Built in 1820, this brick structure was both the Masonic Corinthian Lodge, which was chartered in 1797 by Revolutionary hero Paul Revere, and the Concord Center School House; while the first floor was where classes were held, the second and third floors were used as the Masonic temple. The Concord Lyceum also presented lectures here on occasion, and among the speakers sometimes was Henry Thoreau.

Thoreau attended school here as a child, and it was here that he took his first teaching job upon graduating from Harvard in 1837. He resigned the position after only two weeks because of a dispute with the school board over the use of corporal punishment, which Thoreau was against. But his time as a teacher was not over; afterward he and his older brother John opened their own private academy, first in the home where the family was living, and then in a building they called Concord Academy. It was there that Henry and John introduced progressive educational techniques such as nature walks and visits to shops and local businesses, using the entire village and its surrounding landscape as their classroom.

In 1875 the downstairs rooms of the Masonic temple were used by Abigail May Alcott, the youngest sister of Louisa May Alcott, as an art school to support and promote emerging artists. Today, the building is still in use as a Masonic temple.

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.