Founded in 1891 by Boston landscape architect Charles Eliot, The Trustees have worked for more than 127 years to conserve the cultural and historic character that makes Massachusetts’ landscapes and communities unique.

The Trustees protect and steward the irreplaceable, including 117 reservations, seven National Historic Landmarks, and one National Natural Landmark. Many of our cultural resources are located along the coast and include nationally significant archaeological sites; cultural ruins; designed and vernacular landscapes and archives; and collections and properties associated with national leaders in industry, commerce, politics and the arts.

Browse the gallery and Special Places archive features below.
For a brief description, hover over each image and click for further information.

House on Choate Island

The largest of the Refuge's islands, the 135-acre Choate Island (formerly Hog Island) supports myriad birds and mammals. The spruce. The c.1778 Proctor Barn on Long Island and the c.1725-40 Choate family homestead stand as reminders of this agricultural past.

The Brickyard

In the 19th Century the Brickyard on Martha’s Vineyard was one of the earliest commercial brick-making operations and manufactured the bricks that helped build, among other things, downtown Boston.

Castle Hill on the Crane Estate

Centuries before becoming a grand summer estate owned by one of America’s wealthiest families, Castle Hill was well known by Native Americans, who called the area Agawam, referring to its rich fishery

Cape Poge Lighthouse

Cape Poge Lighthouse stands proud on the northeastern tip of Chappaquiddick. Since the turn of the 19th century, a keeper and his family would have been stationed at this remote outpost, with limited communication and transportation.

Misery Islands

Human history here goes back to the Mosconomet Indians. In the 1620s, shipbuilder Captain Robert Moulton became stranded for three miserable days during a winter storm, and today the ruins of an early-20th-century resort dot its shores. (Photo credit: Social Palates)

Annual Crane Beach Children's Picnic

The annual picnic continues a tradition started by Richard Teller Crane, Jr. and his wife, Florence Higinbotham Crane on July 1, 1911 for their son Cornelius’s birthday. Today the Crane Beach children’s picnic takes place every June at the end of the school year. All elementary- and middle-school children in the Ipswich public schools are transported to the beach for a day of fun, with lunch provided, thanks to the Cranes.

Trustees on the Coast

A selection of our historic properties & their stories, from the Special Places archives

In 2016 The Trustees of Reservations purchased a scenic and ecologically important 20.5 acre parcel inholding at Castle Hill on the Crane Estate, known as the Steep Hill tract, thanks to the collaboration and generosity of hundreds of Trustees donors, members, staff and community supporters. Many years ago, the Crane family generously left their iconic 2,100-acre property to The Trustees to care for and preserve in perpetuity for the public to enjoy, but the Steep Hill parcel was left unprotected and developable. The opportunity to purchase the property came about quickly with a short deadline. The Trustees devoted considerable time and resources to creating a fast-paced campaign to rally support around saving this critical land and ecologically important habitat.

While bricks and roses don’t come to mind as having too much in common, on Martha’s Vineyard, they do: both are part of the lush landscape of the Brickyard in Chilmark. Flora (Harris) Epstein, a long time Vineyard resident whose family ties to the island go back generations, passed away in 2010, generously leaving the Trustees the 18-acre historic property that adjoins the Trustees’ scenic Menemsha Hills Reservation. The Brickyard, now overgrown with rosa rugosa, high bush blueberry, scrub oak, and other brush, has several interesting remnants of its use as an industrial site. Note: Due to ongoing archaeological work, access to the Brickyard will not be available until the site is officially opened for visitors in spring 2020.

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Acquired by The Trustees in 1967, World’s End stands as an achievement in open space preservation. The iconic, 251-acre coastal landscape and Boston Harbor Island located in Hingham has survived a series of development threats. In 1890 Frederick Law Olmsted, the foremost landscape architect in the U.S. at the time, drew up plans for a 163-house residential subdivision. In 1945, the property was short-listed for the site of the United Nations headquarters, which ultimately found its home in New York City, and 20 years later, it was eyed as a possible site for a nuclear power plant. Thanks to the many dedicated residents of Hingham and donors from surrounding communities working in partnership with The Trustees to preserve this special place, today World’s End is one of the most unique and pristine coastal reservations in the statewide non-profit’s portfolio of 118 natural, scenic, and cultural sites.

A 1.6-acre island located off of Little Harbor in Marblehead and accessible at low tide, Gerry Island (pronounced with a hard “g”) recently joined its neighbor Crowninshield Island as a Trustees reservation. Its previous owners, Ted and Julie Moore generously gifted the island to The Trustees, and more than 90 donors have helped us establish an endowment to continue care for this special place. The Marblehead Conservancy, who generously supported the campaign, also plans to provide stewardship support for the island. The Gerry family is best known for the achievements of Elbridge Gerry, an American statesman and diplomat who served as the Governor of the Commonwealth and the fifth Vice President of the United States under James Madison, and who was actively involved in the shaping of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Bill of Rights.

Founded in 1891 by Boston landscape architect Charles Eliot, The Trustees have worked for more than 127 years to conserve the cultural and historic character that makes Massachusetts’ landscapes and communities unique.

Trustees on the Coast

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