Tour of Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House With Special Guest Author Marcia Young

Included With Your Ticket:

• 45 minute tour of Orchard House
• A signed copy of "Visit House Museums: Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket" by Marcia Young
• Q&A time with Marcia Young
• Light lunch at the Colonial Inn with one non-alcoholic beverage

Suggested to Bring With You:

• Bottle of water
• Walking shoes
• Hat

Parking at Orchard House:

• If parking spaces along the front of Orchard House are filled, additional parking is available in a large lot one short block away from us on Hawthorne Lane.  A crosswalk allows safe passage across Lexington Road.  Please do not park on Alcott Road or block neighbor driveways.

Parking at Colonial Inn:

• It's a two minute drive from Orchard House to the Colonial Inn.
• Metered street parking is available by the Colonial Inn.

About Orchard House

In 1857, Amos Bronson Alcott purchased 12 acres of land with a manor house that had been on the property since the 1660s for $945.  He then moved a small tenant farmhouse and joined it to the rear of the larger house, making many improvements over the course of the next year, as he detailed in his journals.  The grounds also contained an orchard of 40 apple trees which greatly appealed to Mr. Alcott, who considered apples the most perfect food.  It is not surprising, then, that he should name his home "Orchard House."

After moving more than twenty times in nearly thirty years, the Alcotts had finally found their anchoring place at Orchard House, where they lived until 1877.  The house is most noted for being where Louisa May Alcott wrote and set her beloved classic, Little Women, in 1868 at a "shelf desk" her father built especially for her.

And you may , you may learn about the history of the Colonial Inn here.