Needham Historical Society's Annual Meeting and Dinner

The 's Annual Meeting and Dinner will take place on Thursday, May 10, at the newly reopened .

The reception will begin at 6 p.m.; the dinner and meeting will start at 7 p.m.

Tickets for Needham Historical Society members cost $40, and $45 for nonmembers; they are available online at www.needhamhistory.org/tickets or by mail from the Historical Society, 1147 Central Ave., Needham 02492.

This year, the speaker will be Gloria Polizzotti Greis, executive director of the Historical Society, speaking about Mr. Baker's Fairyland of the Beautiful and Bizarre. 

In the 1860s, William Emerson Baker retired from his sewing machine business with a vast fortune and purchased nearly 800 acres in Needham—the famous Ridge Hill Farms. Widely regarded as America's first amusement park, Ridge Hill Farms embodied Baker's extraordinary passion for social and economic reform, experimental agriculture, bad puns and practical jokes. Every attraction had its sharp point—and he used it to needle politicians, soldiers, scientists and priests.

After Baker’s death, several attempts were made to keep the attractions going, but fires and lack of funds eventually doomed the effort, and today there are few traces left of Baker’s “Fairyland of the Beautiful and Bizarre.”

The lecture will be illustrated by the extensive collection of Baker Estate photos in the Needham Historical Society's collections.

This event is supported in part by and the Needham Golf Club.