In September 1844 John Thoreau, Sr. purchased a ¾ acre lot on what would eventually become Belknap Street in Concord, Massachusetts for $25.00. A few days later he mortgaged the property for $500 and his son, Henry, dug the cellar and lined it with stones before a two story home was moved onto the property. The shanties of some Irish railroad workers were also moved to the property and converted into the family’s pencil shop.

Belknap Street was then called Texas Street because it was considered to be the outskirts of town and so far away from the village it might as well have been in Texas. Of all the homes that the Thoreaus had lived in, this was the first one that they actually owned!  It was while the family lived in the “Texas House” that Thoreau was at Walden from July 1845 to the fall of 1847. The home was near the newly laid Boston to Fitchburg railroad line and train station, and Thoreau would walk along the tracks from the Pond when he would visit his family.

In 1850 the family sold the “Texas House” and bought the so-called “Yellow House” at 255 Main Street. The Texas house no longer exists. It was owned by several families well into the 20th Century, and a fire seriously damaged the house in the 1930’s. It sat as a ruin until it was torn down in 1961.

The Texas House is no longer standing but its site would have been located beside the house at 156 Belknap Street. Please respect this private property.

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.