Clad in a stars-and-stripes cowboy hat and a sparkling, red, white, and blue bodysuit, Beyonce kicked up her cowboy-booted heels in celebration of the 2024 Olympics last summer.
But Queen Bey wasn’t wearing just any cowboy boots. These were hand-painted, bespoke Stuart Weitzman boots, studded with 1,000 meticulously placed crystals.
Now, a pair of those boots—along with 126 other pairs of shoes—has a new home in Haverhill.
Weitzman donated 127 pairs of shoes from his archive to the preservation organization Historic New England. Among them are models of the custom shoes Aretha Franklin wore to the 1983 American Music Awards and the iconic, diamond-encrusted “million dollar” shoe, which actress Laura Harring wore on the Oscars red carpet in 2002.
The donation marks a poignant, full-circle moment for Weitzman, who got his start designing shoes at his father’s Haverhill shoe factory, Mr. Seymour, and apprenticed under his father, shoemaker Seymour Weitzman. Historic New England is not only based in Haverhill, but is located in the very building where father and son once worked together.
Weitzman has designed shoes for the likes of Taylor Swift, Jennifer Lopez, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Queen Elizabeth II, not to mention Beyonce and Aretha Franklin. But he still remembers first entering Haverhill along River Street and seeing a sign that said, “Home of Louis B. Mayer.”
“I thought, as I’m starting my career in this lovely rustic town, maybe they’ll remember [me] in some way if I am true to this craft of shoemaking,” Weitzman says. “And now there is a beautiful mural on the side of one of the original buildings from the shoe era with faces of many notable community members. Louis B. Mayer is at the projector, and there I am, on the screen, working at my trade of shoemaking. Now that’s a memory I will never forget.”
In fact, about a quarter of the shoes in the donated archive have actually come home, having been originally designed by Seymour Weitzman and manufactured in the Mr. Seymour factory.
“One of the many things we’re excited about is that Mr. Seymour’s factory was actually in the building that historic New England currently occupies,” says Michelle Finamore, fashion historian and curatorial and programming consultant for Historic New England. “So the idea of bringing this New England history to life through this particular story is quite exciting.”
Highlights from the collection will debut in “Shoe Stories,” an upcoming exhibition at Historic New England’s Center for Preservation and Collections in Haverhill. The exhibition is anticipated to open in March 2026 and will not only showcase the Weitzman archive, but also feature a large-scale video wall; archival materials from Historic New England’s vast collection, like vintage shoe advertising; oral histories; displays showcasing the region as a sneaker hub; and examples of shoes from contemporary designers like Boston-based Thom Solo, who has designed shoes for Lady Gaga and other style icons.
In addition, the exhibition will serve as a “teaser” for a much broader project that will see Historic New England transform three acres of historic buildings and vacant property in Haverhill into a world-class cultural destination consisting of new visitor center and exhibition space and a wider cultural center that could also include housing, retail, a hotel, a theater, public green space, spaces for artists and makers, and more.
The entire project will take an estimated five to seven years to complete and will cost between $150 and $200 million.
Finamore hopes that people who visit the Shoe Stories exhibition will come away with “an idea of what Historic New England is more broadly” and spark a connection between the past, present, and future.
“What excites me about this is really using the past as a door to not just the present, but what the future can hold,” she says.
Weitzman calls his connection with Haverhill and its shoemaking legacy, “a heritage to be proud of.” He’s also proud “that so many of the shoes made by my father, Mr. Seymour, and myself will be on display” in the new exhibition space. “Although the industry has moved elsewhere, communities, not just people, should remember their heritage, show it off, and honor it [in] as grand a manner as possible,” he says. “I am sure this museum will do that.”
