It is rare to find the very home where a beloved feminist author penned her most famous work, Little Women—a novel that has never been out of print for over a century and has been translated into more than 50 languages. Rarer still is to find that home still preserved just as she and her family left it, filled with their personal belongings. Add to that a rich history spanning centuries, and you have Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts.
In 1910, the home of one of the world’s most beloved authors was up for sale and likely to be demolished. It had been built in the mid-1600s and had been vacant for years. “Private Property” and “No Trespassing” signs were nearly obscured by tall grass, giving the overall impression of sad dilapidation. The real estate prospectus read, “perfect site for a new mansion.”
Concord boasts several house museums, but one stands apart as a place of pilgrimage. Filled with authentic Alcott furniture and belongings, Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House, where Little Women was written and set, looks and feels as if the family just stepped out for a moment.
“Little Womensaved my life…twice.” The woman who uttered these amazing words as I was leaving Orchard House late one summer evening had just landed at Logan Airport from Korea and drove directly here.
Although the setting of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women is Orchard House, The Wayside is where much of the action takes place. The Alcotts owned the property from 1845-1852, naming it Hillside. Because the house has been renovated many times since 1852, it is difficult to imagine how it appeared during the time of the Alcotts. Fortunately, because of the work of Margaret Lothrop and Minute Man National Historical Park, writings describe Hillside in detail, both inside and out. Another vital document by ten-year-old Elizabeth Sewall Alcott provides an eyewitness account of daily life at the home. Her record of the three years she lived there is her only surviving journal and provides another look at how the “little women” lived.
What was your response to Little Women? Did you write it down? Is there a record from your grandmothers, mothers, or aunts? So many readers remember their first impressions of the iconic tale, documenting that experience in diaries, letters, or school projects. Independent scholars Susan Bailey and Lorraine Tosiello have set out to collect these responses for posterity.
“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents, grumbled Jo . . .” The irony — the beautiful irony — of Louisa May Alcott’s opening words in Little Women is striking, as the ultimate message of the book is quite the opposite of its iconic opening line. Readers of Little Women simply begin a journey that leads to a boldly empowering expansion of the heart. We follow along with the March sisters as they learn to care for others, even while struggling with their own desires and disappointments, and we identify with their experiences. Whether enacting a play for an audience in their parlor, or preparing to give their Christmas breakfast feast to a needy family, our mind’s eye envisions the girls’ widening realization that caring for something other than self and sharing what gifts they possess are far more fulfilling than receiving presents.
The Concord Players trace their roots to Louisa May Alcott who, along with her sisters, founded the Concord Dramatic Union in 1857. The Alcotts performed their plays, many of them original, in the parlor of their home at Orchard House and in the homes of friends in the town.
