A Conservation Success
The Trustees' long-standing efforts to preserve the site of the former Stone family home and the natural area now surrounding it reached a milestone recently when we purchased 367 acres of the Coy's Hill property. To help finance the protection effort, The Trustees immediately resold 306 acres to the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife to be managed for its wildlife habitat and other ecological value. The Town provided critical financial help by buying the development rights on the home site and remaining 61 acres retained by The Trustees, aided by a generous grant from the state's Division of Conservation Services - Self-Help Program, which will be opened to the public when planning and fundraising are complete. Download a map of the protection project (PDF  - 622K).
About Lucy Stone
Lucy Stone was one of the 19th-century's leading women's rights advocates. Born at the farm on Coy's Hill in 1818, she worked and saved for years to acquire an education, becoming one of the first Massachusetts women to earn a bachelor's degree. She lectured and organized widely for women's rights and abolition, acquiring a national reputation for her eloquence, energy, and organizational talents. Stone played a prominent role in organizing the first National Woman's Rights Convention in Worcester in 1850, and remained at the center of the women's rights struggle for almost half a century until her death in 1893. To learn more about Lucy Stone:
Scenic and Natural Resources
The Coy's Hill property contains a variety of wildlife habitats, including rocky outcrops, streams, seeps, springs, vernal pools, and extensive areas of upland woods of varying age and composition. It is also part of a growing greenbelt of more than one thousand acres that connects land owned by the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife to The Trustees' nearby Rock House Reservation and the protected Johnson Farm, altogether comprising more than 1,000 acres of conserved land. The 367-acre Coy's Hill property alone contains almost a mile of frontage on State Route 9, helping to preserve one of the most scenic stretches of this major artery east of the Connecticut Valley. Education and Interpretation
The Lucy Stone Home Site offers a special opportunity to teach future generations about this remarkable woman and her role in an important chapter of our nation's history. Plans call for interpretive signs, trails, a parking area, and a part-time ranger. The property will also serve visitors as another point of entry into the surrounding natural area, and will provide an opportunity to interpret the fascinating evolution of our central New England landscape. We Need Your Support
We must raise $140,000 in order to prepare and open the property to the public. Funds are needed for research, planning, and site improvements, for measures to record and safeguard the site's historic value, and for a modest management endowment to help fund ongoing stewardship of this special place. We cannot proceed until these funds are raised. Your support will help secure this heritage treasure for future generations. All contributions are tax deductible. Making a Donation - By Mail: Please mail check payable to The Trustees of Reservations, and include your name, address, daytime phone, and email address (if applicable), to:
Lucy Stone Home Site Protection Project
P.O. Box 473
West Brookfield, MA 01585
- By Phone: Call 978/921-1944 x1861 to make a donation using a credit card.
- On-line: To make a contribution on-line, please click here.
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For more information, please contact: Pamela Barnes
Director of Western Conservation Campaigns
413/532-1631 x12
pbarnes@ttor.org |