The Old Manse

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There seemed to be some interest in some of the other(I did Thoreau’s house a few days ago) historic houses in Concord so I thought I would share a few-not sure of the paint colors but I could certainly find out if needed!

Built in 1770 for patriot minister William Emerson, The Old Manse, a National Historic Landmark, became the center of Concord’s political, literary, and social revolutions over the course of the next century. In the mid-19th-century, leading Transcendentalists such as Bronson Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller discussed the issues of the day here, with the Hawthorne and Ripley families.

A handsome Georgian clapboard building, The Old Manse sits near the banks of the Concord River among rolling fields edged by centuries-old stone walls and graced by an orchard. From upstairs, you can look out over the North Bridge, where the famous battle of April 19, 1775, took place. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne both called the Manse home for a time – and each found inspiration here. Emerson would draft his famous essay “Nature” from an upstairs room, and Hawthorne would write a tribute to the homestead called Mosses from an Old Manse. Hawthorne and his wife, Sophia, started their married life here, and you can still see the poems they wrote to each other, etched on the Manse’s window panes. The heirloom vegetable garden, which has been recreated today, was originally planted by Henry David Thoreau in honor of the Hawthornes’ wedding.

5 thoughts on “The Old Manse

  1. Have loved the ’50 shades of gray’ colours of all these historic houses, stunning. And thank you for the historical contexts of them as well, so appreciated. I love this gray, sort of taup-y, ery unique. Keem them coming!

  2. Thank you! I love the poems etched in the windows! There is a David Adler cottage in Mundelein, IL that has has a poem etched in the glass. It was the first I had seen/heard of that. So sweet and imortalizing – of course as long has know one breaks the window!

    Sent from my iPad

    • I actually have an etched signature in a window here at my house. It says “Jane G Austin June 18, 1863” and right above it her daughter “Lilian”. On the Concord Museum Holiday House Tour last Christmas we had it on view.She was a semi-famous author who wrote “Nantucket Scraps” and other books during the 1860-1880 time period and lived in our house 1863-1881.

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