The Old Manse, located at 269 Monument Street in Concord, was the home of several prominent philosophers, authors, and abolitionists in the 18th and 19th centuries. Concord’s minister at the time of the battle in 1775, Reverend William Emerson, lived here. The home, one of Concord’s April 19, 1775 witness houses, was built in 1770 and is where Ralph Waldo Emerson, Reverend William Emerson’s grandson, wrote his essay “Nature.” Author Nathaniel Hawthorne also lived here for three years and did some of his writing here.
Abolitionist John Brown spoke here in 1857, and one of his protégés, Frank Sanborn, lived here in 1863. The Old Manse is open to the public and operated by the Trustees of Reservations.