Get recharged with New England’s literature and nature
TRAVEL BACK IN TIME AND VISIT LOUISA MAY ALCOTT’S ORCHARD HOUSE
“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
Yes, she fulfilled her goal. 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.”
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 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 and much of the Little Women house if familiar. Eighty percent of the furnishings and possessions in Orchard House belonged to the Alcott family.
When you visit 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.
The Alcott home was filled with love, intellectual curiosity, bustling with activity and friends who came to visit often. Including Ralph Waldo Emerson, a family friend, the founder of the New England Transcendentalist.
Other notables among the Concord natives to spend time at Orchard House were Henry David Thoreau and Nathaniel Hale. Louisa and her sisters treated their guest to merriment with singing, storytelling, charades, and plays.
VISIT FRUITLANDS 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 sat Fruitlands in Little Women.
FruitLands founded in 1914 by Clara Endicott Sears, takes its name from an experimental Utopian Community led by Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane that took place on this site in 1843.
NATURE WALKS
There are 3 miles of trails at Fruitlands that traverse our 210 acres of forest, wetlands, and 
meadows.
Download the educational Trailmap for a complete guide to the Fruitlands Trail system. This map including detailed educational material about the habitats and historic sites along the trails.
THOREAU THE FIRST GREEN MOVEMENT ADVOCATE
Refreshing with nature and literature wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the 
ThoreauSociety
The Thoreau Society’s offices 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.
MORE AUTHOR AND WALKING TOURS
ConcordTours offered by the Concord Chamber of Commerce includes more author walking tours and many other walking tours.
Be sure to stop by:
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s House
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s house
THANKS FOR STOPPING BY
I look forward to receiving your comments.
