Step back in time
TOWN SQUARE,
DOWNTOWN WALPOLE
“None of the houses
along here, save one, have
changed in ;;; years.”
Cure a sweet tooth
THE RESTAURANT AT
BURDICK CHOCOLATE
;; Main St.
burdickchocolate.com
“It is a world-class restaurant run by one of the great
chocolatiers in this country,
Larry Burdick.”
Harvest
nature’s bounty
ALYSON’S ORCHARD
;; Alyson’s Lane
alysonsorchard.com
“This is a wonderful place
that allows you to pick
your own apples and has
a pumpkin patch in the fall.
My oldest daughter had her
wedding there.”
Eat farm-to-table
INN AT VALLEY FARMS
;;; Wentworth Road
innatvalleyfarms.com
“This bed and breakfast is
where we put up our visiting
filmmakers and historians.”
Learn about the town
WALPOLE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
;; Main St.
walpolehistory.org
“This Old Academy building is an exquisite example
of Greek revival architecture that plunges you back
into the early life of our
republic.”
made. The second-best decision was to
move to Walpole.”
From his o;ces in a renovated barn
next to his postcolonial saltbox house and
a 177-year-old Gothic revival home on the
town square, Burns has told the stories of the
most iconic characters and compelling insti-
tutions in American history. Starting Sept.
14, PBS will air The Roosevelts, his seven-part,
14-hour documentary that weaves together
the narratives of Theodore, Franklin and
Eleanor from Theodore’s birth in 1858 to
Eleanor’s death in 1962.
“No other family has a;ected more
Americans than the Roosevelts,” says
Burns. “This is an American Downton Abbey,
and it has the virtues of being true.” The
film reveals how, despite personal trauma—
Theodore’s wife and mother dying on the
same day, Eleanor being orphaned and
Franklin’s polio—all three persevered to
become prominent leaders.
Burns can relate to the adversity. His
mother died of cancer when he was 11, and
the loss deeply a ;ected him. “In some ways,
as a dear friend once told me, my job my
whole life has been to wake the dead and
make them come alive again,” he says.
Incidentally, Burns’ next film, due in
2015, will be a history of cancer titled, The
Emperor of All Maladies. Burns also has films
on Jackie Robinson, the Vietnam War and
country music in development through 2017.
“I miss the society of my colleagues that I get
in the big city, but living in Walpole has permitted me to be as prolific as I have,” he says.
To balance the grind of filmmaking,
Burns picks apples from his own orchard,
visits nearby lakes and hikes across acres of
untouched snow. “People always come up
here with the chauvinism of the big city and
—MAT T MCCUE
As a recent college graduate living in New York, film- maker Ken Burns faced an artist’s dilemma: He could either find a corpo- rate job to pay the steep
rent and produce films on the side, or he
could move to a small town, live frugally and
completely dedicate himself to storytelling.
In 1979, he chose the latter and landed
in Walpole, N.H., a charming New England
village with about 3,700 residents and
six working dairy farms, the most in the
state. Soon thereafter, Burns hit it big.
His first film, Brooklyn Bridge, earned an
Academy Award nomination for best documentary in 1982. His city friends began to
ask when he planned to return to Manhattan. “I told them I was going to stay here,”
says Burns. “It was the best decision I ever
Why I Love …
Walpole, N.H.
FILMMAKER KEN BURNS ATTRIBUTES HIS SUCCESS TO HIS CHOICE
TO LIVE IN THE QUIET NEW ENGLAND VILLAGE
FROM LEF T: AL KAREVY; JACKIE CASER TA
Main Street, Walpole
Ken Burns at home in Walpole.
The best
places to …
