When? Weekends and Major Holidays: April 17 - October 31.
Time: All tours start
at 2 P.M. and last until
4 P.M (weather permitting). Please be there at
least 15 minutes early.
Where? Meet in Concord
Center across from the flagpole in Monument Square in front of St. Bernard's
Church and the Old Hill Burying Ground, on Lexington road and Bedford Street (one block
from the Colonial Inn).
How
Much?
Adults
$15
College Students and Senior Citizens
(65+)
$12
Youth (11-18)
$10
Children (6-10)
$5
Tots (5 and
under with parents)
Free
Families (immediate)
$35
(maximum price)
Special
Group Rates and Guides for bus tours available upon request.
Map of Concord
Directions to
Concord The town of Concord is located about 20 miles west of Boston and
off Route 2, and is close to Routes 128 and 495. There is also a train from North Station that
brings you directly to Concord Center. For more detailed instructions please call:
(978)287-0897
Why Us? Our Licensed Concord Guides are knowledgeable, experienced and
enthusiastic Concord area teachers, authors, historians, historic
reanacters, and other professionals, eager to share with
you Concord's unique historic, literary and natural heritage.
Highlights of Your Tour
* Welcome Orientation
to Concord's unique historic, literary and natural heritage as well as visitor's sites.
* North Bridge and Minuteman National Park, Visitor's Center, Minute
Man Statue (1875), The Old Manse (1770), "Bullet Hole House"
* "American
Mile" - 1600's & 1700's Settlers Houses on Lexington Road; First Parish Church
(1711, 1901)
* Author's Houses - Emerson ( built in 1828), Thoreau, the
Alcotts' ( built in 1750), Hawthorne, The Wayside ( built in 1717)
* Battle
Road, route of the British entry into and then retreat from Concord on April 19,
1775.
* Concord Village (the "Milldam" 1635 - 1828): Shops and Restaurants;
South Burying Ground (1690's), Concord Free Public Library(1873)
* Sleepy
Hollow Cemetery and Author's Ridge; (optional) R.I.P. Concord's
Transcendentalist literary immortals
* Concord River, Mill Brook, Walden
Pond (bus only)
* Monument Square - Town House (1852), Colonial Inn
(1716), Wright Tavern (1747), Town Green, monuments to Concordians killed in six
wars.
Guided Walking
Tours in Concord "Stroll Through History Today!" Concords
Past Walk where Concord was born; where huge glaciers helped form rivers,
ponds, and hills over 20,000 years ago. Walk where Native Americans settled over 10,000
years ago, where the Sudbury and Assabet Rivers converge to form the Concord River.
Native Americans called their village "Musketaquid" ("reedy river" in
Algonquin).
Colonial Concord Stroll through the early history of
Concord. The town was founded in 1635 on a piece of land "6 myles square," bought from
the Native Americans (in a treaty or "concord" or agreement) by Simon Willard, a merchant
from Kent, England.
Revolutionary Concord March to and cross
over the North Bridge, where on April 19, 1775, Minute Men and militia from Concord and
27 neighboring Massachusetts villages and towns openly resisted British Army Regulars for
the first time in history. This set in motion the American Revolution, which led to America's
independence from England in 1783.
Literary Concord Saunter on
the same Concord streets where in the mid-1800's some of America's most famous writers;
Henry David Thoreau, Lousia May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne,
Margaret Fuller and their friends, strolled together. These Village streets are surprisingly
little changed today, over 150 years later, due to Concordians' successful preservation efforts
through many generations.
Natural/Historic
Concord Learn about today's controversial battles to preserve Concord's unique
natural and historic heritage, including Walden Pond and Woods, Estabrook Woods, the
Concord River, The Mill Brook, Heywood Meadow, Great Meadows, Thoreau's Virginia
Road birth place house, and Daniel Chester French's home and sculpture studio. The
developmental needs of a "real life" town of 16,000 people must be constantly balanced with
the need to preserve Concord's unique heritage. This continuos balancing act is often
contentious, at times fruitless, sometimes successful, sometimes inspiring - but never
dull!
Today's Concord Today's Concord still retains its small town
atmosphere. Visitors can still stroll on the same Milldam (Main Street), little changed today
from when Emerson and Thoreau sauntered here over 150 years ago and where British
Regulars marched into Concord and from where they retreated back to Boston, pursued by
the Patriot Militia and Minute Men in the "Running Skirmish" battle 225 years ago.
Concord welcomes its visitors to share in its unique rich heritage and the beauty of its
natural surroundings.
Concordians have a strong sense of history, as well as an
active involvement in the present, coupled with an intense desire to meet the future
creatively, as we all approach the New Millennium together.
