Many fall events at local museums

The Cape Ann Historical Association will feature Ken Hruby's Tour of Duty sculpture until Oct. 20.

The sculpture has two complete installations and parts of a third. Along with the installations are two smaller pieces of sculpture. Hruby created the work based on his experiences while stationed in Korea and Vietnam during his 21 years in the Army.

After the Army, he attended art school at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where he is now a teacher.

The museum also displays American decorative arts and furnishings, as well as fisheries and maritime history collections with rare tools, artifacts, schooner models, an outfitted Grand Banks dory and historic photographs.

The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $5 for adults, $3.50 for children and students and 5 and younger are free. The museum is located at 27 Pleasant St., Gloucester. (978) 283-0455.

No trip to the North Shore would be complete without a visit to the House of the Seven Gables Historic Sites.

Also known as the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion, the house is the oldest-surviving wooden mansion in New England from the 17th century.

The house holds 330 years of Salem's history. More than 2,000 artifacts and objects, 40 framed works and 550 photographs and glass-plate negatives are on display. In the library, 650 volumes of research and rare books are available.

Outside the house is an 18th-century granite sea wall and two seaside colonial revival gardens.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's birth home from 1804 is also located on the grounds. Inside this museum visitors can learn about the famous author's life.

The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. until the end of October. Starting in November the museum will close at 5 p.m.

Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for children 5 to 12. You can find the house at 54 Turner St., Salem. (978) 744-0991.

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The Heard House, a New England-style house built in the 1800s, was owned by John Heard, a West Indian merchant. Five generations of the Heard family grew up in what is now the museum.

The fall display at the museum features nine painters and artists who lived in Ipswich during the 1880s to the 1960s. The painters include Edna Ellis Bates Baylor (1882-1966), Arthur Dow (1857-1922), Henry Rodman Kenyon (1861-1926), Carl Harold Nordstrom (1876-1965), Jane Peterson (1876-1965), Francis Henry Richardson (1859-1934), Theodore Wendel (1859-1932), Arthur Smith Kimball (1856-1937) and John Worthington Mansfield (1849-1933).

Also on display in the carriage house are several restored 19th century carriages and sleighs. Inside the museum is a collection of historical toys and the nation's largest collection of painting, prints and photographs by the famous Ipswich artist Arthur Wesley Dow (1857-1922).

The museum contains furnishings and decorative arts from the time of the American China Trade. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday. The guided tours start on the hour and cost $7 per person. The museum is located at 54 South Main St., Ipswich. (978) 356-2811.

Two fall exhibits will be on display at the Wenham Museum.

From Sept. 21 to Feb. 17, the exhibit "Sweet Tooth: New England's Fascination with Candy" will explain how sweets have developed from the 1950s. Candy-making equipment, chocolate molds, advertising materials and selections of candy will be showcased for all visitors.

From Oct. 6 to May 31, The Honourable Cordwainer exhibit will feature the development of shoemaking since 1131. An authentic "10-footer," a small shoemakers' shop, will be filled with a variety of tools used centuries ago to make shoes. Visitors will also learn the difference between a cordwainer and a cobbler, see examples of colonial shoes, understand the impact of modern machinery and learn how the advance in shoes has affected local society.

The museum also has a variety of displays that include historic dolls, toys, trains and customs. The 17th century Richards House contains three centuries of furnishings, a textile gallery and a museum shop.

It is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for children ages 2 to 16. Located at 132 Main St., Wenham. (978) 468-2377.

Marblehead's King Hooper Mansion, built during two different time periods, has been restored to reflect those years _ 1728 and 1745.

New this fall will be an exhibit of the work of members of the Marblehead Arts Association. The exhibit runs until Sept. 30.

Exhibits, paintings, sculptors, photography and mixed media is on display daily at the museum. Self-guided tours by print or audio cassette are available free of charge.

The museum is open Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday 1 to 5 p.m. Donations are welcome. The mansion is located at 8 Hooper St., Marblehead. (781) 631-2608

The Beauport summer home mansion was built over a 27-year period starting in 1907 by Henry Davis Sleeper, who was an architect and interior decorator. The house features more than 40 rooms, each one portraying a different historical theme.

Guided tours of the mansion include the showing of 20 rooms dedicated to historical time periods, people and items, such as china and rugs.

Beginning Sept. 15, tours are given on the hour, every day, until Oct. 15, when the house closes until May.

The tour costs $10 for adults, $9 for seniors and $5 for students and children. Beauport is located at 75 Eastern Point Boulevard, Gloucester. (978) 283-0800.

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