SLEEPY HOLLOW CEMETERY
On this far ridge in Concord’s burial ground are found the graves of the literary great, Emerson, Hawthorne, the Alcotts, Thoreau, and their respective families.
THE BULLET-HOLE HOUSE, HOME OF MINUTEMAN ELISHA JONES
The oldest portion of this house, overlooking North Bridge, dates from 1644, making it probably the oldest house in Concord. Elisha Jones, Concord minuteman, was guarding military supplies in his house when the British began their retreat. He imprudently showed himself at the door of the left wing, and was promptly fired upon. The bullet missed him, and the hole it made is still preserved under a pane of glass.
THE OLD MANSE (view from the northwest)
This large gambrel-roofed homestead was built in 1769 by the Reverend William Emerson, Concord’s fighting minister. Its grounds border the Concord River, and the minister is said to have viewed the battle at North Bridge from the window of his study. His grandson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, spent much time in the old house as a schoolboy, and later lived here for a year, writing “Nature” during that period. Nathaniel Hawthorne rented the house in 1842, and brought his bride there, to occupy it for some four years. It was Hawthorne who named it “The Old Manse,” and it was his “Mosses from an Old Manse” that made it known to the world. The house has undergone astonishingly little change since it was built 170 years ago.
EARLY SPRING AT THE OLD MANSE