 |
The Old Manse, Concord MA | |
| This house next to Old North Bridge was lived in by the Emerson family for 169 years except for a three-year period when writer Nathaniel Hawthorne and his bride Sophia rented it. | ||
|
A half mile (less than 1 km) from Monument Square, (map), the Old Manse is one of Concord's most famous old houses. Built in 1770 by Reverend William Emerson, the house was relatively new when, on the morning of April 19, 1776, British redcoats marched past it and across the North Bridge on their way to Colonel Barrett's farm. The British soldiers were looking to destroy colonial militia arms caches. Reverend Emerson's grandson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, knew the Old Manse well as a child visiting his grandparents. Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne rented and moved into the Manse just after their wedding. Hawthorne's residence here gave the shy, reclusive writer material for several later stories. Now cared for by The Trustees of Reservations, the house today is filled with the spirit and the mementoes of the Emerson clan, and of Nathaniel and Sophia's short stay. Your guide will proudly point out where Sophia scratched her name into a windowpane with her diamond ring. In front of the house, a heritage garden is planted each spring with flowers and vegetables as the Emersons and Hawthornes might have known them: hugely tall corn stalks, big pumpkins and more. The Old Manse |
|
The Old Manse, Concord MA.
| |
