Historic Newton will reopen the Jackson Homestead & Museum on Sunday, March 1 with the launch of Newton: The City We Make, a major new full-floor exhibition that rethinks how the city’s history is told, whose stories are highlighted, and how the past informs civic life today.

The new exhibit invites visitors of all ages to explore Newton’s history through objects, images, personal stories, and interactive experiences that connect local history to present-day questions of belonging, change, and shared responsibility.

Rather than presenting a single, linear narrative, Newton: The City We Make traces how the city has been shaped over time by many hands, from Indigenous stewardship and colonization, to migration and movement, to activism and everyday decision-making, and asks visitors to consider their own role in Newton’s ongoing story.

“For 75 years, the Jackson Homestead has helped connect people to Newton’s past,” said Lisa Dady, Director of Historic Newton. “This exhibition represents a significant shift in how we approach that work, moving beyond dates and names to ask bigger questions about who we are as a city, how we got here, and how history can help us navigate the present.”

The exhibition is organized around three core themes:

• On This Land, examining how Newton’s physical landscape has changed over time
• Making Newton Home, exploring the many communities who have lived, worked, and built lives here
• Creating Change, highlighting moments when residents organized, advocated, and acted to shape the city, and the world, they wanted to live in

Built in 1809, the Jackson Homestead is one of Newton’s most significant historic buildings and the city’s only documented stop on the Underground Railroad. The site itself plays a central role in the exhibition. While earlier generations of the Jackson family enslaved people on this site, later generations became committed abolitionists, sheltering freedom-seekers traveling north in the mid-19th century. That layered history allows visitors to grapple with contradiction, courage, and change within a single place.

Newton Mayor Marc Laredo emphasized the exhibition’s civic relevance and forward-looking perspective:

“Newton is a city of thousands of stories, and we are all its stewards.” We move through the same moments in history, even as we experience them differently. This new exhibit, Newton: The City We Make, helps us see how those varied perspectives form a shared civic story of our city.”

Developed through extensive research, community input, and collaboration with historians, designers, and educators, Newton: The City We Make positions the reimagined Jackson Homestead not only as a museum, but as a space for dialogue, learning, and reflection for local residents and visitors from across North America.

For information about visiting the Jackson Homestead, visit this page.