A grand country estate with historic greenhouses

National Historic Landmark

In the 1700s and 1800s, large expanses of land and proximity to Boston made Waltham a popular location for country estates. The Lyman Estate was the warm-weather retreat for four generations of the Lyman family. In 1793 shipping merchant Theodore Lyman commissioned famed architect Samuel McIntire to design and build a Federal-style house. The family enlarged the house in 1882 in the Victorian style and then remodeled it in the Colonial Revival style in 1917.

Explore the mansion, which features an elegant ballroom and graceful oval parlor. The thirty-seven-acre property includes beautifully preserved gardens and historic greenhouses.

Location:
185 Lyman Street, Waltham, Mass.
Mansion: 617-994-5912
Greenhouses: 617-994-5913

Hours of Operation:
Open year-round.

• Mansion: First Saturday of the month, 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
• Greenhouses: Tuesday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
• All group tours must be scheduled by appointment. In addition to open days, group tours may be scheduled at times the museum is closed to the public.

Guided Mansion Tours for Your Group

We are happy to work with you to customize your experience.

Enjoy an approximately fifty-minute guided tour; please allow one and a half hours for your visit. Up to twenty visitors can tour the mansion with each guide; generally we can accommodate up to forty visitors in the house in one hour. Accommodations can be made for larger groups. Up to forty visitors can tour the greenhouses with a guide in an hour. Please note that the tour requires a considerable amount of standing and stair climbing. If members of your group need special assistance, please let the museum know in advance.

More Tour Details

Cost:

• Guided Mansion Tour: $15 per adult for groups of 10 or more visitors; or a guaranteed fee of at least $150. Prices subject to change.
• Guided Greenhouse Tour: $15 per adult for groups of 10 or more visitors; or a guaranteed fee of at least $150. Prices subject to change.
• Guided Mansion and Greenhouse Tour: $25 per person for groups of 10 or more visitors; or a guaranteed fee of at least $250. Prices subject to change.
• Guided Landscape Tour: $15 per adult for groups of 10 or more visitors; or a guaranteed fee of at least $150. Prices subject to change.
• Guided Working-Class History Tour- Life of a Laborer: $15 per adult for groups of 10 or more visitors; or a guaranteed fee of at least $150. Prices subject to change.
• Receptive tour operator rates available upon request.
• The tour leader or class instructor and bus driver are welcome to a complimentary tour with the group.
• A non-refundable deposit based on your maximum number is due upon booking. The outstanding balance must be paid when the group arrives on-site for the tour.
• Please call two weeks in advance to confirm a guaranteed number of visitors.

Nearby Attractions:

• A wide variety of restaurants, shops, historic sites, museums, and attractions near the Lyman Estate and Greenhouses include: John Brewer’s Tavern, The Chateau, Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation, Gore Place, Stonehurst (the Robert Treat Paine Estate), and a number of shops and restaurants on Moody Street.
• Visit other Historic New England properties nearby. Package discounts available.
  • Codman Estate, Lincoln – Overlooking a prospect of farm and pleasure grounds, this country seat, also known as “the Grange,” was a powerful force in the lives of five generations of the Codman family. The grounds feature a hidden turn-of-the-century Italian garden with perennial beds, statuary, and a reflecting pool filled with water lilies, as well as a 1930s English cottage garden.
  • Gropius House, Lincoln – Walter Gropius, founder of the German design school known as the Bauhaus, was one of the most influential architects of the twentieth century. He designed Gropius House as his family home when he came to Massachusetts to teach architecture at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.

Amenities:

• Two restrooms (one wheelchair-accessible) are located in the mansion. There are no restrooms available at the greenhouses.
• A landscape following principles of eighteenth-century English naturalistic design with garden pathways and peach wall plantings restored to its 1920 appearance
• A sales greenhouse and gift shop offering exotic and hard-to-find plants, growing supplies, handmade pottery, gardening books, notecards, and garden gifts
• Plenty of on-site parking is available for both cars and buses.

Please Remember:

• Cell phones should be silenced prior to your tour.
• Your group will stay with the tour guide for the entire tour.

Book Now