Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), transcendental philosopher, poet, and lecturer, moved into this house with his wife, Lidian, shortly after their marriage in 1835. Here, Emerson composed his most important written works, including the final draft of his groundbreaking essay “Nature” in 1836 and “Self-Reliance” in 1841.

The property, called “Bush,” included the house, a barn, and two acres of land. Emerson renovated the house, added two rooms, and expanded his property to encompass a total of nine acres. In the rear is a garden that slopes down the meadow to Mill Brook. A trail through the back of the property and across Mill Brook led to Walden Woods, one of Emerson’s favorite places to walk.

Emerson’s new residence helped make Concord, Massachusetts the center of American Transcendentalism, home of the Concord authors, and the place that sparked a new literary renaissance. He lived in the house until his death in 1882.

The house stayed in the Emerson family until 1930, when Emerson’s son, Edward, died. The Ralph Waldo Emerson Memorial Association was established to maintain and manage the Emerson house and property as a museum. Except for the study, all of the rooms remain as they were following a fire and subsequent restoration in 1873. The original contents of the study were removed to the Concord Museum and replaced by replicas.

The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962.

Following In Thoreau’s Footsteps

This house was the home of Henry David Thoreau’s mentor and friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson from 1835 until his death on April 27, 1882. The home became not only a place for Emerson’s study and writing, but a literary center for the emerging American Transcendentalist movement. Bronson Alcott (and his daughter Louisa), Margaret Fuller, Theodore Parker, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, and Nathanial Hawthorne were just some of the famous writers and reformers who were frequent visitors to the home during Emerson’s lifetime.

Thoreau himself lived here twice, from 1841 to 1843, and for one year after he left Walden Pond in September 1847 while Emerson was abroad on a lecture tour. The small bedroom at the of the stairs (now a modern bathroom) was Thoreau’s private room. It was while living here that Thoreau wrote a lecture called “The Relation of the Individual to the State”; it was an account of his one night in jail in the summer of 1846 and the reasons for his incarceration. That lecture would be published as “Resistance to Civil Government” in 1849, and in 1866 (four years after Thoreau’s death) it would be published under the better known title of “Civil Disobedience”.

Today, the house is a museum. It contains original furniture, books,  and objects of the Emerson family. The Ralph Waldo Emerson Memorial Association, formed in 1930 by family members and others associated with Emerson’s library and work, owns the House and the Emerson family papers, and is responsible for maintaining the house and for promoting interest in Emerson’s literary works.

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.