Orchard House

Historic house in Massachusetts, United States

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.

The house was first built sometime between 1690 and 1720. The Alcotts had first moved to Concord in 1840, although they left in 1843 to start Fruitlands, a utopian agrarian commune in nearby Harvard. The family returned in 1845 and purchased a house named "Hillside," but left again in 1852, selling to Nathaniel Hawthorne, who renamed it The Wayside. The Alcotts returned to Concord once again in 1857. At the time of purchase the site included two early eighteenth century houses on a 12 acre (49,000m2) apple orchard. "'Tis a pretty retreat," Bronson Alcott wrote soon after moving in, "and ours; a family mansion to take pride in, rescued as it is from deformity and disgrace." Later, Lydia Maria Child visited the house and recorded her thoughts: "The result is a house full of queer nooks and corners and all manner of juttings in and out. It seems as if the spirit of some old architect had brought it from the Middle Ages and dropped it down in Concord The whole house leaves a general impression of harmony, of a medieval sort." Orchard House is adjacent to The Wayside on the historic "American Mile" roadway toward Lexington, and is less than a half mile from Bush, the home of Ralph Waldo Emerson, where Henry David Thoreau and the Alcotts were frequent visitors.

Orchard House was the most permanent home of the Alcotts, with the family in residence from 1858 to 1877. The Alcotts were vegetarians, and harvested fruits and vegetables from the gardens and orchard on the property. Conversations about abolitionism, women's suffrage, and social reform were often held around the dining room table. On May 23, 1860, Anna married John Bridge Pratt in this room. Her bedroom contains sketches of angelic, mythological, and biblical figures on the woodwork and doors. In Louisa's room, May painted a panel of calla lilies, as well as an owl on the fireplace. Copies of Turner landscapes by May adorn various rooms in Orchard House. In 1868, Louisa May Alcott wrote her beloved classic novel, Little Women, in her room on a special "shelf desk" built by her father. Orchard House was then sold to long time family friend William Torrey Harris in 1884. Alcott said that she's "glad to be done with it, though after living in it for 25 years it is full of memories. But places have not much hold on me when the persons who made them dear are gone."

Orchard House is open for guided tours daily, with the exceptions of Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and January 1 and 2. An admission fee is charged. Other original kitchen features include a laundry drying rack designed by Bronson and a soapstone sink bought by Louisa. The parents' bedroom contains many of Abigail May's possessions, including photographs, furniture, and handmade quilts. Orchard House has continued the tradition of Mr. Alcott's Concord School of Philosophy by hosting "The Summer Conversational Series" since 1977, and has recently added a "Teacher Institute" component. The Hillside Chapel is also used for youth programs, poetry readings, historical reenactments, and other special events.