Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House

Photo credit - Zack Frank @ Shutterstock

This historic house museum was the childhood and family home of Louisa May Alcott. In this house, she wrote the classic novel Little Women on a shelf desk her father built for her.

Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) was a poet, novelist, abolitionist, and suffragist who promoted social change and encouraged women to register to vote.

The museum was founded to cherish Alcott’s legacy in art, literature, philosophy, education, and social justice and opened to the public in 1912.

At the well-preserved 19th-century house, visitors walk across the rooms where the Alcott family lived while enjoying a display of the original furnishings owned by the Alcotts, including portraits of the family members, the family china, laundry drying rack, soapstone sink, and quilts made by Alcott’s mother.

The museum organizes workshops, educational programs, tours, and special events, such as A Little Women Christmas at Orchard House, A Valentine’s Visit with the Alcotts, and Little Women in the 21st Century, Celebrating 150 Years of Inspiration.

While in Concord, make sure to include a visit to one of the oldest cemeteries in the United States, the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. It is the final resting place of many notable people, including Louisa May Alcott, Harriett Lothrop, known by her pseudonym Margaret Sidney, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and many more.

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Official Website

Free admission for Children under 6 and Members

Click here for more women-related places in Greater Boston area.

Address

399 Lexington Road, Concord, MA 01742, USA

 

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