From the Revolutionary War to the revolution in American thought under its roof, The Old Manse was the center of Concord’s political, literary, and social zeitgeist for a century.
Built in 1770 for patriot minister William Emerson, the Old Manse became the center of Concord’s political, literary, and social revolutions over the course of the next century. The iconic house overlooks the North Bridge where the famous battle of April 19, 1775 took place, triggering the Revolutionary War. In the mid-19th-century, leading Transcendentalists such as Bronson Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller discussed the issues of the day here, with the Hawthorne and Ripley families.