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. 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. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne both called the Manse home for a time – and each found inspiration here. From upstairs, you can look out over the North Bridge, where the famous battle of April 19, 1775, took place. 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. The first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired nearby – and, less than a century later, Emerson, Hawthorne, and Thoreau spawned a revolution in American philosophy from here. Since approximately 80% of the furnishings on display were owned by the Alcotts, the rooms look very much as they did when the family lived here, causing many modern-day visitors to comment that, “A visit to Orchard House is like a walk through Little Women!” A guided tour of Orchard House introduces visitors to the family members themselves, the household items that held meaning to them, their individual and collective achievements and lasting impact, as well as their influence on characters in the beloved novel, Little Women.
Fortunately, there have been no major structural changes to the house since the Alcotts’ time, with on-going preservation efforts adhering to the highest standards of authenticity. The house is most noted for being where Louisa May Alcott wrote and set her beloved classic, Little Women, in 1868 at a “shelf desk” her father built especially for her. After moving twenty-two times in nearly thirty years, the Alcotts finally found their most permanent home at Orchard House, where they lived from 1858 until 1877.
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