Gropius House and More

Anne was off to Nantucket for a few days to vista her friend, Debbie.I t was imperative that I do some kind of adventure ... just to prove that I was capable of having fun even when she was gone. I researched the Concord, MA area to see if there were several good things to see to fill a day. It looked doable.

My research kept me up a little later than I had planned, result being that I slept later the next morning as well. The first stop for my adventure was the Ralph Waldo Emerson House in Concord. In order to catch the early tour, I had to skip breakfast and go directly there. On our last trip to Concord, we had planned to visit the Emerson House, but ran out of time. We learned on that visit about Emerson's connections with the Alcotts and Hawthorne and that made us want to find out more. The tour was informative and interesting, but told me surprisingly little about Emerson's writing or his friendship with Bronson Alcott. We have been on quite a few tours of historic house lately and have been lucky to have had excellent docents at each of those places. I have to admit that the docents here were rather matter-of-fact and did not seem to have the passion for their topic like other places we have been. Nevertheless, the house is worth the visit, especially if you can combine it with the Wayside (Hawthornes' House), Orchard House (Alcott's house) and possibly Fruitlands Museum (Alcott's experiental school).

It was a short drive to Lexington for the next stop at the Gropius House. Gropius was the German architect that originated the bauhaus style of architecture. Gropius was one of the lucky ones that was able to get out of Germany in 1936 before WWII. The speculation is that when Harvard offered him the chair of the architecture department, Gropius made a case for the glory of having a German heading the architecture department at a major US university … especially since he was replacing a Frenchman. Hitler must have bought the argument for he let Gropius leave but froze all of his bank accounts. The house and the tour were great.



This is definitely a great place to visit … especially if you plan a like visit to the Freylinghusen  House in Lenox,  MA, another bauhaus style home.

If there was a flaw in this adventure plan, I would have to say it was that I built in no time for meals. Like breakfast, there was no time for lunch ... so I grabbed a couple apples from the trees at Gropius House and hit the road for the next spot, Walden Pond. I have been here a couple of times and love visiting there. Great place to just relax! Stopped by the gift shop to pick up a Thoreau t-shirt before I unloaded the kayak on the pond. Simplicity … ah, so true.













Walden Pond was beautiful … sun shining, lake calm, and toasty warm. Lots of swimmers and picnickers. Foliage around the lake was just starting to color.











                 

Couldn't resist stacking a few stones along the shoreline before I left.

One last stop before heading home for some dinner… I must admit I was getting really hungry (no disrespect to the apples).  Realized I could take a shortcut on the Mohawk Trail to get to Jacksonville and Lake Sadawaga for a little fishing before dark. Why not? 

 It was a good day.

Nantucket has nothing on me!