Concord, MA Summary

This stately eastern Massachusetts town, settled in 1635, has a central place in the annals of early US history as the battleground where “the shot heard ‘round the world” was fired. In 1774, it hosted the colony’s first county convention and the first Massachusetts Provincial Congress that protested aspects of British rule.

On April 19, 1775, the Battle of Concord between British troops and colonial Minutemen, civilian volunteers who had vowed to fight the British on a minute’s notice, launched the military phase of the Revolutionary War. (An earlier skirmish that morning at Lexington, about 5 miles east of Concord, was the first military clash of the Revolution.)

Some 800 British troops headed to Concord to capture or destroy the large cache of military supplies the colonists had stored there. Patriots Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Samuel Prescott had warned the militia of the impending attack. About 300 to 400 militia resisted the British advance at the North Bridge over the Concord River, with several losses on both sides. Finally, pursued by growing numbers of militia, the British retreated under steady gunfire to Boston.

Despite the arrival of reinforcements at Lexington, the British suffered more than 270 casualties in the retreat, the colonists fewer than 100. The latter’s real victory lay in showing they could and would fight. The events are recalled at Concord-based Minute Man National Historic Park, 900 acres along original segments of what came to be known as Battle Road.

In the 1800s Concord was a literary and cultural center. It was home to Amos Bronson Alcott, who ran a school of philosophy, and his novelist daughter, Louisa May Alcott. Orchard House, where she wrote Little Women, is now open to the public. Sleepy Hollow Cemetery is the final resting place of the Alcotts, Emerson, French, Hawthorne, and Thoreau.

Visitors can also take guided tours through The Old Manse, built in 1770 by the grandfather of writer and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson and named by another literary figure, Nathaniel Hawthorne, who lived in the house from 1842 to 1845. Just south of Concord is Walden Pond, immortalized by essayist Henry David Thoreau, who lived there from 1845 to 1847. Walden Pond Reservation is on Hwy 126.

Concord was also home to renowned sculptor Daniel Chester French, who created The Minute Man of Concord and the statue of a seated Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.

About 1850, Ephraim W. Bull developed the popular Concord grape here.

The city of about 17,100 residents maintains its New England charm with many historic homes and sites. Visitors can take a walking tour, or even take to the Concord River in a canoe; this is an especially popular activity when the forests by the river are displaying their colorful fall foliage. Other points of interest include the Concord Museum and Emerson House, where Ralph Waldo Emerson lived from 1835 until his death in 1882.

Concord, which is now largely a residential suburb northwest of Boston, can be reached via scenic Hwys 119 and 2A (Lexington Road), which passes through Minute Man National Historic Site and links Concord with Lexington.

Commuter train service to Concord is available from Boston’s North Station.