Alden House Historic Site

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Alden House Historic Site

Step into their world to explore one of America's founding stories.

Located in Duxbury, Massachusetts, the Alden House Historic Site is the family homestead of Mayflower passengers John and Priscilla Alden and their descendants.

06/19/2026

Twin towns, twin treats!
Day one of the recent Duxbury Senior Center–sponsored tour of London and Paris kicked off with a bonus adventure for two of the travelers - Andrea Miller and Barbara Urbanski. — a personal side trip to Duxbury's twin town of Dorking. There they received a royal welcome at Mullins Coffee Shop, located in the building once owned by the family of Priscilla Mullins, followed by a peek inside the Dorking Museum.

06/10/2026

The Three Sisters are back in the ground!
Huge thanks to Brenda Buchanan, who once again helped us plant this heirloom garden - a traditional trio of corn, beans, and squash grown together for generations in Indigenous and early New England agriculture. Her family has been part of this project for eight years, ever since her son Stephen first created it for his Eagle Scout project. We love watching this living history grow year after year.

Now if only we can keep the deer and their friends from snacking on all this hard work! Duxbury Reporter and Wicked Local Duxbury The Local Seen Community Media See Plymouth General Society of Mayflower Descendants Historic Winslow House Pilgrim Hall Museum Mullins Coffee Shop

06/07/2026

We are honored to share that the Alden Kindred of America has received the 2026 American Heritage Award from the National Society of Colonial Dames of America in the State of Massachusetts, along with a generous grant to support projects that preserve and interpret early American history.

The NSCDA stewards historic properties across the country, including three remarkable sites here in Massachusetts: the Dorothy Quincy Homestead, Martin House Farm, and the William Hickling Prescott House. Their work keeps early American stories alive in the places where they happened and honors the women who shaped them—including Priscilla Mullins Alden, celebrated by the Society as one of its founding mothers.

Local NSCDA‑MA members visited Alden House for a tour and a sneak peek at the new J. Alden & Virginia E. Keyser Center for Living History, joined by AKA board member Evelyn Walker and NSCDA leadership. Thank you! Duxbury Reporter and Wicked Local Duxbury

05/29/2026

A heartfelt thank‑you to The 1772 Foundation and Preservation Massachusetts for selecting AKA’s grant request to fund the replacement of the aging fire alarm and security system at the historic Alden House. With deteriorated cloth‑insulated wiring and frequent false alarms, this upgrade is much needed and will help safeguard this treasured National Historic Landmark.

05/24/2026

What an inspiring evening at our 19th Speak for Thyself Awards this week! We were privileged to celebrate two distinguished artists — Karen Rinaldo and Marie Fox Young — along with our Aspiring Priscilla honoree, Lucy Tamburo, a history major at Boston University who also serves on the board of the Winslow House Museum.

Thank you to everyone who joined us and helped make the night so memorable. Here are some highlights from the festivities. Duxbury Reporter and Wicked Local Duxbury Duxbury Rural & Historical Society Historic Winslow House State Representative Ken Sweezey Pilgrim Hall Museum General Society of Mayflower Descendants

05/17/2026

The Alden House gardens are spruced up and ready for the museum season thanks to some elves - also known as the RockCorp volunteers from Rockland Trust Bank.

Armed with rakes, clippers, and plenty of enthusiasm, they tackled the centuries‑old garden spaces where the Alden family once grew their food, medicine, and everyday household plants. Thanks to their hard work, we’re ready to welcome our visitors for the season, which opens on June 3. The Local Seen Community Media See Plymouth Duxbury Reporter and Wicked Local Duxbury Mullins Coffee Shop

05/16/2026

Ceiling preservation is in full swing at Alden House this week, thanks to support from the Americana Corner Foundation, the generosity of Alden Kindred members, and the expert work of Buttonwood Renovations. Buttonwood’s team is carefully preserving the existing historic ceilings by removing loose materials and then stabilizing and repairing the original plaster.

For students on tour this week, it was a rare up‑close look at how historic ceilings were built—wooden lath and a mix of crushed shells, sand, water and horsehair used to make plaster—materials that have held this ceiling together for centuries.

05/08/2026

A huge thank‑you to the wonderful volunteers - AKA board member Evelyn Walker, her husband Norm, and our Duxbury high intern Clara Blundell - who came out to help clean four Alden family gravestones in Myles Standish Burying Ground. Last week, someone applied powder to the stones to highlight the inscriptions for their personal photos. While this was previously a common practice, we now know from unhappy experience that these materials often cause serious and irreversible damage to gravestones. Particles work their way into the stone and expand inside the pores, causing the surface to crack and break apart over time.

One of the stones compromised was Jonathan Alden's gravestone (pictured), the oldest in the cemetery and an irreplaceably rare surviving piece of 17th‑century Alden family history. His father John Alden's stone, also shown here, is an example of a stone deteriorated beyond repair. The Town of Duxbury has generously donated funds to help replace John's gravestone, for which AKA is very grateful.

05/04/2026

From young Redcoats to history fans of all ages, Liberty Pole Day brought the sights and sounds of the Revolution to Alden House!
Huge thanks to Col. Bailey’s 2nd Massachusetts and the Middlesex County 4‑H Fife & Drum Corps for making history come alive, to our sponsor the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati, and to our partner Out to See Duxbury for helping make the day such a success.
Enjoy the video! Duxbury Reporter and Wicked Local Duxbury 2nd Massachusetts Regiment - Recreated

04/29/2026

As America marks its 250th anniversary, Alden House invites you to step back in time at Liberty Pole Day on Saturday, May 2 between noon and 4 pm! Col. Bailey’s 2nd Massachusetts Regiment and the Middlesex County 4‑H Fife & Drum Corps will bring the American Revolution to life. Explore a military encampment, enjoy fife and drum music, experience living‑history demonstrations, and witness a reenactment of Duxbury’s 1775 Council of War where where local leaders chose to stand up to British authority. This event is sponsored by the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati and is part of Out to See Duxbury. https://seeduxbury.org/out-to-see-duxbury-event

Address

105 Alden Street
Duxbury, MA
02331

Telephone

(781) 934-9092

Website

http://www.alden.org/donate

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