This handsome clapboard home overlooks the Old North Bridge, which you may know as the setting for the first historic shots fired in the American Revolution. This home is called the Old Manse as Ralph Waldo Emerson’s grandfather, Reverend William, built it in 1770. Having lived through the Revolutionary War, the home then set the stage for a philosophical revolution that rippled through social, political, and literary climates. Ralph Waldo Emerson spent some of his youth at the Old Manse and wrote “Nature” and “Concord hymn” in its study. Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife later owned the home. Hawthorne wrote “Mosses from an Old Manse” while he lived there, and you can find poetry etched its windowsills written between him and his wife. The Old Manse still has its 19th century appearance and many pieces belonging to the Emerson-Ripley family. Inside you can just imagine the discussions between the Hawthornes, Henry David Thoreau, and Bronson Alcott. And you’ll appreciate all that was birthed from the philosophy and literature that followed.
