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Concord, MA Attractions
By the mid-19th century, this lovely town was the center of the Transcendentalist movement, a philosophical movement that extolled self-reliance and the beauty of nature. Homes of transcendentalism’s core practitioners (and literary lions) Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Louisa May Alcott are here and open to visitors, as is their final resting place, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. The nearby body of water made famous by Thoreau, Walden Pond, is a popular spot for swimming and hiking. Today Concord is a prosperous pastoral suburb of about 18,000.
The earliest real battle of the Revolutionary War took place at the North Bridge, now part of Minute Man National Historical Park. For an excellent overview of town history, start your visit at the Concord Museum.
Row, Row, Row Your Boat -- Pretend you're Henry David Thoreau and take to the Concord River. The South Bridge Boathouse, 496-502 Main St. (tel. 978/369-9438; www.canoeconcord.com), just over half a mile west of the town center, will rent you a canoe for about $17 an hour on weekends, less on weekdays. Single and double kayak rentals are available, too.
12 Results
- Museum
Concord Museum
Informative exhibits tell the story of Concord, incorporating artifacts, murals, films, and maps. Originally a Native American settlement, whose tribes lived along the languid Concord River and shared the Algonquian dialect, Concord later became a U.S. Revolutionary War battleground.… - Museum
DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum
Four miles south from Concord center, this special museum’s main building sits on a rural hilltop, overlooking a pond and an expansive sculpture park. Outdoors and in, contemporary artists are on display, with an emphasis on living New England residents. Much of the outdoor sculpture… - Nature
Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge
An especially popular destination for birders, the Concord portion of this 3,800-acre refuge includes 2.7 miles of walking trails along the sleepy Concord River and across a flat dike between man-made ponds that attract abundant wildlife. At a board at the entrance, visitors jot down… - Historic Site
Gropius House
Architect Walter Gropius (1883–1969), founder of the Bauhaus school of design, built this hilltop home for his family in 1938 using traditional materials such as clapboard, brick, and fieldstone, along with components then seldom seen in domestic architecture, including glass blocks… - Historic Site
Minute Man National Historical Park
This 970-acre park preserves the scene of the first Revolutionary War battle at Concord on (all together now) April 19, 1775. After the skirmish at Lexington, royal troops continued to Concord in search of stockpiled arms (which militia members had already moved). Warned of the… - Historic Site
North Bridge
This site, part of Minute Man National Historical Park, blends history with great natural beauty. About 0.7 miles from Concord Center, a short walk on an unpaved path from Monument Street (and a large parking lot) leads to this scenic and historically important spot. Sometimes called… - Historic Site
Orchard House: Louisa May Alcott's Home
The beloved author wrote and set her novel Little Women (1868) here. Alcott and her sisters—the models for Little Women’s March family—called Orchard House home from 1858 to 1877. The guided tour, the only way to see the house, highlights numerous heirlooms, like Alcott’s little desk… - Historic Site
Ralph Waldo Emerson House
Emerson's stately home offers an instructive look at the days when a philosopher could attain the status we now associate with rock stars. Emerson, also an essayist and poet, lived here from 1835 until his death, in 1882. He moved in after marrying his second wife, Lydia Jackson,… - Cemetery
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
Follow the signs for AUTHOR'S RIDGE in the cemetery’s northeast side and climb the hill to the graves of some of the town’s literary lights, including the Alcotts, Emerson, Hawthorne, and Thoreau. Many visitors leave pens and pencils on the writers’ gravestones. Emerson’s bears no… - Historic Site
The Old Manse
The engaging history of this home touches on the military and the literary, but it's mostly the story of a family. The Rev. William Emerson built the Old Manse in 1770 and watched the Battle of Concord from the yard. He died during the Revolutionary War, and for almost 170 years the… - Historic Site
The Wayside
The Wayside was Nathaniel Hawthorne's home from 1852 until his death, in 1864. The Alcotts also lived here (the girls called it "the yellow house"), as did Harriett Lothrop, who wrote the Five Little Peppers books under the pen name Margaret Sidney and owned most of the current… - Park/Historic Site
Walden Pond State Reservation
One of the most famous places in New England is also an attractive, surprisingly unspoiled state park property that allows swimming, fishing, hiking, and picnicking. Walden Pond was home to author Henry David Thoreau for a few years in the mid-1840s—he wrote about his time there and…
Concord, MA Shopping
Downtown Concord, off Monument Square, is a terrific shopping destination. Here you'll find the Toy Shop of Concord, 4 Walden St. (tel. 978/369-2553; www.concordtoys.com); the Grasshopper Shop, 36 Main St. (tel. 978/369-8295), which carries women's clothing and accessories; jewelry at Mascio-Ricci, at Concord's Colonial Inn, 48 Monument Sq. (tel. 978/371-1191; www.mascio-ricci.com); and the Concord Bookshop, 65 Main St. (tel. 978/369-2405; www.concordbookshop.com). The compact shopping district in West Concord, along Route 62, is worth a side trip just to check out the old-school West Concord 5 & 10, 106 Commonwealth Ave. (tel. 978/369-9011), which carries everything from light bulbs to rubber duckies.
