Famous as the setting for Little Women and the place where Louisa May Alcott wrote this novel, the Orchard House was the home of the Alcott family from 1858 to 1877. The Orchard House, located at 399 Lexington Road in Concord, is operated by the Louisa May Alcott Memorial Association and is open to visitors.
The Alcotts were abolitionists. When they lived at the Wayside, they hid a man named John who had escaped from slavery, and they may have taken in other people running away from slavery in the Orchard House as well. According to the Drinking Gourd Project, they held antislavery meetings at the Orchard House and “the Alcott girls organized a play to raise money for the Concord Antislavery Society.” They hosted the prominent abolitionist John Brown here, and Brown’s two daughters lived with the Alcotts at the Orchard House after he was hanged for his raid on Harper’s Ferry.