Lawson Tower's Moonlight Climbs Have Moved to the Afternoon

The Scituate Historical Society times its full moon climbs up Lawson Tower to the sunset. Because of that, the "evening" tour on November 24 starts at 3:30 PM, and the December 23 tour starts at 3:15 PM. That's four hours earlier than the 7:15 PM start in June. Two free bell concerts on the lawn are also left this fall. If you want to see the town from the belfry or hear the ten bells before the year ends, you have a handful of dates, and most of them fall in daylight hours.

The schedule follows a simple rule. The Society says the tours "will start at the times below which are approximately 1/2 hour prior to sunset weather permitting." Combine that rule with the moon's calendar and you get the whole of the tower's late-season calendar.

How the 2026 start times slide

Here is the full 2026 moon tour list as the Scituate Historical Society posts it. Read down the start times and the shortening days show up in the schedule.

The June Strawberry Moon tour began at 7:15 PM. By the Harvest Moon on October 26, the start time is three hours earlier, and the calendar listing runs that tour from 4:15 to 6:00 PM. The last two tours of the year are both listed as super moons. They also have the earliest starts on the schedule, so a full moon climb in late November or late December is mostly a mid-afternoon outing that runs into dusk.

What's left, and how fast it goes

The October 26 Harvest Moon tour is already listed as sold out. When the November 24 ticket page was checked in early October, it showed "Only 3 left in stock." We didn't check availability for the December 23 tour, so look at the Society's site directly before you plan around it.

The logistics, as the Society lists them:

• Price: $10 per person. Reservations are required and are made online.
• Tickets: "No tickets will be mailed." Your purchase confirmation is your proof of attendance, so bring it with you.
• The climb: The tour listings say 121 stairs to the belfry. The Society's own property page says 123.
• At the top: Members of the South Shore Astronomical Society bring telescopes for viewing.
• Access: "The tower itself is not handicap accessible."
• Where: Behind 330 First Parish Road, behind the First Parish Unitarian Church.
• Questions: The Society sends them to its GAR Hall Events email.

Every one of these dates depends on the weather. The Society's wording covers the start times, and a cloudy night means a dim moon and a telescope with not much to see.

The free half of the calendar

If the tours sell out, the bell concerts are still open, and you don't need a ticket. Society Chimer Lenae Badger plays from the lawn at Lawson Tower throughout the year. The Society asks people to "bring a blanket, a snack, lunch or dinner and enjoy these free concerts with family and friends."

The 2026 concert schedule began with St. Patrick's Day on March 15. It continued with Mother's Day on May 10, two Memorial Day sets on May 25, a Fourth of July concert on July 5, and Heritage Days on August 9. Two remain:

1. Halloween, Sunday, October 25, 5:00 to 5:30 PM. Free, on the lawn.
2. Christmas, December 20, 6:00 PM.

The Halloween concert falls the evening before the Harvest Moon tour, so the tower has events on two days in a row at the end of October. That same week, the Scituate Harbor Business Association hosts Halloween in the Harbor on Front Street. It's trick-or-treating on Saturday, October 31, from 4:00 to 5:30 PM.

December is set up much the same way. The Christmas concert on December 20 comes three days before the Cold Super Moon tour on December 23. They're the tower's last two public dates of the year.

Why the bells need a person at the levers

The concerts are rare for a mechanical reason. The tower holds ten bells that Thomas W. Lawson commissioned from the Meneely Bell Factory in Troy, New York, and they weigh from three hundred to three thousand pounds. They're played from a console room at ground level using "10 wooden levers, connected to the top of the tower by chains and pulleys." That's ten levers for ten bells, so every concert takes a trained player's own hands and strength.

The upkeep is done by hand too. The Society says that for years, someone from the Historical Society has climbed the tower once a week to wind the clock so the bells keep playing at the right time. The 121 or 123 stairs you climb on a moon tour are part of someone's weekly routine.

A water tank in costume

The building itself began as a cover-up. The Society's account goes back to 1901. That year the Scituate Water Co. decided to put up a 276,000-gallon, 153-foot steel water tank in the town center. Jeannie Lawson called the standpipe a monstrosity and urged her husband to do something about it. Lawson had come to Scituate as a summer visitor and bought more than 1,000 acres for Dreamwold, his farm. He sent his architect to Europe, and the architect came back with a sketch of a 15th-century watchtower on the Rhine. Lawson Tower went up around the tank in 1902, "funded entirely by Thomas W. Lawson." A 2024 Boston.com feature names Charles Logue as the builder.

According to the Society, here is how ownership and use changed over the years:

• 1902 to 1988: The Scituate Water Co. used the tank.
• 1923: The Town of Scituate bought the bells and clock from Lawson.
• 1931: The town bought the tower from the water company. The Historical Society became its guardian and custodian.
• Spring 2002: The steel standpipe inside was cut down to ten feet.

Sources don't all agree on the dates. The Boston.com piece gives a different account of when and from whom the town got the tower, so this post follows the Society's records. The tower is listed as an American Water Landmark and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Upkeep has been funded in pieces. One Community Preservation Act project, approved April 9, 2013, put $16,000 toward repairing the finials and windows near the top of the tower. The town's CPA summary also lists "Lawson Tower Repairs and Bells Restoration" among its historic preservation projects from 2003 to 2021.

So the windows you look out from on a moon tour were repaired with town preservation money, and you reach them up the same stairs the clock winder climbs every week. The tank the tower was built to hide is mostly gone, and the climb starts a little earlier each month until December 23 at 3:15 PM.

Part of living in a town like Scituate is knowing that the best view in the center comes with only a few climbs a year. If you'd like a guide who keeps track of dates like these all year, and you're thinking about what your own home in town is worth, Brita Sheehan would be glad to set up a complimentary home consultation or send you an instant home valuation.