Location: Concord, MA
Client: The Trustees of Reservations

Brown, Richardson + Rowe assisted the Trustees of Reservations with site planning for The Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts. The manse was built in 1770 by Reverend William Emerson. The manse building, gardens, historic entry, trees, stone walls, fields, boathouse, and orchards are all character defining features of this cultural landscape. The property is associated with the 1775 battle at the North Bridge and is registered as a National Historic Landmark property, a Massachusetts Historic Landmark, and is listed as a contributing building to the Minute Man National Park Historic Registration with significance in military history, literature and architecture. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote the first draft of his book of essays, Nature, in this house, and Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne lived there from 1842-1845. Mr. Hawthorne described the property as “our Paradise.” Landscape design services associated with this project include providing for accessible circulation, parking improvements, fencing, and planting, all of which will be appropriately scaled, detailed, and contextually appropriate for this historically and ecologically sensitive site. In addition, the restoration of landscape conditions present within the period of significance (as evidenced by extensive photographic and literary documentation) but currently absent are being explored.