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Created by three late 19th-century visionaries during America's cultural coming of age, Stonehurst continues to inspire visitors from all over the world.

Stonehurst

The romantic name the Paine family chose for their 109-acre country place paid homage to the elemental beauty of their stony, glaciated land on a "wooded hill," or hurst in old English. Here for six months of the year, family members and friends found welcome refuge from urban heat and congestion and the demanding social rituals of the Victorian era.

Artistic Masterpiece

Completed in 1886, Stonehurst is a masterpiece of integrated design crowning the career-long collaboration of two Boston-based visionaries, architect Henry Hobson Richardson and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, whose work continues to inspire culturally and environmentally sensitive design. The splendid integration of house, interiors and grounds at Stonehurst anticipated the unified organic architecture practiced by Frank Lloyd Wright in the 20th century.

Family Home

Wealthy clients Robert Treat Paine and Lydia Lyman Paine were social reformers open to the progressive ideas of Richardson and Olmsted. At work, the Paines strove to bridge the great divide between "haves" and "have nots" in post-Civil War America. At home, they opted for an open plan which removed barriers between rooms and between indoors and outdoors, and naturally fostered a less formal, more modern and healthy way of living. This artistic masterpiece and family home of wealthy social reformers raises timeless social and environmental issues that remain unresolved today. For detailed information on the site and its influential creators, please purchase our guidebook.