Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House
Experience the historic home of the extraordinary Alcott family, where Louisa May Alcott wrote and set Little Women
The parlor includes many original furnishings
Louisa’s Bedroom with Bronson’s half-moon desk on the left and May’s calla lilies running up the wall next to it. May’s painted baby owl perches above the fireplace.
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
Louisa May Alcott (1832 – 1888) is known as an American novelist. She is best known as the author of the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys. Louisa May Alcott grew up among many of the well-known intellectuals of the day such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau. Her work has been required reading in American classrooms for over a century. Her most influential work, Little Women, was published in 1868.
Located on the Lexington Road, the two houses and 12 acres of land were purchased by Amos Bronson Alcott. The family lived in this farmhouse which also contained an orchard of forty apple trees. This house has been well-preserved and appears much as it did when Alcott lived here. The house serves as a museum with period furniture and other items that were owned by the Alcott family as well as artifacts from the life of Louisa May Alcott.