Considering its compact size, the small, bucolic town of
Concord, Massachusetts has a considerably larger than modern-life history. Home
of the American literary renaissance during the Civil War era and center of
ground breaking thought in the country’s intellectual and political history,
Concord’s most dramatic claim to fame was at North Bridge in 1775 – epic scene
of the first battle of the Revolutionary War. A symbol of liberty, intellectual
freedom and American heritage, Concord is comfortably nestled amidst lush New
England countryside some 18 miles northwest of Boston.
Browsing the town’s antique shops and bustling downtown
cafes and corner stores for a good place to start the day, Helen’s (cash only) diner
at 17 Main Street proved a welcoming haven on hospitality in which to plot a
mini-marathon of historical site seeing within a four-hour window of tourist-time
before heading back into Boston for the promised Team US Lacrosse game at
Harvard Stadium against the country’s all-star pros.
Taking in more than one historic site (Freedom Trail apart)
with teens in tow on any given day is asking a bit much of modern youth
attention span, thus tickets to the country’s premier sporting event in their
given game of choice dangled like an ideal carrot for willing and cheerful
traipsing around time worn heritage homes, a museum and an old bridge built in
the middle of nowhere.
Sumptuous breakfasts fir for patriot troops were served up
by Helen’s teenage granddaughter, who shared with us her love of growing up in
New England, for all its snowy winters, stunning Fall and hot summer days.
First stop was Concord Museum, a graceful place where the
town’s rich and remarkable past has subtly intertwined with modern day life and
more recent memories of community figures. Historic beauty of period rooms
transports visitors to the town’s early days when New England’s first settlers
negotiated with the area’s Native Americans to farm and trade (though it was
highly unlikely that the natives initially had a notion that these ‘settlers’
actually assumed an unknown concept of ownership of the land in question).
The famous “one, if by land, and two, if by sea lantern,
immortalized by Longfellow’s Paul Revere’s Ride, as well as many other relics
and rifles from the American revolution caught the attention of the boys at
least, as stirring and visual reminder of junior high history off the page and
into their own reality.
Located close by Walden Pond, Concord Museum is home to the
world’s most comprehensive collection of artifacts associated with Henry D.
Thoreau, not least the desk in which he penned ‘Walden’ and ‘Civil Disobedience’.
Published in 1854, Walden (Or, Life in the Woods) details Thoreau’s two years of
simple living and self-sufficiency in a cabin he constructed near the pond, in
woodland owned by his mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson. Not entirely a hermit,
Thoreau received visits from his fellow New England Transcendentalist friends
from time to time throughout the duration of his isolation from society at
large and the idea of gaining a more objective understanding of an ideal
spiritual state was considerably ahead of its time. Transcendentalism had begun
as a protest against the dehumanizing effects of the industrial revolution,
America’s emerging culture and society and the state of its intellectualism at
Harvard and the Unitarian church. Glorious countryside surrounding Concord made
for an ideal epicenter for many of the movement’s writers to remove, muse,
congregate and share their ideals.
From Colonial drawing room collections to locally made
furniture, silver and clocks, Concord’s nationally-significant decorative arts
collection intersperses with studies on great American spokesman for
individualism and self reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson as well as the town’s most
well-known fellow inhabitants of the Transcendentalist era, including Amos and
Louisa May Alcott.
Adding to the museum’s history that same day was a
masterful, semi-private interior shoot by American icon photographer, Annie
Leibovitz. A far cry from her most recent Vanity Fair explosive cover story shoot of a ripped selection of the world cup's most studly FIFA soccer players (in their undies). According to museum staff, Leibovitz (who has photographed the likes of the reigning British monarch to a pre-scandal, sweating Tiger Woods) was traveling the region in pursuit of places with significant meaning for an upcoming (bankruptcy prevention?) book.
Disappointingly, Walden Pond, home of the conservation
movement in the States and now a State Reservation, was full to capacity by
late morning and no amount of pleading distance traveled would convince the ranger
on duty to allow us a closer look at the park’s glorious, dappled, 462 acres.
If you go, be sure to arrive at Walden Pond prior to 10 am
on a weekday in summer, as early as 9 am on weekends. Parking is $5 (cash
only), no dogs or bikes, but swimming is allowed in specific areas.
With time of the essence and our cool water plunge plot
foiled, the boys and their Dad dropped me off for my much-anticipated tour of
Little Women author, Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House. Divide and conquer
proved a worthwhile plan as they took a jaunt to the North Bridge Visitor’s
Center, off Monument Street, overlooking the Concord River and the bridge with
a diorama and video program illustrating the April 19th, 1775 battle
between the British and the Colonists in what has been immortalized as ‘the
shot heard around the world’.
A drive by The Old Manse, home of The Rev. William Emerson,
Ralph Waldo Emerson and later Nathanial Hawthorne (for whom Thoreau sewed a
veggie garden – recreated for today’s tours), Ralph Walden Emerson’s own house,
Hawthorne’s The Wayside house as well as a respectful peek at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery sealed the deal
that Concord made for the best value-packed day trip through time on our New
England trip.
Follow the signs for ‘Author’s Ridge’ and head up the
hill to the humble graves of so many of Concord’s leading literary luminaries. Look for Emerson’s eulogy to his old friend, Thoreau: “wherever there is
knowledge, wherever there is virtue, wherever there is beauty, he will find a
home.”
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