Discover Concord

Autumn is filled with amazing things to do this year! Here are 19 of them that you won't want to miss.

I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live and could not spare any more time for that one.

On September 6, 1847, Henry David Thoreau left his one-room house at Walden Pond and returned to Concord. Living at Walden for over two years had been a life-changing experience for the thirty-year-old Thoreau. Wanting to be a writer, he went to the pond to write, and while there he did exactly that. He produced two drafts of A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. He wrote one lecture about Thomas Carlyle and another about living at the pond called “A History of Myself.” He also penned an essay titled “Ktaadn” about going to Maine in the summer of 1846. And he wrote in his journal almost daily. But what would he do once he was back in Concord?

Many years ago, I studied the ancient bardic tradition in Scotland with one of the last living bards. To be a true bard would have meant a lifetime of study, and my time with this bard was just a glimpse into the Celtic tradition of history keeping.

The traditional opening line of a bardic tale, “In the times before history,” indicated a story from before the written word existed. The bards were among the Celtic world’s early historians, learning verbatim from other bards the passed-down histories of their regions, memorizing the genealogies of kings and noble houses (establishing the rights of succession), and preserving current events by composing their own tales of honor, treachery, and all that occurred in between. Many bards were harp players and would accompany their tales with strains from metal or gut harp strings.

The abolitionists of the 19th century valued, revered, and lived by the words of the Declaration of Independence. The proclamation “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” affirmed that all individuals possess equal human dignity. The abolitionists lived in one era when our country was not living up to those words, and as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, like them, we find the promise of those words again in peril.

Over the past two years, I have collaborated with communities, museums, historical organizations, and heritage sites to plan commemorative events that illuminate the narrative of the American Revolution. Through this historical programming, I have consistently observed a significant trend: the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution has substantially renewed interest in the contributions of local communities to the American pursuit of independence. This commemoration demonstrates that the Revolution was not defined solely by major battles. Instead, the movement progressed incrementally through the collective actions of towns, families, and individual citizens.

Your palm is crossed by unique flowing lines that fortune tellers link to your fate. But what if that fate passed through your hand to someone else? In a poem he wrote in childhood, Nathaniel Hawthorne mused, “Oh could I raise the darken’d veil, which hides my future life from me. Could unborn ages slowly sail, before my view—and I could see my every action painted there, to cast one look I would not dare.”

If you dare, read on.

Like Ruth Robinson Wheeler, I moved to Concord from Watertown, Massachusetts, and became devoted to learning and sharing the history of my adopted town. Unlike Ruth Wheeler, I’ve never been attacked by a bull.

The bull attack occurred on her farm on Virginia Road in 1940, when she was fifty years old. Fortunately, she recovered from her injuries. Wrangling cattle was not an ordinary occupation for a Vassar graduate with a colonial Massachusetts pedigree, but Ruth was not an ordinary woman.

A common misconception among historians and the public is that Massachusetts privateers engaged in “lawful piracy,” operating indiscriminately with unseaworthy vessels, unsanctioned by state or local committees of safety, and motivated solely by profit and adventure. By contrast, privateers functioned as organized waterborne militias whose early interdiction efforts—particularly those targeting British supply lines to the American coast—played a significant role in securing American independence.

So revered is the Baldwin apple that Massachusetts has not one but two monuments to the bright-red winter fruit.

For many years, the Baldwin apple was the most popular fruit in New England and New York. A small, hard apple remarkably free of blight and blemishes, people prized it for making hard cider and pie. Commercial growers loved it because it produced huge crops every other year and shipped easily.

In 1885, an article in the New England Farmer praised the apple: “What the Concord is among grapes, what the Bartlett has been among pears, the Baldwin is among apples.”

Traditions. Each season has them. Picking apples is one quintessential fall activity that never grows old. There is something magical and exhilarating about walking through an orchard and choosing your own apples, always picking more than you can carry. Your head is full of apple varieties—McIntosh, Cortland, Spartan, Honeycrisp, Baldwin, Macoun, Spencer, Empire, Winesap, Fortune, Jonathan—and what delicious things you can make with them.

Orchards filled with apple trees laden with fruit are a sight to behold. Each orchard offers its own unique experience, and many offer pick-your-own fruit opportunities. Go early, and you could find additional fruits like peaches, plums, nectarines, or late-season raspberries; go later, and pumpkins might be in the mix.

We hope you enjoy exploring these vibrant communities!

A well-known 19th-century nurseryman and fruit breeder, John B. Moore cultivated a fine apple orchard of approximately forty trees that he put up for sale in 1857. The orchard captured the heart of Amos Bronson Alcott, who considered the apple the most perfect of fruits. So taken was he with the property’s six apple varieties that he named his new home Orchard House.

The Orchard House recipe for apple slump calls for tart apples baked with brown sugar and spices beneath a buttery, cake-like topping. Served warm or cooled, it can be finished with whipped cream, ice cream, or maple syrup.

West Concord has never been a place that stood still. Its identity has been shaped and reshaped by the Assabet River, mills and factories, railroads, a prison, farms, shopkeepers, artists, and entrepreneurs. Buildings have repeatedly found new purposes; new arrivals have affixed their own layers, adding to what came before.

Few people have watched that process longer than Maynard Forbes. He arrived in West Concord in 1951 at fourteen and, nearly seventy-five years later, still describes the village in terms of three forces that preceded him: “The railroad, the prison, and industry. Those are the entities that developed West Concord as we know it today.”

Discover West Concord and find surprises on every corner. From great food to eclectic shops, activities for kids, the arts, and more. West Concord has so much to offer!

Have you ever wondered about the stately brick building across from the Colonial Inn at 58 Monument Square? This landmark, standing since 1820, is more than a daily sight—it’s a testament to Concord’s rich history and the enduring legacy of Freemasonry.

To truly appreciate this building, let’s journey back to a pivotal moment in history. 

In Concord, caring for an old house can mean caring for a piece of American history.

That was certainly true when Target Painting was called to work on the historic Daniel Chester French House, built around 1787. French became on of America’s most celebrated sculptors. His Minute Man statue, unveiled at Concord’s North Bridge in 1875, became an American icon; decades later, he created the monumental statue of a seated Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.

Seven years ago, in the first issue of Discover Concord, we introduced readers to Kristin Canty—entrepreneur, filmmaker, farmer, restaurateur, mother of four, and passionate advocate for changing the way we think about food.

Even then, Canty was thinking big. Today, the ideas she put into practice in West Concord have reached one of the culinary world’s most respected stages. Woods Hill Pier 4, her restaurant overlooking Boston Harbor, has earned a MICHELIN Guide recommendation—an impressive milestone in a journey that began close to home.

In 1989, opening a store devoted to organic foods, natural remedies, bulk ingredients, and environmentally responsible products was hardly an obvious business proposition. But Debra Stark knew that you could feed your family—and that it could still be delicious—with nothing artificial, nothing chemical, no refined sugars or flours. The idea was clean food, period. Thirty-seven years later, it is difficult to imagine West Concord without Debra’s Natural Gourmet.

In this series, we highlight the many gifted artists who contribute to the deep creative culture of Concord and recognize the organizations dedicated to supporting the arts. Today we invite you to meet Yue Hua and Quincey Spagnoletti, two of seven current artists-in-residence at Umbrella Arts.

You see the names all over town: Musketaquid, Nashawtuc, Nashoba, Squaw Sachem. These words invite us to learn the stories of the people who lived in this place for thousands of years before English settlers arrived.

The English named this place Concord in 1635, but it had long been known by the region’s first peoples as Musketaquid. In the Algonquian language, the name means “grassy river” or “grassy island,” and the Sudbury, Assabet, and Concord Rivers have always been the lifeblood of the land. As Lemuel Shattuck recounts in his 1835 History of Concord, the local people lived “[by] planting, hunting, or fishing . . . and few places produced a supply more easily than Musketaquid.” ¹

Discover the arts this fall and enjoy a season of music, dance, theatre, and more.

Test your knowledge of Concord Trivia!

Step into history as you explore Concord’s many remarkable sites. From Revolutionary War landmarks to literary treasures, there’s something for everyone to discover. Here is a quick reference list to help you plan your visit. Be sure to check the website before heading out, as some sites may be closed on holidays or for private events. Enjoy your journey through Concord’s rich past!

Fall is a lovely and comfortable season, with cooler and drier days and, of course, the obvious colors of brilliant, beautiful foliage. We even have many flowers still blooming, adding to the eye candy. How do we get to take it all in? By getting out, perhaps with cameras or simply our imagination, to find some very nice subjects and places. Knowing of or finding special places is helpful when looking for colorful vistas, such as the bog at Gowing’s Swamp, with its red cranberries and yellow larch trees, or a red maple at Heywood’s Meadow.