Concord

Concord, signifying agreement and harmony, was incorporated as the first inland settlement in Massachusetts through a grant from the Massachusetts General Court dated September 12, 1635. As the scene of the first resistance battle of the American Revolutionary War (War for Independence) on April 19, 1775, it is considered by many the birthplace of the nation, where the “shot heard ’round the world” for liberty and self-government was fired. During the middle of the 19th century, Concord was home to some of the greatest literary and transcendental minds in America. Authors Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bronson and Louisa Alcott, and Nathaniel Hawthorne all lived, worked and wrote in Concord, and signs of their presence in the community remain to this day through the abundance of historic and cultural resources offered.