Beauty Abounds in Concord’s Gardens: The 34th Annual Concord Museum Garden Tour June 2-3, 2023

March 15, 2023

The Concord Museum’s Guild of Volunteers

The annual Concord Museum Garden Tour, organized by the Museum’s Guild of Volunteers, has been a tradition for more than 30 years. Garden Tour participants can visit several of Concord’s most beautiful private gardens on a self-guided tour over two days.

Historic Buttrick Gardens

May 15, 2021

Kathleen Fahey

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The stunning blooms of the Buttrick Gardens offer a colorful respite to visitors of Minute Man National Historical Park. Developed during the early 20^th century, the gardens were tended by several generations of the Buttrick family until 1963 when the National Park Service acquired the property. The Buttrick house now serves as the North Bridge Visitor Center and the gardens overlook the North Bridge, the location of one of the first battles of the American Revolution on April 19, 1775. The gardens attract 500,000 visitors annually from near and far and are regularly enjoyed by the local community.

Harvard’s Year of Exile

Lexington and Concord. April 19, 1775. Where and when the Revolutionary War started is well known. Not so well known is the fact that Harvard played an important, if odd, role afterward in the early days of the Revolution, turning its campus over to the nascent American army. On May 1, 1775, undergraduates were dismissed and given an early summer vacation. Classes resumed on Oct. 5 in Concord, 20 miles away — the beginning of a wartime academic sojourn.

The Spring Issue is Here!

Patriots' Day is almost here, and this issue of Discover Concord brings you a list of events, the parade route, and much more to make your celebration special. Also in this issue is an in-depth look at the new PBS documentary "Henry David Thoreau," a fascinating piece on how the Concord Lyceum came to be, and a look at how Massachusetts civilians on the homefront managed the challenging months of January - May 1776. Freedom's Way National Heritage Area is launching an exciting program you won't want to miss called "Declaring Independence: Then & Now" in more than 20 towns across Massachusetts. With two special fold-out inserts, maps, lists of shops, and so much more, you'll want to get your copy early!

TriCon at 200: Faith in Action Since 1826

This year, the Trinitarian Congregational Church (TriCon) on Walden Street is celebrating its 200th anniversary. However, from the early days of Concord’s founding in 1635, there was only one meeting house, and that was First Church in the center of town. In 1778, Reverend Ezra Ripley assumed the pastorate, a position he would hold for 63 years. By 1825, First Parish, like many Congregational churches in Massachusetts, had changed, adopting a Unitarian theology. But not all parishioners were happy with “Dr. Ripley’s church” or his unorthodox preaching. In March 1826, nine dissenters, joined by seven townspeople, left First Parish to form their own “religious conference.”