The Wayside is a
houseA house is generally a shelter, building or structure that is a dwelling or place for habitation by human beings. The term includes many kinds of dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to high-rise apartment buildings...
with notable literary associations in
Concord, MassachusettsConcord is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. As of the 2000 Census, the town population was about 17,000. Although a small town, Concord is noted for its leading roles in American history and literature...
. It is now a part of the
Minute Man National Historical ParkNot to be confused with Minuteman Missile National Historic Site.Minute Man National Historical Park commemorates the opening battle in the American Revolutionary War. It also includes The Wayside, home in turn to three noted American authors...
and managed by the
National Park ServiceThe National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
.
The first record of the Wayside property occurs in 1717. Minuteman Samuel Whitney was living in this house, which still retained most of its original appearance, on April 19, 1775 when British troops passed by on their way to the Battle of Lexington and Concord at Concord's
Old North BridgeThe North Bridge, often colloquially called the Old North Bridge, across the Concord River in Concord, Massachusetts, is a historical site in the Battle of Concord, the first battle day in the Revolutionary War....
.
The Wayside is a
houseA house is generally a shelter, building or structure that is a dwelling or place for habitation by human beings. The term includes many kinds of dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to high-rise apartment buildings...
with notable literary associations in
Concord, MassachusettsConcord is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. As of the 2000 Census, the town population was about 17,000. Although a small town, Concord is noted for its leading roles in American history and literature...
. It is now a part of the
Minute Man National Historical ParkNot to be confused with Minuteman Missile National Historic Site.Minute Man National Historical Park commemorates the opening battle in the American Revolutionary War. It also includes The Wayside, home in turn to three noted American authors...
and managed by the
National Park ServiceThe National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
.
History
The first record of the Wayside property occurs in 1717. Minuteman Samuel Whitney was living in this house, which still retained most of its original appearance, on April 19, 1775 when British troops passed by on their way to the Battle of Lexington and Concord at Concord's
Old North BridgeThe North Bridge, often colloquially called the Old North Bridge, across the Concord River in Concord, Massachusetts, is a historical site in the Battle of Concord, the first battle day in the Revolutionary War....
. During the years 1775 and 1776 the house was occupied by scientist
John WinthropJohn Winthrop was the 2nd Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in Harvard College. He was a distinguished mathematician, physicist and astronomer, born in Boston, Mass. His great-great-grandfather, also named John Winthrop, was founder of the Massachusetts Bay colony...
during the nine months when
Harvard CollegeHarvard College is one of two undergraduate degree granting schools, and the oldest school, of Harvard University, a private university in the United States founded in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature...
was moved to Concord.
The Alcotts
In 1845, educator and philosopher
Amos Bronson AlcottAmos Bronson Alcott was an American teacher, writer and philosopher who left a legacy of forward-thinking social ideas and whose status as a well-publicized figure from the 1830s to the 1880s stemmed from his founding of two short-lived projects, an unconventional school and an utopian community...
and his wife, Abby, purchased the home and named it "Hillside". Here
Louisa May AlcottLouisa May Alcott was an American novelist. She is best known for the novel Little Women, written and set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts and published in 1868...
and her sisters lived many of the scenes that later appeared in her book
Little WomenLittle Women is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott . Written and set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts, it was published in two parts in 1868 and 1869...
, including the amateur plays they performed. The Alcotts made major changes to the house and land, adding terracing to the hill behind the house, a study for Bronson, and a bedroom for Louisa.
The Hawthornes
In 1852, author
Nathaniel HawthorneNathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.Nathaniel Hathorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and Elizabeth Clarke Manning Hathorne...
purchased the house from the Alcotts and moved in with wife Sophia and three young children. He renamed it "The Wayside", noting that it stood so close to the road that it could have been mistaken for a coach stop. He explained in a letter: "I think [it] a better name, and more morally suggestive than that which... Mr. Alcott... bestowed on it." While the Hawthornes were in Europe from 1853 to 1860, they leased the house to family members including Sophia's sister, Mary Peabody, who later married
Horace MannHorace Mann was an American education reformer, and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1827 to 1833. He served in the Massachusetts Senate from 1834-1837. Mann was a brother-in-law to author Nathaniel Hawthorne, their wives being sisters.-Education and early career:Horace Mann was...
. After Hawthorne returned to Concord in 1860, he added a second story over Alcott's west wing, enclosed the bay porch, moved the barn to the east side of the house, and constructed the three story tower on the back of the house, calling it his "sky parlor". It seems that Hawthorne was not entirely pleased with the result:
- "I have been equally unsuccessful in my architectural projects; and have transformed a simple and small old farm-house into the absurdest anomaly you ever saw; but I really was not so much to blame here as the village-carpenter, who took the matter into his own hands, and produced an unimaginable sort of thing instead of what I asked for." (January 1864)
Hawthorne died in 1864, and his heirs sold the house in 1870.
The Lothrops
After several intermediate sales, it was again purchased in 1883 by Boston publisher Daniel Lothrop and his wife, Harriett, who wrote the
Five Little PeppersThe Five Little Peppers book series was created by Margaret Sidney from 1881 to 1916. It covered the lives of five children with the surname Pepper...
series and other children's books under the pen name
Margaret SidneyMargaret Sidney was the pseudonym of Harriett Mulford Stone . She was an American author, born in New Haven, Connecticut....
. The Lothrops added town water in 1883, central heating in 1888, and electric lighting in 1904, as well as a large piazza on the west side in 1887.
Modern history
After Margaret Sidney's death in 1924, the home was inherited by her daughter; she opened the home to the public in 1927. In 1963, The Wayside was designated a
National Historic LandmarkA National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance. All NHLs are listed in the National Register of Historic Places...
, and in 1965, with the aid of the Lothrop's daughter Margaret, it became the first literary site to be acquired by the
National Park ServiceThe National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
.
See also
- House of the Seven Gables
- The Old Manse
The Old Manse is an historic manse famous for its American literary associations. It is now owned and operated as a nonprofit museum by the Trustees of Reservations...
- Orchard House
Orchard House is a historic house museum in Concord, Massachusetts. It was the longtime home of Amos Bronson Alcott and family, including his daughter Louisa May Alcott who wrote and set her beloved novel Little Women there.-History:...
- Reuben Brown House
The Reuben Brown House is a colonial style house located in Concord, Massachusetts. The house was built in 1725 by the town saddler, Rueben Brown...
External links