You don’t need to leave Brookline to travel the world, step into the 1700s or wander through the office of the man who designed Central Park—you just need a free afternoon. Check out these local destinations that house (literally) remarkable stories right in our backyard.

For the craft enthusiast: International Paper Museum

What’s the difference between a sheet of paper and a sheet of parchment? Donna Koretsky can tell you.

Koretsky is the co-founder and director of the International Paper Museum, a non-profit that features exhibitions on handmade paper from around the world. The museum boasts an extensive collection of international paper artifacts as well as tools acquired by Koretsky and her mother throughout their global travels in search of unique paper and paper-making techniques.

The museum is housed in the Carriage House, a distinctly un-Brookline style stucco building, constructed in 1904 to house one of the town’s first horseless carriages.

Koretsky grew up in Brookline and used the Carriage House as her studio. Now, she primarily resides in Brooklyn, NY, where she is co-founder and owner of Carriage House Paper, a professional hand papermaking studio and supplier of papermaking materials and equipment. Koretsky returns to Brookline once a month to guide tours through the museum.

A tour includes a variety of opportunities, including a chance to hear from Koretsky about her start in papermaking and the founding of the museum, examine a myriad of eclectic paper products and papermaking supplies from around the world (asbestos paper, anybody?) and craft your own sheet of handmade paper. Koretsky said she is always happy to share her papermaking experiences.

“I love it when people get really excited about things that I’m showing them. We have such an amazing collection,” Koretsky said.

Korestky said she hopes visitors leave with a “new appreciation for all aspects of paper making.”

Email Koretsky to join a tour. Location: 8 Evans Rd. Suggested donation of $20 per visitor.

For the local history lover: Edward Devotion House

If you attended the Florida Ruffin Ridley School in Coolidge Corner, chances are you visited the yellow colonial home standing directly in front of the school on Harvard Street. Constructed in the 1740s by Edward Devotion, the colonial home predates the country itself.

Devotion requested in his will that after settling debts and funeral expenses, his balance be used to establish a school in Brookline. One hundred years after his death, in 1744, the Edward Devotion Fund financed the construction of a new Town Hall and an expansion of the high school (before it moved to Greenough St). In 1892, a school bearing Devotion’s name as a tribute to his support of townwide education was built behind the house. In 2018, Town Meeting voted to rename the school to honor journalist and civil rights activist Florida Ruffin Ridley, given Devotion’s history as an enslaver.

Inside the Devotion House, you’ll find Brookline-related artifacts, 18th and 19th-century furnishings and a volunteer guide from the Brookline Historical Society ready to supply local lore, stretching all the way back to when Brookline was the tiny farming community of Boston called the Muddy River Hamlet.

Jesus MacLean, the museum’s curator and caretaker, said the Devotion House embodies his ideal of education.

“There have been people for hundreds of years who have wanted education to be elevated,” MacLean said. “This is the monument to that legacy.”

Tours run once per month, seasonally, beginning on Patriots Day, or year-round by appointment.
Location: 347 Harvard St.

Bonus Tip: Become a Brookline Historical Society member for newsletters and access to local events centered on Brookline’s rich history

Extra Bonus Tip: Stop by the Devotion House a little before 10 a.m. this April 20 on Patriots’ Day (Marathon Monday) to watch an annual reenactment of William Dawes, Paul Revere’s overshadowed partner in crime, riding on horseback down Harvard Street (yes, on an actual horse). Stick around to hear a live reading of “The Midnight Ride of William Dawes,” Helen F. Moore’s parody of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous 1860 poem. Then, continue a few blocks to Beacon Street to cheer on the 30,000 runners participating in the modern, marathon version of the Midnight Rides.

For the nature lover: Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site

Here’s a name you probably associate with Central Park but didn’t know had a Brookline address: Frederick Law Olmsted.

Nestled near the Emerald Necklace (a chain of nine parks, linked by pathways and waterways designed by Olmsted himself) is the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, also known as Fairsted. Beginning in 1883, it served as both the Olmsted family home and one of the world’s first professional landscape architecture firms. Fairsted remained in family hands until the National Park Service acquired it in 1979.

While the visitor center won’t open for the season until May 29, you can explore the Fairsted grounds and gardens and Olmstead’s original house independently. Postpone your visit until summer to join a park ranger’s guided tour through Olmsted’s offices, where you can view original furnishings, equipment and project drafts.

Note that Fairsted is currently undergoing an 18-month restoration project, but it will still receive visitors in season.
Location: 99 Warren St.

Bonus Tip: Feeling inspired? Grab your friends, kids and grandkids (target audience: ages 5-13, but all ages welcome) and channel your inner city planner at KidsBuild! hosted at the Boston Society of Architects Space in Atlantic Wharf. Using everyday miscellaneous materials such as shoeboxes, fabric and tiles, develop an urban environment. Not exactly landscape architecture, but close enough!
Location: 280 Congress St.
When: Saturday, April 11 and Sunday, April 12.

A Disorderly and Non-Exhaustive List of Other Notable Destinations:

• The Dutch House: No, you can’t go inside (people do, in fact, currently live here), but the Dutch House is worth viewing from the exterior. Built for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition (World’s Fair) in Chicago, the structure was built by the Dutch Van Houten Cocoa Company, an early force in the commercial chocolate industry. It was later purchased by Brookline resident Captain Charles Brooks Appleton, who brought it from the Van Houten Company and had it dismantled, shipped to Brookline and reassembled. It remains gloriously, unmistakably pink.
  Location: 20 Netherlands Rd.

• Two residences in Brookline were safe houses on the underground railroad: the William Ingersoll Bowditch House and the Tappan-Philbrick House. Both sheltered freedom seekers on their journey towards Canada. The Bowditch family hosted Henry “Box” Brown, who mailed himself north in a wooden crate to escape slavery, and William Bowditch is said to have participated in the daring rescue of an enslaved person discovered on board a northbound ship. The Bowditches also sheltered a white man, the son of radical abolitionist John Brown (Brown was responsible for the killings of pro-slavery individuals during “Bleeding Kansas” and was executed for treason after a failed raid on a U.S. military armory in Harpers Ferry, VA, which Brown hoped would initiate a revolt among enslaved people in Southern states).

Among other freedom seekers, the Tappan-Philbrick house sheltered Ellen and William Craft after the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act permitted enslavers to track down freedom seekers in northern cities and force them back into slavery. The Crafts escaped Georgia by disguising Ellen as a white man headed north with “his” male slave for medical treatment. Unfortunately, both houses are private residences, but you can still stand outside and put yourself in the shoes of a freedom seeker before the outbreak of the Civil War.
Locations: Bowditch House: 9 Toxteth St.; Tappan-Philbrick House: 182 Walnut St.

• Finally, a house you can enter: the John F. Kennedy National Historic Site. Brookline was the birthplace of JFK and his childhood home is preserved on Beals St. as the John F. Kennedy National Historic Site. Open Wednesday to Sunday from late May through November (and by appointment in the offseason), ranger-led tours guide visitors through restored rooms and stories of Kennedy’s early life. Pay JFK’s childhood home a visit—it’s your duty (and flex) as a Brookline resident.
  Location: 83 Beals St.

• Larz Anderson is for more than hill sprints and ice skating: Larz Anderson Park boasts not one, but two museums! Start at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum and admire the nation’s oldest collection of automobiles. Then walk over to the nearby Putterham School, a one-room schoolhouse built in 1768. Inside, you’ll find a preserved arithmetic lesson from 1897, the handiwork of teacher Mary Elizabeth Hyde. The museum is open 12-3 p.m. on the second and fourth Sundays of the month, June through October, or by appointment through the Brookline Historical Society.
  Location: Newton Street.