269 Monument Street
Concord, MA 01742
Phone: 978-369-3909
www.thetrustees.org/places-to-visit/greater-boston/old-manse
“Between two tall gateposts of roughhewn stone . . . we behold the gray front of the old parsonage, terminating the vista of an avenue of black ash trees.”
— NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
A “manse” by definition is a house lived in by a minister and his family. This Georgian clapboard manse was the home of the minister of Concord’s First Parish Church. It was built in 1770 for the Reverend William Emerson (1743–1776) and his minister son, William Jr. (1769–1811). William Jr.’s son was Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), who stayed at the Manse in 1834. It was here that he wrote what is perhaps his best known work, his essay “Nature.”
Another writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864), took up residence here in 1842. He and his artist wife Sophia Peabody (1809–1871) rented the house for $100 per annum. They lived here for three years. Henry David Thoreau cultivated a vegetable garden here for them. On a window pane, Hawthorne inscribed a poem, “composed by my wife and written with her diamond.” It was in this house that Hawthorne wrote parts of “Mosses from an Old Manse.” Unfortunately the Hawthornes were evicted from the Manse in 1845 for failure to pay their rent.
The house continued to be owned and lived in by Emerson descendants until 1939, when it went to The Trustees of Reservations, who maintain it as a museum. The interior is well preserved: woodwork, wall coverings, furniture, books, kitchen utensils, and many other items.
Visitors may walk through the property and see the orchard, the boathouse on the Concord River, and the North Bridge nearby.