Waltham Open Studios Turns 50. Here's How to Walk Moody Street That Weekend.

In 1981, Suzanne Hodes walked into the old mill at 144 Moody Street. A handful of artists had already been working on the fourth floor since around 1976. A garment manufacturer still ran on another floor. Hodes and two friends then set out to turn the lower floors into studios, and according to Patch's 2017 history of the building, the artists did the conversion themselves, with support from local businessman Ira Gordon.

That detail explains the event Waltham hosts on November 7 and 8. Waltham Open Studios grew out of working rooms that artists built themselves inside a 19th-century textile factory. Fifty editions later, it covers three buildings on Moody Street, and a second cluster of craft schools has grown up on Guinan Street. The weekend is a tour of the places in Waltham where people still make things by hand.

The mill came first, then the open doors

Patch describes 144 Moody as a 19th-century factory with a history of cotton and wool production, and many of its industrial features are still in place. A 2013 Boston Globe report traced the Waltham Mills Artists Association's open studios back to 1976. Patch called the November 2017 event the 41st edition. By then the association filled two mill buildings and counted more than 75 artists.

The organizers bill this year as the 50th annual Waltham Open Studios. It runs Saturday and Sunday, November 7 and 8, from noon to 5 p.m. It is free and open to families.

Even by 2017 the event had outgrown the mill. That year's edition already reached up the street to Lincoln Studios at 289 Moody and included Metalwerx. That layout still holds, and it shapes how the weekend works on foot.

Three buildings, and most of the artists are in one

This year's venues are Waltham Mills Buildings 4 and 18, both at 144 Moody Street, and Lincoln Studios at 289 Moody Street. The organizers' materials give different headcounts. The 2026 brochure says 77 artists, the online directory lists 73 profiles, and the About page says more than 80. Either way, it comes to about 75 studios across one weekend.

The artists aren't spread evenly. Here is how the live 2026 directory breaks down by venue, alongside the access notes on the organizers' visitor page:

So Building 4 holds roughly half the event, and it has the easiest access. Building 18 next door has about ten artists, Joshua Winer and Myk Ostrowski among them, but it has no accessible entry. For anyone visiting with a stroller, a wheelchair, or a relative who can't manage stairs, that should shape the plan.

A route that works for either afternoon

The two addresses are a few blocks apart on Moody Street, so the event is easy to cover on foot. A plan built from the organizers' directions:

1. Arrive by train or park in a city lot. The organizers point out that Waltham Station on the Fitchburg Commuter Rail line is about 25 minutes from North Station and a short walk from Moody Street. Parking at 144 Moody is held for visitors who need accessible spaces, so everyone else is directed to the Spruce Street, Crescent Street, Embassy and Carter Street lots.
2. Start at Building 4. It has the most studios, and its elevator reaches every floor. Free accessible parking is in front of Building 4, first come, first served.
3. Climb Building 18 if you're able. It's at the same address, a short walk from Building 4.
4. Walk up Moody Street to 289. Lincoln Studios and the Metalwerx display share the building, and the elevators are reached through the Lincoln Studio Gallery entrance.

As of this writing, the visitor page still lists demos, workshops and activities as "coming soon," so check back for anything scheduled before you go.

Where the metalsmiths actually work

The Metalwerx display at 289 Moody is a weekend outpost. Metalwerx itself is a nonprofit jewelry and metalsmithing school at 50 Guinan Street, as the Waltham Times noted in its 2025 Open Studios preview. According to Metalwerx's own history, metalsmiths Karen Christians and Jeff Bowie founded it in 1998. They moved it from Woburn to Waltham in 2002 and made it a nonprofit in 2006.

Guinan Street has kept growing since. The Waltham Times describes it as a relatively short road off Bacon Street near Leary Field, and in an October 15 story the paper called it home to an art community that has been growing for decades. Its newest member, Tail in the Mud Pottery, marked its first anniversary on October 18 with an open house that included its neighbors, Prospect Hill Forge and Metalwerx.

The pottery's owners, Chin Lin and Sabina Berretta, told the Waltham Times they plan to work with their neighbors on classes. Lin has been talking about ways to bring pottery, ironwork and metalsmithing together for students.

"It goes back to creating a community," Berretta told the Waltham Times.

That is the same pattern the Moody Street mill started in the 1970s. Craftspeople took over working industrial-era buildings and put their own studios in them. Guinan Street hosts three artisan schools on one short road, and the eight Metalwerx artists showing at 289 Moody are the public face of that street during Open Studios weekend.

A scholarship named for the man with the painted records

This year's event materials also feature a visual-arts scholarship named for Shawn Laswell. For about 15 years, Laswell hung his signature vinyl LP records, splattered in vivid colors, all around Waltham, more than 2,000 of them in all. Anyone walking by could enjoy them, and some people took the discs home to decorate with. The organizers remember him for his generosity and free spirit.

The rest of November along the river

Open Studios doesn't have the weekend to itself. On Sunday, November 8, Gore Place hosts its free Handmade for the Holidays Craft Fair at 52 Gore Street from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The fair opens two hours before the studios do, so one Sunday can cover both: the craft fair in the morning, then Moody Street from noon.

Next door to the mill, the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation at 154 Moody Street keeps the industrial history going through the month with free Mill Talks, which require registration:

• Wednesday, November 11, 7 p.m. Alex Wright, author of Empire of Ink, presents "A Paper Nation: America's First Information Revolution."
• Wednesday, November 18, 7 p.m. George L. Mutter of Photoarchive3D projects 19th-century stereophotographs of the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 3D.
• Thursday, November 19, 8 p.m. Peter Mulvey and Jenna Nicholls perform "Floyd Mercantile," a $25 ticketed concert at the same address.

The museum says its Mill Talks are made possible by support from the Lowell Institute. Visiting the studios one week and hearing about 19th-century industry in the building next door the next gives a fuller sense of what 144 Moody Street has been. It was a textile mill, it became a home for artists, and for fifty editions it has opened its doors to the city one weekend each year.

If an afternoon at the Waltham Mills has you curious about the old mill buildings and storefronts along Moody Street, Suzie Winchester has been watching this part of Waltham change for decades and is glad to talk it over. Call or text Suzie for a personal market consultation.