Back by popular demand for the 9th season!
Join walkers for an evening stroll at Maudslay Park in Newburyport. Wednesdays, 6:00 – 7:00 pm.
This moderately paced walk will take you on every path in the park by the end of the season. Led by the park interpreter, you will experience the changes in Maudslay over the spring, summer and fall.
A perfect after work activity. Rain or shine. Wear comfortable shoes and bring water.
Meet at the park headquarters on 74 Curzon Mill Road.
Originally named Maudesleigh, the original estate was created on agricultural fields by landscape architect Martha Brookes Hutcheson, one of the earliest female members of the American Society of Landscape Architects. She designed the grounds around the main house, entry drive, and formal gardens (1904–1906).
Lord and Burnham designed the various greenhouses. At its peak, about 40 staff serviced the estate’s three greenhouses, head house, cold frames, espaliered fruit trees, winter plant house, Italian garden, rose garden, and rhododendrons, azaleas, and specimen trees, as well as the site’s native mountain laurels. Many of the landscape elements can be seen today.
The most striking natural feature of the park is the primeval stands of white pine on the steep slopes and bluffs of the river, which appear never to have been logged. The laurel forms a continuous thicket along the forest floor around the pines, which are so tall that their tops are not visible in the upper canopy from below. The canopy is a nesting site for bald eagles.