{"nrhp_refnum":"80000356","name":"Wayside, The","other_names":["Home of Authors"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"455 Lexington Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Concord","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.45923181950005,"lon":-71.33356354816519,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-07-11","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1985-02-04","areas_of_significance":["Literature","Architecture","Philosophy","Social History"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The Wayside is a colonial-era house and grounds at 455 Lexington Road in Concord, Massachusetts, built before 1717 and now part of Minute Man National Historical Park. The roughly 4.5-acre property includes the house, a barn, a well, a Hawthorne centenary monument and the remains of a slave's quarters.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is significant as the home of three 19th-century American authors: Bronson and Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Harriett Lothrop (Margaret Sidney), earning it the name 'Home of Authors'. It is also tied to the Transcendentalist circle in Concord. Its architectural interest comes from alterations made by each notable owner.","narrative":"Built before 1717 on Lexington Road in Concord, The Wayside grew from a colonial lean-to house into a layered home shaped by its owners. Bronson Alcott's family, including his daughter Louisa May Alcott, lived there from 1845 to 1848 and added dormers, wings and garden structures. Nathaniel Hawthorne bought it in 1852, named it The Wayside, and added a three-story tower study and other rooms after returning from England. In 1883 Daniel and Harriett Lothrop acquired the property; Harriett wrote the Five Little Peppers books as Margaret Sidney. The Lothrops added a west piazza in 1887 and modernized the house. This succession of writers gave it the name Home of Authors, and the house is also linked to Emerson and Thoreau through visits to the Alcotts and Hawthornes. The house is kept as it appeared in 1924, with a barn, grounds and archaeological remains of a former slave's house nearby, within Minute Man National Historical Park.","period_of_significance":"1700-1799, 1800-1899, 1900-","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Administered by the National Park Service as part of Minute Man National Historical Park since 1965; maintained as it appeared in 1924, with the barn serving as the visitor orientation center.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.86682-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/85/7959/63795985/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/80000356.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000356/30085e97cd-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80000356/30085e97cd-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"National Park Service Digital Image Archives","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Minute_Man_National_Historical_Park_MIMA2669.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">National Park Service Digital Image Archives</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Minute_Man_National_Historical_Park_MIMA2669.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795985","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wayside","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3523325"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/wayside-the-80000356/"}