Go Transcendental for A Day

Are there times when the frenetic rush of urban life makes your head want to explode? When the cell phone rings at the exact same moment the cappuccino maker steams your café latte while the road crew outside begins breaking up the sidewalk with a jackhammer, there may be only one cure: go Transcendental.  For those of us whose high school English courses may be a bit farther off than we’d like to admit, the Transcendentalists were a highly radical group of nineteenth-century philosophers and writers whose writings were centered around an appreciation for nature and the desire to find one’s place in the universe.  Their former homes clustered in the bucolic town of Concord, Massachusetts make a perfect setting for a day of getting back to your inner peace.

10:00 a.m. – Although Henry David Thoreau, one of the most well-known Transcendentalists advocated getting up very early and beginning the day with a naked swim in the often chilly Walden Pond, we do not.  Instead, prepare your mind and soul for its Transcendental journey with morning coffee and a pastry at the Back Alley Café on Walden Street.  After breakfast, walk 4/10 of a mile east on the Lexington Road to the Concord Museum.

10:30 – The best overview to the town of Concord and the Transcendentalists can be had at the Concord Museum at 200 Lexington Avenue.  Walk through the easy to follow exhibits featuring Thoreau’s furniture from his Walden house and a recreation of fellow Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson’s study.  You can also take a quick tour through Emerson’s house which is just across the street from the museum.

11: 30 – Make your way 6/10 of a mile down the Lexington Road to house number 455.  This home was home to both Bronson Alcott, with his daughter, Louisa May Alcott, as well as Nathaniel Hawthorne.  There is a fascinating display in the same barn where Louisa May would present their plays – just like she describes in Little Women.  Tours of the main house are given regularly and feature Hawthorne’s “Sky Tower,” his third story addition where he thought he could have the solitude to write.  Unfortunately, he died shortly after the tower was finished and never used it much.

12:30 – Next door to the Wayside is the Orchards, the home of the Alcotts while Louisa May wrote Little Women.  Although suffering the ravages of time and ill-conceived engineering, the house still provides a fascinating glimpse into one of the nineteenth century’s most creatively talented American families.  It is also embarking on a multi-million dollar renovation.  Be sure to visit Bronson Alcott’s Hillside Chapel where he ran the Concord School of Philosophy.  From the Orchards, it is an easy mile-long walk back into town for lunch.

1:00  -- Forging one’s own individual relationship with the universe is tough work and after a morning of exploring, the Main Street Market and Café at 42 Main Street offers just the type of hearty New England soups and sandwiches that provide nourishment for the soul.  The home baked cookies help too.

The Old Manse

2:00 – Just 7/10 of a mile up Monument Street is one of the more storied houses in Concord.  Near to the site of “the shot heard round the world” that kicked off the American Revolution, the house at 269 Monument Street (affectionately known by the authors as “The Old Manse”) was home to both Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne.  Thoreau planted the garden.  Tours explain the details of both men’s stays at the Manse, the reason for its name, and why the Hawthorne’s scratched their names into the glass on the windows.  After the tour, it is a worthwhile and fun walk to cross the North Bridge to see and Daniel Chester French statue of the Minute Man and enjoy historic paths.

Minuteman on Bridge

4:00 – After the crowds of the day have gone, you can almost have Walden Pond to yourself.  Although it is possible to drive there and park next to the gift shop, I suggest following Walden Avenue for a little over a mile until you come to the intersection at Route 2.  Once across Route 2 at the lights, you can head straight into the wood on your right.  Evening is the perfect time to walk the paths around the lake and venture out to Thoreau’s cove and the site of his house.  Be sure to bring a stone from home to add to the rock cairn there as tribute to America’s finest nature writer and Transcendental model.

Thoreau's house, Walden Pond

6:00 – When hunger begins to disturb your Transcendental meditations, make your way back to the Walden Grille at 24 Walden Street in town for dinner.  The Transcendentalists were not particularly known for their culinary skills (Thoreau once set fire to three hundred acres of forest while trying to cook a fish chowder), so be thankful the most Transcendental element of this part of the day is the name of the restaurant.

Where To:  Eat

Back Alley Café        Main Street Market        Walden Grille
Walden Street           42 Main Street              24 Walden Street

Where To:  Go

Concord Museum        The Wayside                 The Orchards
Concord Turnpike       455 Lexington Road     Lexington Road

The Old Manse        Walden Pond

What To:  Read
Nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson
Walden, or, Life in the Woods, Henry David Thoreau
Mosses from an Old Manse, Nathaniel Hawthorne

Robert Todd Felton is the Literary Travels Editor for Wandering Educator, and the author of the book, A Journey into the Transcendentalists' New England.

Felton can be followed on Twitter
@rtfelton.

All photos courtesy and copyright of Robert Todd Felton