Boston's Newest Tour: The Literary Trail

Offered by the Boston History Collaborative, this brand new (this month) three-hour theme tour can be viewed at this site and must be booked in advance for the second Saturday only of any month. Note both a guided (bus) and a self-guided version with book. We took the bus tour, which leaves from Omni Parker House, School St. entrance, at 9:00 am.

Pre-determined highlights include Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's house in Cambridge, perchance a stop at the gift shop there; the Concord Museum with a guided tour by Henry David Thoreau himself (honest); and a guided tour of Bronson Alcott's home, where Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women and others. At each location, a special student of that particular author makes his presentation in just half an hour, and then it's back in the bus for more intelligent commentary from a member of the Boston History Collaborative. No story of early Boston literary history is left untold. Since Longfellow's House is a National Historic Site, a park ranger may be on the premises--lucky for you, for he is absolutely the best speaker possible on the subject of the importance of this country's intellectual independence.

Quick Tips:

Do not shop on any of your 3 stops. As the tour director will probably warn you in advance, the bus will leave without you if you get stuck in a checkout line. Go back later on your own or return to the shop's website when you get home. I held up the bus at the first stop because the cashier had trouble with an electronic entry on her register, and the entire bus heard about it for the rest of the morning--repeatedly! I'm so sorry!

Best Way To Get Around:

The tour starts at 9:00 am at the Omni Parker House on School Street. Take the subway to the State Street stop and walk towards the Granary Burial Ground on the Commons. If you choose the self-guided version, note advice in that entry in this journal.

Some of the greatest writers had the most perfect houses, and this one is a national treasure. The disappointing thing about "The Literary Trail" was that we couldn't really "tour" it! I believe we were led in the back door and out the front--a path from the giftshop through the hallway of the home. We stopped in the hallway, where we could "look" into two rooms, one on the right and one on the left, the parlor and Longfellow's study. After five minutes in the hallway, we were led into the yard, where the park ranger told us to "Gather round" and gave us an amazingly inspired speech on the importance of this home and of Longfellow and the other Cambridge artists who visited him here. In other words, this site was the birthplace of American ideas, of a distinctive and independent intellect. George Washington stayed here while he drove the Tories out of Boston, and that was the beginning of the intellectual revolution. We applauded his talk and took pictures of the ranger, as well as the house.

So, most of our half-hour at the Longfellow House was spent in the yard, but it was a wonderful and perfect old yard. The giant linden tree planted by Longfellow's wife is there, as well as an herb garden that I believe archaeology reconstructed as it was in the poet's day. Walking around the house, we found plenty of photo opps, as you can see.

One should not see this major site via "The Literary Trail" tour alone. It is certainly worth a trip back to Cambridge in the afternoon. Take the subway to Harvard Square and walk only a few blocks from there.

Our tour focused on only the literary items in the Museum, mostly some belongings of Henry David Thoreau. Boston has its literary and political "actors," you know, who "play" everyone from Ben Franklin to Thoreau. So this present day Thoreau told us about himself and then let us ask questions. He dispelled some myths and told some true stories in their place, most of them concerning Thoreau's relationship with Emerson and the contrast of their personalities. Anyone who was forced to read these characters in American lit class would appreciate the verbal frollick.

As with Longfellow House and Alcott House, we were forewarned not to tarry in the giftshop, so we didn't. We hurried back to the bus, anticipating that we would soon see Walden Pond, but if we drove past it, the tour guide must have been too busy talking about something else to point it out. We missed it, as well as a few other points on the tour. As we left the Concord Museum for Louisa May Alcott's house, we were made aware that our tour was not on schedule. Since this was the first run for this tour, I imagine it will be revised or managed differently in the future.

Orchard House is a little smaller and not quite as perfect as the house in the movie, which I believe was a home in Sturbridge Village. Still, I had trouble picturing Louisa May Alcott here with her mother, instead of Winona Ryder with Susan Sarandon. Which sister was it did the artwork? It's there! Remember Dad, who was away at battle in the Civil War? That was really Louisa, who volunteered as a nurse. And, actually, Louisa was in her twenties when the family moved into this house, where she wrote her novels, but picturing her childhood here was an artistic choice--perhaps she thought the house was just so perfect she wanted to remember her whole life with her family as though it had happened here.

The house definitely has its charm! The curtains, linens, pictures, all are displayed and arranged with historical accuracy. The sister's drawings on the walls, all there. Even Bronson Alcott's "school" he built and taught in there in the back yard. This was the highlight of "The Literary Trail" for most of the guests, though I had to vote for Longfellow's house. This cultural site somehow communicates the great love and admiration American has for Louisa May Alcott.

This tour is an exercise in appreciation of the spirit of independence that began in Boston to define this country--that's what the tour guide told us. She was referring to the difficulty in scheduling more than the three stops along the way, since the museum homes in Cambridge & Concord refuse to open and close at about the same time. Some do not open until noon, when the tour is finished. I and my companion found this curious in a city so full of history. We also found it disappointing, since Boston's public transit doesn't go to these sites in Concord. Some of our country's most important literary and historic sites, then, are inaccessible to tourists using either public transit or regularly-scheduled tours. Even worse, if you make great effort and go to great expense to visit a site such as the Old Manse on your own, you may not find it dependably open.

So, if you want to tour a site out in Concord, better call first to make sure it will be open when you get there. The web address above lists 17 sites (with links) on this tour and explains the self-guided tour, which is only $19, instead of $30. You can visit each website individually, check hours and directions, and decide if you want to navigate yourself in and around Boston. You may be able to see more--if you live through the experience! (Boston web sites do warn tourists not to drive in Boston anytime soon.) However, if you go on your own, you can visit the sites the tour only drives by.