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Health & Fitness

Newport Historical Society's Winter Festival Events

Newport Winter Festival, New England’s largest winter extravaganza, is the ideal time to explore Newport’s extensive history. The Newport Historical Society will host several unique family programs, along with a concert and exhibits, during the mid-February festival. The following list reviews the Society’s many family-friendly programs.

Revolutionary Newport Family Program

February 19, 2014 at 10am

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Visit the 1739 Colony House and participate in a brief reader’s theater skit focused on the 1765 Stamp Act riot in Newport. Meet a first person interpreter portraying Polly Wanton, a young woman living in Newport during the revolution. The program begins at the Brick Market: Museum & Shop, 127 Thames Street. Participation is limited. $5 per person, $4 with the Newport Winter Festival button. Call 401-841-8770 for reservations. 

What’s Wrong With This Picture? A family activity at the Museum of Newport History and the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House

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February 14, 2014 through February 23, 2014

Help us fix the museum! When visiting the Museum of Newport History and the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House, can you find the objects that are out of place or time? This “scavenger hunt”-style family activity is available during museum hours and during the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House site tour. Participants will receive a checklist to help guide them through the visual hunt.

Site tour fee applies, $8 per person, $6 with the Winter Festival button, for visiting the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House; suggested admission to the Museum of Newport History is $5 per person. The Museum of Newport History is located in the Brick Market: Museum & Shop, 127 Thames Street, and is open daily at 10am. The Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House site tour is offered daily 11am-3pm. For details call 401-841-8770. 

Historic Sites Tours

Offered daily February 14-23, 2014 11am-3pm
Tour one of the Newport Historical Society’s colonial-era sites.

  • The Colony House, built in 1739, was a center for Rhode Island’s colonial government and houses a Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington.
  • Visit the Great Friends Meeting House and explore Rhode Island’s oldest house of worship, built for the Society of Friends in 1699.
  • The c.1697 Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House, Newport’s oldest house museum, features the Winter Festival family fun scavenger hunt “What’s Wrong with This Picture?
  • View the country’s oldest Seventh Day Baptist Meeting House, built in 1730. Limited admission.

Tours depart from the Brick Market: Museum & Shop, 127 Thames Street, and cost $8 per person, $6 with the Winter Festival button, free for NHS members. Reservations recommended, 401-841-8770.

The Society has partnered with the Martin Luther King Center, and is supported by the Spectacle of Toleration, to present the Third Day Gospel Choir Concert on February 17, 2014 at 1pm at the Casino Theatre. The Tufts University Third Day Gospel Choir will present a concert of traditional and contemporary gospel music. This spiritual, historically African-American music transcends differences and unites all people to share in the celebration of music and the victory of life over tribulation. The concert highlights the history and journey of gospel music – with singing, clapping and moving. Tickets cost $15 per person, $10 for NHS members, and can be purchased online at: http://NewportGospelConcert.eventbrite.com.

Newport History Tours, the joint partnership between the Society and the Newport Restoration Foundation, will offer daily walking tours including two tours that are exclusively offered during the Newport Winter Festival: the Lantern Tour of Colonial Newport and The Working Waterfront Tour. For the complete tour schedule visit: http://www.newporthistorytours.org.

By popular demand, the Society has extended its exhibits, A Writer’s Dozen and The Children’s Hour, so they are available for Winter Festival attendees.

  • A Writer’s Dozen highlights desks made in Newport by Newport craftsmen – and two fine examples from Providence. The exhibit includes the desk at which William Ellery, signer of the Declaration of Independence, worked and wrote. The exhibit takes place at the Seventh Day Baptist Meeting House (82 Touro Street) and is open February 14, February18-21 from 10am to 4pm; admission is free, donations are welcome.
  • The Children’s Hour presents a selection of 18th, 19th and 20th century children’s books and printed materials from the Society’s extensive collection. Highlights include the works of 19th-century Newport authors Susan Coolidge (What Katy Did), Laura E. Howe Richards (Captain January) and Clement C. Moore (A Visit from St. Nicholas). Children’s educational materials are also included such as 19th and 20th century primers, a penmanship book and a unique 1803 “game” comprised of pictures and sight words. The Children’s Hour is housed at the Museum of Newport History at the Brick Market: Museum & Shop, 127 Thames Street. Admission is free, $5 per person suggested donation.

For those interested in visiting Newport’s streets without the summer traffic, the Society’s award-winning app, Explore Historic Newport, is a great companion. The GPS enabled app, which web based and is accessible through any internet-abled device, offers thematic tours, historic photos and interactive maps. Explore Historic Newport by visiting http://NewportHistoryApp.com/.

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