Centers And Squares
Welcome to Centers and Squares
As a Cambridge real estate agent, the city squares of Cambridge, Somerville and Medford and the town centers of Arlington, Watertown and Belmont, Massachusetts are my home turf. And as a lifelong New Englander who’s lived within twenty miles of Boston most of my life, I can introduce you to other nearby towns as we search for your new home. If you’re planning to sell your home in Cambridge, MA or nearby you’ll find plenty of info about the home selling process here too. Questions? Send me an email or call me at 617-504-1737.
The Old Manse – Concord MA – House Museum Monday
The Old Manse – Concord MA – House Musuem Monday The Old Manse has always been one of my favorite house museums.
History of the Old Manse
Built in 1770 by the Reverend William Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s grandfather, the Emerson family watched the battle at the North Bridge on April 19, 1775.
After Reverend Emerson died later that year, his widow married the Reverend Ezra Ripley and the family remained at the Old Manse.
Ralph Waldo Emerson lived at the house for a time and wrote his Transcendentalist work “Nature” here.
Nathaniel Hawthorne and his family rented the house from the Ripleys for three years, moving in shortly after their marriage in 1842. I had always remembered the writings they carved into the glass window panes with Sophia Hawthorne’s diamond ring. But I was really struck during the tour by the liberties they took with the house as tenants who failed to pay rent for much of their stay. Not your model tenants for sure! But how amazing is it that the inscriptions are still there?
That’s one of the real treats when you visit the house – it is largely intact with the furnishings and possessions that were in the house in 1800s. You’re able to see the house very much as it looked when Bronson Alcott, Margaret Fuller and Henry David Thoreau visited. Fortunately the house had remained in the Ripley family until 1939 when it was bought by the Trustees of Reservations who today maintain it as a house museum open to the public.
Visiting The Old Manse – Concord MA
The Old Manse is open year round. From mid-April through October the Old Manse is open daily. Weather permitting, the house is open Thursday through Sunday the rest of the year. Check the Trustees of Reservations website for more information.
The Old Manse is located at 269 Monument St, Concord, MA 01742. The phone number is 978-369-3909.
More House Museum Mondays
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