#AdventuresAwait attraction of the week:
Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House
399 Lexington Road, Concord, MA
http://www.louisamayalcott.org
LOCATION: Located at 399 Lexington Road, Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House is located in the pastoral historic town of Concord, Massachusetts — a place famed for its political, literary, and social revolutions.
DESCRIPTION: Orchard House is perhaps most recognized for being where the beloved novel, Little Women, was written and set by Miss Alcott in 1868. Many visitors are surprised to learn that its notable legacy actually stretches back to the 17th Century, when original owner John Hoare sheltered Christianized Indians on the property and rescued young wife and mother Mary Rowlandson during King Philips’ War, while in the 18th Century, two Concord Minute Men lived in Orchard House during the American Revolution!
After the Alcotts left the home in 1877, it was rented and then sold to educator and dear family friend William Torrey Harris, who later became Commissioner of Education under Presidents Benjamin Harrison through Theodore Roosevelt. The Concord School of Philosophy was also founded by Louisa May Alcott’s father in the Study of Orchard House in 1879, and moved the following year into its current location on the grounds of Orchard House. In 1910, The Woman’s Club of Concord purchased and began to restore Orchard House. By 1911, the all-volunteer “Louisa May Alcott Memorial Association” was created to oversee long-term caretaking as well as day-to-day operations, and Orchard House was finally opened to the public as a memorial to the Alcott family in 1912.
As one of America’s most authentically preserved historic house museums – and one of the first dedicated to a woman! — Orchard House evokes a decidedly home-like atmosphere in which vibrant and inspiring educational experiences have been offered to millions of people from around the world for over one hundred years. Here visitors feel as if they are “walking through the pages of Little Women” while they also discover the Alcotts’ commitment to family, social justice, education, and the arts, and their relationships with such 19th Century notables as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Guided tours, educational programs, and “living history” bring the past to life for Little Women fans, scholars, public, private, and homeschooled students and teachers, underserved youth, book groups, and elder learners.
UPCOMING EVENTS: During 2018, Orchard House is particularly pleased to welcome visitors as it commemorates the 150th publication anniversary of Little Women – a book that not only has never been out of print, but has been translated into over 50 foreign languages as well.
Open nearly year-round; admission charged. Groups be reservation only. Museum Store on premises.
