This summer, Spark Newton moved into a new home at 20 Hartford Street in Newton Highlands – the historic Brigham House. Now housing the Linda Plaut Arts & Culture Center, the building is also home to Newton’s newly established Arts & Culture Department, bringing the City’s Arts and Culture team and Spark Newton under the same roof. For a building that has spent much of its history serving the public, its newest chapter feels particularly fitting.

Built in 1886, the Queen Anne-style house was originally the home of the Brigham family, founders of Brigham’s Ice Cream, the beloved New England ice cream company that began in Newton. The City of Newton purchased the property in 1951 with the intention of converting it into a neighborhood library. After renovations and the addition of a reading room, the Newton Highlands Branch Library opened at 20 Hartford Street in 1958 as part of Newton’s public library system. It remained a neighborhood library for nearly four decades, until the branch closed in 1997.

The building soon found a new purpose. In 2001, it became the Brigham House, providing a gathering place for young people and later serving as a community center and home to a variety of programs and services, including Older Adult Services. For generations of Newton residents, the building has been a place to learn, gather, connect, and take part in the life of the community.

Now, more than a century after the house was built and nearly 70 years after it first opened as a library, the building is beginning another chapter. The Linda Plaut Arts & Culture Center provides a home for Newton’s new Arts & Culture Department and a place for the City’s growing investment in arts and culture. Naming the center after Linda Plaut is especially meaningful to Spark Newton. Linda spent three decades leading the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs and, in 1989, was the driving force behind the founding of Newton Community Pride, the organization that would eventually become Spark Newton. Working in partnership with the City, NCP helped establish and support many of Newton’s beloved cultural events and public spaces.

Today, Spark Newton is proud to continue that legacy from inside the Brigham House itself. Our organization remains committed to bringing arts and culture into the everyday life of Newton through free events, public art, grants, beautification projects, and support for the artists and organizations that make our city vibrant. A home that has served as a family residence, library, youth and community center, and home to city services is now home to a new center devoted to arts and culture. We are excited to be part of its next chapter, and to see what new ideas, partnerships, and possibilities take shape here.