Harriet Lawrence Hemenway (1858-1960) lived here when in 1896 she founded the Massachusetts Audubon Society with her cousin, Minna Hall (1851-1941). They were protesting the slaughter of birds for feathers to ornament women’s hats. It was estimated that five million American birds of about fifty species were being killed annually for this purpose. Hemenway and Hall invited groups of women to tea and convinced about nine hundred of them to give up wearing feathered hats. Their next move was to invite some prominent men to join them to start the Audubon Society with a goal of protecting birds. Although national legislation took a little longer, by 1897 Massachusetts had passed a bill outlawing trade in wild bird feathers.
