Built in 1850 for $16,000, this brick building has been the epicenter of Concord’s municipal activities since it opened in 1851. It originally housed not only the Concord town offices but also the town’s first public library, two classrooms and a large hall for public functions, including Lyceum lectures. From 1860 to 1888 the first floor was used as an armory. As the meeting place for the Concord Lyceum, many of the 19th Century’s most famous lecturers graced its stage, including Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louis Agassiz, Horace Greeley, Abolitionist Wendell Phillips, and Henry Ward Beecher. Abolitionist John Brown spoke here twice, in 1857 and in 1859, at the request of local anti-slavery societies.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was the Lyceum’s most frequent speaker, and Henry Thoreau lectured here twice. He read an address on “The Martyrdom of John Brown ” (against the advice of many people in town) on the day of Brown’s execution, December 2, 1859.  And on September 20, 1860 he read his paper on “The Succession of Forest Trees” for the Middlesex County Agricultural Society for their annual Cattle Show. This was the last lecture that Thoreau would ever give in Concord and his second to last lecture ever.

Today, the building is still the center of Concord town government where  the town offices are located and where the town Selectmen hold their meetings.

This site is included on the itinerary Following in Thoreau’s Footsteps: Exploring the Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area created by The Thoreau Society with support from the Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area Partnership Grants Program.