Appendix V: CONCORD’S 34 NEIGHBORHOODS

Neighborhoods are briefly introduced below by listing diverse features and open space resources in brackets, followed by certain historical highlights.24

1. Annursnac-Strawberry Hill [Nashoba Brooks School, Annursnac Woods, Isaac Davis Trail, Bay Circuit Trail, Spencer Brook Valley Conservation Trust, Annursnac Hill Association]. Annursnac, “the secure hill”; on April 19, 1775, Capt. Issac Davis led Acton Minutemen to North Bridge; the name College Rd. commemorates Harvard’s 1775-76 stay in Concord. 2. Lindsay -Westford Road [Middlesex School, Estabrook Woods, Batemans Pond, Lindsay Pond, CLCT properties, smallpox gravesite, Spencer Brook, Spencer Brook Valley Conservation Trust]. Smallpox grave; Westford Rd., one of the roads to Blood’s Farm, existed as early as 1717; Spencer Brook Bridge, a rare example of a small fieldstone bridge (mid-19th C.). 3. Estabrook Road-Liberty Street [Minute Man National Historical Park, North Bridge, Estabrook Woods, Davis Conservation Land, , , Isaac Davis Trail, Minuteman Statue, Buttrick House Park Headquarters, Macone’s Pond]. The “twenty-score” pasture; “Shot heard round the world” fired from here. 4. Silver Hill [Concord River, Silver Hill Association Pond, Estabrook Woods]. Monument St. laid out in 1686 as “the way to Blood’s Farm,” a tract to the north (now in Carlisle) owned as early as 1642 by Robert and John Blood. Throughout the 19th C., the Carlisle border at this northwest section of Monument St. was uncertain and highly irregular. 5. Monument Street [Fenn School, Estabrook Woods, Punkatasset Hill, Concord River, Wateredge Farm riding stable]. Flint’s Bridge (1877), Concord’s only 4-arch stone bridge; Barrett/Hutchins farmhouse (c. 1680/1760/1870/1890), one of the oldest houses in town, on one of Concord’s most picturesque farms, on the lower slopes of Punkatasset Hill, a drumlin or “the broad-topped hill”. 6. Downtown Monument Street [North Bridge, Railroad Trail, Old Manse, Mill Brook Way, Concord River, Great Meadows, Minute Man National Historical Park, Battle Monument, Grave of British Soldiers, North Bridge-Monument Square Historic District, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Bay Circuit Trail, Mill Brook]. “Shot heard round the world” impacted here. 7. Ripley School [Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, pond by Sewage Plant Rd., Ripley School and playground, Ammendolia Land, St. Bernard’s Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery-New Section, Railroad Bed Trail, Concord River, Concord Sewage Treatment Plant, Gowing Swamp, McHugh Farm Town Conservation land, Wayside Florist Scimone farm stand, Heritage Pool and Racquet Club, Mill Brook]. The Cranefield, a common planting field of the East Quarter. In 1854, Bedford St. was extended out from Concord Center to meet Old Bedford Rd. At the beginning of the 20th C., a trolley line ran along Bedford St. from Bedford to Concord Center and onward. 8. Virginia Road [Thoreau Birthplace, Thoreau Birth House, Elm Brook, Pine Hill, Hanscom Field]. John Wheeler House (early 18th C.) in which Henry David Thoreau was born in 1817. 9. Shadyside-Manuel Drive [Battle Road, Minute Man National Historic Park, Battle Road Trail, Kaveski Farm Conservation Land, Palumbo Farm, Mill Brook]. Bricks for early Colonial chimneys were fired on “brick kiln island” (c. 1650). 10. Lexington Road [Battle Road, Heywood Meadow, Hill Burying Ground, First Parish in Concord, St. Bernard’s Church, Grapevine Cottage, Orchard House, School of

171 Philosophy, The Wayside, Meriam’s Corner and farmhouse, Concord Museum, pocket park opposite the Museum, Ralph Waldo Emerson House, Concord Art Association, Concord Gunhouse, American Mile Historic District, Monument Square- Lexington Road Historic District, Bay Circuit Trail, District School park, Mill Brook]. Site of the first Meetinghouse by Concord’s first road, The Bay Road. 11. The Ridge [Moses Pond Conservation Area]. Trod by Lt. Col. Smith’s light infantry on April 19, 1775, guarding the flanks of the British soldiers’ column. 12. Sleepy Hollow [Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Authors’ Ridge, Melvin Memorial]. Cemetery established in 1823; graves of Emerson, Thoreau, Alcotts, Hawthorne, French, Sidney, Bull, etc.; Melvin Memorial; Davis Ct. and Bedford Ct. were laid out in the latter part of the 19th C. some years after Bedford St. had been extended to Old Bedford Rd. 13. Concord Center [Concord Post Office, Emerson Field, Concord Academy, Calf Pasture, Monument Square, South Burying Ground, Concord Free Public Library, Town Hall, Hunt Gym, Emerson Umbrella, 51 Walden Street, Scout House, Concord Center Depot, First Church of Christ Scientist, Trinitarian Congregational Church, Trinity Episcopal Church, Concord Center shopping and restaurant area, Thoreau Street (Depot) shopping and restaurant area, Keyes Road town facilities, Millbrook Tarry shopping area, Lowell Road Canoe Landing, Chamberlin Park, Concord River, , Colonial Inn, Main Street Historic District, Milldam, Monument Square-Lexington Road Historic District, American Mile Historic District, Masonic Hall, Monument Hall, Concord Armory, Bay Circuit Trail, riverside park behind Concord Public Works buildings, Mill Brook]. Site of the dam and corn mill from which the Village grew. 14. Alcott School [Hapgood Wright Town Forest, Fairyland Pond, Alcott School and playground, Concord Carlisle High School and fields, skateboard park, site of future Concord-Carlisle Community Swim and Health Center, Hugh Cargill Community Garden, Concord Police and Fire Station, Walden Woods, Bay Circuit Trail]. “Settlers” used this area sometime between 8000 and 10,000 years ago. Scipio Brister, freed slave of Dr. John Cuming, lived here. 15. Cambridge Turnpike [Crosby’s Pond, Hapgood Wright Town Forest, Millbrook farm stand, Walden Woods, Mill Brook, Bay Circuit Trail]. Site of Francis Fletcher’s 17th C. farm. In 17th C. Hawthorne Lane led to Flint’s Pond in Watertown (now Sandy Pond in Lincoln). 16. Walden and Goose [Goose Pond, State Reservation, Walden Pond, Walden Woods, Bay Circuit Trail, adjacent Lincoln]. Into Walden Woods, embodiment of the spirit of 19th C. Transcendentalists and 20th/21st C environmentalists. Thoreau went to Walden “to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if [he] could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when [he] came to die, discover that [he] had not lived.” 17. South Meadow-Elsinore-Hubbardville [South Meadow Playground, Concord Center Depot, shopping and restaurant area, Sudbury River, Daniel Chester French Historic District, Arena Farms, Boston commuter bus stop]. South Field, common planting field, was one of Concord’s major planting areas in the late 19th C.; Daniel Chester French’s studio still stands on Sudbury Rd. 18. Fairhaven Woods [Fairhaven Woods, Sudbury River, Fairhaven Bay, Smallpox Cemetery, Walden Woods, Pine Tree Farms, Soutter Woods, Bigelow Field]. “Settlers” used the Fairhaven Bay area sometime between 8000 and 10,000 years ago. Concord’s smallest public burying ground, on Fairhaven Rd. south of Route 2, is believed to contain graves of ten people who died in the smallpox outbreak of 1792.

172 19. Conantum-Garfield Road [Kalmia Association, Conantum ballfield, Sudbury River, Fairhaven Bay]. In 1660-61, Henry Woodhouse (Woodis) purchased Simon Willard’s farm “between the two rivers.” This portion of that vast tract descended to Woodis Lee Jr., who built the main farmhouse at 509 Garfield Rd. in 1764. Conantum, consisting of more than 100 homes, was catalyzed by MIT economics professor W. Rupert McLaurin in the 1950s. On 190 acres, with 60 acres of common recreation land. 20. Nine Acre Corner [Nashawtuc Country Club, Nine Acre Corner shopping and restaurant area, Verrill farm stand, Colonial Florists, Willow Guzzle Reservation]. Farmland for more than 3.5 centuries, long associated with the Lee and Wheeler families. 21. White Pond-Willard [White Pond, Willard School and playground, Rail Trail]. This area was used by “Settlers” sometime between 8000 and 10,000 years ago, and by “Farmers” sometime between 350 and 1000 years ago. Concord’s 19th C. literary figures frequently visited the pond. 17th C. Parkman Tavern on today’s Powdermill Rd. 22. Williams Road-ORNAC [Mattison Field, Concord Country Club, potential rail trail, Sudbury-Concord Conservation Area, Sudbury River, trail from Deaconess Well to Mattison Field, CLCT’s Hosmer Land, Brown’s Pond]. A remnant of Concord’s farming landscape and heritage. 23. Middle Schools [Peabody School and playground, Sanborn School and playground, Old Rifle Range-Ministerial Swamp, Musketaquid Sportsman’s Club, Rail Trail]. Musketaquid Sportsmen’s Club building, built as a dance hall by the Maynard Finnish Temperance Society (1924-25) and called “Bukiharia” (Top of the Hill). 24. Thoreau Hills [Musketaquid Sportsman’s Club, Camp Thoreau & Thoreau Club, Assabet River, Kennedy (Hayward) Pond, Second Division Brook, Damon Mill and Tail Race, Hillcrest Conservation Land, Thoreau Hills Conservation Land, Valley Sports (ice rink)]. Powder mills established in 1835. 25. Harrington Ave. [Old Rifle Range-Ministerial Swamp, Harrington House, Assabet River, Kennedy (Hayward) Pond, Second Division Brook]. Wheeler/Harrington House (probably c. 1740s), one of three oldest buildings in West Concord, the only West Concord farmhouse remaining in its original agrarian/riverfront setting. Since George Hayward’s 1655-56 dam, many dams have been built on Second Division Brook, the current dam forming Hayward (or Kennedy) Pond. The water has been used for a grist mill, saw mill, graphite-grinding shop, ice production, and recreation. 26. Concord Junction [Thoreau School and playground, Cousins Park, Fowler Memorial Library, Harvey Wheeler Community Center, West Concord (Concord Junction) Depot, West Concord Union Church, Our Lady Help of Christians Church, Concord Junction shopping and restaurant area, Rail Trail, Assabet River, West Concord Fire Station, Derby’s (Main St.) Bridge, Damon Mill and Tail Race, Colonel Roger Brown House, Westvale Meadow]. Concord Ironworks established in 1658, followed by numerous other mills, including Damon Mill. Junction of Framingham & Lowell Railroad (1871-72) and Acton, Nashua & Boston Railroad (1876). 27. Concord Greene-Old Bridge Road [Concord Country Club, Emerson Hospital, John Cuming Building, Hillside Medical Center, Concord Woods Medical Center, Rail Trail, Concord Greene Condominiums, Sudbury River, Derby’s (Main St.) Bridge, restaurant area, Sunbridge, Concord Professional Building, Wayside Square]. Clamshell Bluff, now beneath Emerson Hospital parking lot, was a seasonal camp of native Settlers. Toward the end of the 19th C., Harvey Wheeler created Cottage and Crest Streets and subdivided the land (formerly part of the Hosmer/Sheehan farm,

173 later called Harness Shop Hill) into 51 parcels to provide housing for workers in his Boston Harness Co. 28. Elm Street [Or Elm Street-Nashoba Park]. [Congregation Kerem Shalom, South Bridge Boathouse, Assabet River, Sudbury River, shopping and restaurant area, Smallpox gravesite]. In the late 19th C., the Concord Home School was constructed at 41 Wood St. on what had been the Wood family farm. At that time, and in the early 20th C., houses spread westward on Elm St., on one- to two-acre lots, subdivided out of former landholdings of William Wheeler, Corinne Chamberlaine, and others. The Nashoba Park subdivision (on Crescent, Hosmer, Wilson and Garfield Roads) was developed by Richard Wilson in the early 20th C., also on the Wood farm. 29. Nashawtuc-Simon Willard [Nashawtuc Sledding Hill, , Simon Willard triangle, Willard Common and Monument, Assabet River, Sudbury River, Nashawtuc Bridge and causeway]. On Nashawtuc Hill (named by the Algonquins, “The hill between the rivers”) was Musketaquid, a small Algonquin settlement. In 1635 this land became part of Maj. Simon Willard’s farm. Situated just west of Egg Rock, this is the earliest of Concord’s “high-style, planned neighborhoods of large country estates.” 30. Barretts Mill-Hildreth [Bay Circuit Trail, Colonel James Barrett Farm, McGrath farm stand, Barrett’s Mill Road Community Garden, Barrett’s Mill Conservation Land, Assabet River Barrett’s Mill site, smallpox gravesite]. Farm of Col. James Barrett, who, on April 19, 1775, was in charge of military stores in Concord. It was to seize those arms and supplies at Barrett’s farm that the British Regulars crossed the North Bridge that day. Hildreth Corner, Concord’s first village outside the Town Center. 31. Grove Street-Lee Drive [Assabet River, Youth Correctional Center, John Cuming House]. John Cuming, a country doctor who served in the French and Indian War, left a large legacy to Harvard College to start Harvard Medical School. His home is one of the three oldest buildings remaining in West Concord (at the rotary on Route 2). 32. Commerford [Concord Municipal Light Plant, adjacent Acton]. By the end of the 19th C., this western end of Elm St. (Route 2A), the main road between Concord Reformatory and the village of East Acton (where there was a railroad station), become a logical location for a small residential development. 33. Oak Hill-Hill Street [Assabet River]. Hillside Ave. was laid out about 1830 as a site for housing near the industries of West Concord. E. Squire laid out Hill St. in the early 1900s, though houses were not built here until about 1930. 34. Rideout-Warners Pond [West Concord Post Office, Rideout Field, Warners Pond, MCI Reformatory, MCI Prison Burying Ground, Assabet River, Concord Clinic, shopping and restaurant area]. The pond, which has been a source of power, ice, and recreation, originated in the late 17th C. with construction of a fulling mill (to clean, shrink and thicken cloth, using water, heat and pressure). In the 1890s a wood bridge was built to the Isle of Pines and a steam launch plied the pond, while icehouses lined the shore.

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