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There are two things that my five year old son will point out to me on drives every time without fail: fire trucks and the Hosmer House. “Look, Mommy, there’s the Hosmer House!” I hear from the back seat every single time we pass the intersection of Old Sudbury Road and Concord Road. After having attended several open houses, he sees the Hosmer House almost as a very special second home by now.
And it is, indeed, a home for all of us with ties to Sudbury! Built in 1793, and gifted to the town of Sudbury in 1978 by local painter, Florence Hosmer, it’s a place where all of us can go to feel connected by our community’s history. When I follow my son from the dining room to the store room to grab (another) cookie, up and down and up and down the stairs again, to the ballroom, to the children’s room, to the parlor, there’s always a smiling docent with a new anecdote of Sudbury history to share.
In 1959, when Florence announced that she would be gifting the house and her paintings to the town of Sudbury when she eventually were to pass away, the local news likened her to Santa Claus. Though she never had children of her own, it’s evident from her many portraits of young local children as well as from her time spent as a school teacher that she did share Santa Claus’s traits of spreading generosity and creating magical moments for children.
As an adult, it’s hard to remember what it’s like to learn to feel rooted in a “time” and “place” but I find that Florence’s paintings help my son to understand these complex concepts. In the store room, I can explain that Florence’s painting of the little red schoolhouse (a building that my son knows and recognizes) existed and looked the same long before Florence’s life, during her life, and after too. Take a short trip upstairs to the ballroom, and I can show him a portrait of a girl his age that was painted in 1908, alongside a more recent photo of that same woman coming back to see her portrait many years later. “The more things change, the more they remain the same.”
When it’s time to take a break from lessons about permanence and the march of time, my son loves to step outside to visit the fairy garden. It’s the perfect counter-balance to lessons about history, where he can let his imagination run free.
The donation of her beautiful house to Sudbury stands as Florence Hosmer’s lasting gift of generosity for generations to come. Come share in that wonderful tradition and experience the festive, giving spirit during the Hosmer House open house events this December!