Miller, and Tom Willson of the Hingham Historical Society and the Rev. Ken Read-Brown of Old Ship Church.

When

September 15 from 10 am until around 1 pm.

For those who wish to stay for lunch, Paula suggested two: “The Liberty Grille, inside the 1722 addition to the 1643 town grain mill, and the Hingham Lobster Pound, which is not historic at all, but does great fried seafood for take-out and his adjacent to the municipal Bathing Beach.”

Where

We will start at meet at the Hingham Heritage Museum at Old Derby Academy, 34 Main Street, Hingham. There is on free on-street parking on Main Street and the streets of Hingham Square as well as a municipal lot behind the stores on the opposite side of Main Street from Old Derby Academy.

And a tip from Paula on your drive in: “If people want to maximize their ‘Hingham experience’ by driving in past a huge inventory of antique houses on their way in, they should take I-93 to Route 3 South, Route 3 South to Exit 14, turn right at the bottom of the ramp, and proceed north. The first mile or so is car dealerships, but once you pass through Queen Ann’s Corner (big intersection) and into Hingham, it becomes rather pretty. Glad Tidings Plain, a portion of Main Street around 2 miles north, was what caused Eleanor Roosevelt once to term this road “the prettiest Main Street in America,” or some such. There is a long stretch of beautiful old houses and a couple of iconic New England churches.”

Registration

Registration is required. The cost is $12.50.