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Orchard House

Alcott familyHistoric house museums in MassachusettsHomes of American writersHouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Concord, MassachusettsLiterary museums in the United States
Museums in Concord, MassachusettsNational Historic Landmarks in MassachusettsUse mdy dates from August 2023
Orchard House from Little Women
Orchard House from Little Women

Orchard House is a historic house museum in Concord, Massachusetts, United States, opened to the public on May 27, 1912. It was the longtime home of Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) and his family, including his daughter Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888), who wrote and set her novel Little Women (1868–69) there. The four daughters—Anna (the oldest), Louisa (one year younger), Elizabeth (three years younger than Louisa), and Abigail (the youngest, five years younger than Elizabeth)—lived in Orchard House from 1858 to 1877.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Orchard House (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Orchard House
Lexington Road,

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Latitude Longitude
N 42.4589 ° E -71.3351 °
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Lexington Road
01742
Massachusetts, United States
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Orchard House from Little Women
Orchard House from Little Women
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Concord Armory
Concord Armory

The Concord Armory is an historic former armory at 51 Walden Street in Concord, Massachusetts. It now serves as the Performing Arts Center at 51 Walden, which is operated by the Friends of Performing Arts in Concord (FOPAC). Resident groups include The Concord Players, The Concord Band, and The Concord Orchestra. The armory was built in 1887 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007, as a rare well-preserved example of a wood-frame municipal armory.The armory was built in several stages, between 1887 and 1927. The front portion, or headhouse, was built in 1887, and the drill shed added in 1888. In 1896 the drill shed was lengthened. When the building was converted for use by veterans organizations and the Concord Players in the 1920s, the area housing the stage was added, to a design drawn up by the noted theater architect Clarence Blackall. In 1927 the stage area was extended to the rear to provide additional space for scenery. The building interior was extensively altered in the 1970s when FOPAC took over the property.The lower level of the head house now serves as a lobby area, which also extends into the former drill shed; its upper level serves as a dance studio. The drill shed has been converted into a theatrical auditorium, with its original ceiling trusses exposed, and acoustic treatments on the walls. The basement houses storage space and dressing rooms.Historical uses of the building during the 20th century include the screening of films by the Red Cross in the 1920s, and for annual town meetings between 1933 and 1946. It was also used to house town offices, and to provide space for a youth center. Due to its deteriorating condition, the building was several times considered for demolition in the 1950s and 1960s, but public outcry was successful in preventing that fate. FOPAC was formed in 1972 to convert the building into a dedicated performing arts space.

Concord, Massachusetts
Concord, Massachusetts

Concord () is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. In the 2020 census, the town population was 18,491. The United States Census Bureau considers Concord part of Greater Boston. The town center is near where the confluence of the Sudbury and Assabet rivers forms the Concord River. The area that became the town of Concord was originally known as Musketaquid, an Algonquian word for "grassy plain." Concord was established in 1635 by a group of English settlers; by 1775, the population had grown to 1,400. As dissension between colonists in North America and the British crown intensified, 700 troops were sent to confiscate militia ordnance stored at Concord on April 19, 1775. The ensuing conflict, the battles of Lexington and Concord, were the incidents (including the shot heard round the world) that triggered the American Revolutionary War. A rich literary community developed in Concord during the mid-19th century, centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson's circle included Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott and Henry David Thoreau. Major works written in Concord during this period include Alcott's novel Little Women, Emerson's essay Self-Reliance, and Thoreau's Walden and Civil Disobedience. In this era, the now-ubiquitous Concord grape was developed in Concord by Ephraim Wales Bull. In the 20th century, Concord developed into an affluent Boston suburb and tourist destination, drawing visitors to the Old North Bridge, Orchard House and Walden Pond. The town retains its literary culture and is home to notable authors, including Doris Kearns Goodwin, Alan Lightman and Gregory Maguire. Concord is also notable for its progressive and environmentalist politics, becoming in 2012 the first community in the United States to ban single-serving PET bottles.