A mile (1.6 km) east along Lexington Road from Concord's Monument Square (a 15- to 20-minute walk; map) brings you to Orchard House, 399 Lexington Road, home of the Alcotts from 1858 to 1877.

Bronson Alcott, while he started life as an itinerant gizmo salesman, had as his life's passion the reform of traditional education methods.

He founded a school in Boston that treated children as fully intelligent beings worthy of respect and affection rather than as discipline problems.

His open and natural approach to education was not appreciated there, but it was perfectly congenial in Transcendentalist Concord. Here he was ultimately commissioned Concord's superintendent of schools, and he opened a "School of Philosophy" in a building in his backyard.

Orchard House is a must-see for anyone, especially a child, who has read Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, or seen the movie based on the book. It's a thrill to see the real rooms and artifacts of the author's life, and to be in the milieu in which she grew up.

Just east of Orchard House is The Wayside, another Concord historic house with literary connections—and the one Alcott is actually describing in Little Women (the Alcotts lived at The Wayside for a short time.)

Orchard House
399 Lexington Road (PO Box 343)(map)
Concord MA 01742
Tel: 978-369-4118
info@louisamayalcott.org
General Fax: 978-369-1367
Museum Store Fax: 978-369-9611

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