3 ways to enjoy an Eco-Friendly family vacation in Concord, Massachusetts
TRAVEL BACK IN TIME AND VISIT LOUISA MAY ALCOTT’S ORCHARD HO– USE
“I want to do something splendid… Something heroic or wonderful that won’t be forgotten after I’m dead… I think I shall write books.” Louisa May Alcott
And that she did. Did you know Little Women would never have been written if Louisa had taken the advice of another publisher, James T. Fields, “Stick to your teaching, you can’t write,” he told the would-be novelist and then loaned her $40 for classroom supplies. “Being willful,” Louisa recounts in her journal, she had a ready reply for Fields, “ I won’t teach, and I can write, and I’ll prove it.”
Louisa May Alcott’s books continue to inspire us. Her life and times are still entertaining travelers. As a present day traveler to the Orchard House you will find a warm welcome while you immerse yourself in the life and times of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March, the beloved characters in Little Women. Louisa penned her semiautobiographical novel over 150 years ago in this modest clapboard dwelling on Concord’s Lexington Road that. Her fictional portrayal of the Marches mirrors many of her experiences about growing up in the 19th-century New England. Orchard House brings back familiar memories of Little Women house. Eighty percent of the furnishings and possessions in Orchard House belonged to the Alcott family.
When you visit the OrchardHouse you’ll step into Louisa’s time and life. As you step into each room you’ll enter a new chapter in Little Women.
VISIT LOUISA MAY ALCOTT, THE WOMAN BEHIND LITTLE WOMEN
You may enjoy this American Master’s, PBS presentation.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYtrnMWzVDw[/youtube]
VISIT FRUITLANDS AND GET INSPIRED WITH ART AND TAKE A NATURE WALK
FruitLands has a rich history and has been host to some of the most famous people in America. Thoreau walked Prospect Hill and admired its view. Emerson visited Alcott here, and Louisa May (then 10), would relate her experience at Fruitlands in Little Women.
Fruitlands Museum , founded in 1914 by Clara Endicott Sears, takes its name from an experimental Utopian Community led by Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane which took place on this site in 1843.
The Fruitlands campus includes:
• The Fruitlands Farmhouse, the site of an experiment in communal living led by Alcott and Lane in 1843
• The Shaker Museum, home to the largest archive of Harvard Shaker documents in the world
• The Native American Gallery, which houses a significant collection of artifacts that honor the spiritual presence and cultural history of the first Americans
• The Art Gallery, containing 100 Hudson River School landscape paintings, and significantly, over 230 nineteenth century vernacular portraits, the second largest collection in the country. The Art Gallery also hosts a variety of rotating exhibits throughout the year.
THE NATURE WALK
There are 3 miles of trails at Fruitlands that traverse our 210 acres of forest, wetlands, and meadows.
Download the educational Trail Map for a complete guide to the Fruitlands Trail system. This map including detailed educational material about the habitats and historic sites along the trails.
VISIT THOREAU THE FIRST GREEN MOVEMENT ADVOCATE
Your Eco-Friendly family vacation wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the ThoreauSociety.
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The Thoreau Society’s offices are located at the birth house of Henry D. Thoreau (341 Virginia Road, Concord, Massachusetts), near Minute Man National Historical Park. The Thoreau Society is the oldest and largest organization devoted to an American author.
The Society has long contributed to the dissemination of knowledge about Thoreau by collecting books, manuscripts, and artifacts relating to Thoreau and his contemporaries, by encouraging the use of its collections, and by publishing two periodicals, TheThoreau Society Bulletin and the Concord Saunterer: A Journal of Thoreau Studies.
MORE AUTHOR AND WALKING TOURS
ConcordTours offered by the Concord Chamber of Commerce includes more author walking tours and many other walking tours.
THANKS FOR STOPPING BY
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