When I pulled up in front of the Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, I didn’t plan on going inside. I didn’t even know you could go inside. But as luck would have it, there was a small group of people on the front porch when I approached, and they asked if I was there for the tour. “No, but I’d like to be,” I said. Thus, they invited me in.
The Old Manse is a literary and historical wonder fest. When I arrived in Concord, I traveled full-time for nearly two years. My solo road trip took me through most of the United States and a bit of Mexico and Canada. I was heading north and had already stopped at the homes and hometowns of many esteemed writers and artists, including:
- John Steinbeck
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- Frida Kahlo
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- Diego Rivera
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- Anne Rice
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- Flannery O’Connor
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- Mark Twain
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- Edgar Allan Poe and others
That said, I couldn’t miss Concord, Massachusetts. It was home to Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott and Nathanial Hawthorne, among others. Little did I know they all had an association with the Old Manse.
History of the Old Manse
The Old Manse was built in 1770 for the Rev. William Emerson, father of minister William Emerson and grandfather of Ralph Waldo Emerson. The youngest Emerson was a beloved American essayist, philosopher and poet who led the transcendentalist movement. The elder Rev. Emerson was the town minister.
The house is on Monument Street, with the Concord River and the North Bridge behind it. You may have heard of the North Bridge before in your history lessons. It was where Continental soldiers fired the “shot heard around the world.” The “shot” refers to the first shot of the battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. It is the catalyst that set into motion the Revolutionary War and led to the creation of the United States of America.
The current wooden pedestrian bridge behind the house is a replica of the bridge that stood at the time of the battle.
Fun Fact: The phrase “shot heard around the world” comes from the opening stanza of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Concord Hymn.” The hymn was sung at the Completion of the Battle Monument on July 4, 1837.
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Emerson and his family witnessed the fight, looking out their upstairs window toward the bridge when the shot rang out. This wouldn’t be the first time those windows would be part of history.
Why the Old Manse is significant
The land next to the Old Manse is wooded and filled with trails. It’s now known as Minute Man National Historical Park for the men who pledged to take up arms at “a minute’s notice” at the start of the American Revolution. Within the park, there are 970 acres protected acres of forest. In the 1960s, the National Park Service designated The Old Manse as a National Historic Landmark. It didn’t receive the designation because of its war history but because of its affiliation with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, Nathanial Hawthorne and the gardener – Henry David Thoreau! I believe some places have powerful energy, and the site of the Old Manse is one of them.
Fun Fact: A “manse” is the residence of a minister.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
In 1834 Ralph Waldo Emerson lived at the Old Manse with his mother, brother, and aunt. While there, he wrote the first draft of his essay “Nature,” a foundational work of the Transcendentalist movement. In the book, he noted that nature is “mind precipitated.”
“Every moment instructs, and every object; for wisdom is infused into every form.”
Emerson later moved several blocks away to a house at 18 Cambridge Turnpike. It is now a museum, open periodically for tours. Before he moved, however, he often hosted his famous friends and neighbors at the Old Manse.
Nathaniel Hawthorne at the Manse and The Wayside
After the Emersons left the Old Manse, they rented it to American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1842. Hawthorne and his wife Sophia struggled to pay the $100 house cost and moved after three years. However, the time they spent there before he published “The Scarlet Letter” (1850) and “The House of the Seven Gables” (1851) left a mark on the house.
The Windows of the Old Manse
The original glass windows of the Old Manse are a unique feature of the house, not just because they’re original but because of what they say – literally. The Hawthorne’s etched cursive messages to each other in several of the glass panes, including:
“’Man’s accidents are God’s purposes.’ Sophia A. Hawthorne 1843″
“Nath Hawthorne This is his study.”
“’The smallest twig leans clear against the sky.’ Composed by my wife and written with her diamond.”
“Inscribed by my husband at sunset, April 3, 1843. ‘In the Gold light.’ SAH”
After leaving the Old Manse, they purchased a home not too far away that the Alcott family recently vacated. Hawthorne changed the house’s name from “Hillside” to “The Wayside,” and it’s there that his writing finally became successful. The Wayside is part of Minute Man National Historical Park and was the first literary site added to the National Park Service. This historic site offers seasonal guided tours.
Henry David Thoreau
Before the Hawthorne’s ever moved into the Old Manse, a gardener created a vegetable garden for the couple – that gardener was none other than Henry David Thoreau. You’re probably wondering why Thoreau was doing manual labor. The garden was a wedding gift of beans, cabbages, peas, squash and other vegetables for the couple. But it wasn’t unusual for Thoreau, living nearby in Walden Woods and writing a journal that would become “Walden Pond,” to take odd jobs when he needed cash and couldn’t entirely live off the land. He’d often enjoy those very vegetables at the Hawthorne’s dinner table.
Make sure you stop by the Walden Pond State Recreation Area to see where Thoreau lived in the woods.
Louisa May Alcott and the Orchard House
Thoreau wasn’t the only one to gather around the table at the Old Manse. American novelist and poet Louisa May Alcott, best known for the novel “Little Women,” also lived in Concord. Can you believe it? What’s in the water? She often visited Emerson at the Manse with her father, transcendentalist and educator Amos Bronson Alcott.
Her two-story clapboard farmhouse, best known as “Orchard House,” is where the Alcott family lived after receiving financial help from Emerson. It is beloved as the home depicted in “Little Women.” Guides give daily tours of the interior and famed gardens.
Touring the Old Manse
We have the Orchard House, The Wayside, Walden Pond and all these famous people who, at one time or another, gathered at the Old Manse and other places to talk about ideas that would shape modern environmental thinking.
I’ve toured many historic homes, but this is the most authentic I’ve ever found. Nearly everything in the house is the original, including the furniture. The tour starts in the back of the house, works its way through the music and sitting rooms, upstairs where you can look out the window upon which the Emerson’s looked on the day of the “shot heard around the world” and see the etching from the Hawthornes. Outside, the garden Thoreau planted has been reestablished and the kitchen where they would have cooked the vegetables is still intact, including the wood-burning stove.
Fun Fact: All these people still hang out together, but now they do it on a hilltop called “Author’s Ridge” in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
If you visit the Old Manse
Check ahead for tour times. When you visit, plan enough time to walk through the Minute Men National Historic Park or even take a long hike. Also, support its upkeep by buying something in the fabulous gift shop. In homage to Thoreau’s garden, I bought a few small hanging glass frames to keep specimens from nature.
The Old Manse is located at 269 Monument St., Concord, MA.
Read other stories about Massachusetts here.
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