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Orchard House is a historic house museum in Concord, Massachusetts, USA. It was the longtime home of Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) and his family, including his daughter Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) who wrote and set her novel ''Little Women'' (1868-69) there. ==History== The Alcotts had first moved to Concord in 1840, although they left in 1843 to start Fruitlands,〔(Amos Bronson Alcott Network ) - Concord〕 a utopian agrarian commune in nearby Harvard. The family returned in 1845 and purchased a house named "Hillside",〔(Louisa May ) at the official site〕 but left again in 1852, selling to Nathaniel Hawthorne who renamed it The Wayside. The Alcotts returned to Concord once again in 1857.〔 They moved into Orchard House, which was then two-story clapboard farmhouse, in the spring of 1858.〔Saxton, Martha. ''Louisa May Alcott: A Modern Biography''. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995: 218. ISBN 0-374-52460-2〕 At the time of purchase the site included two early eighteenth-century houses on a 12 acre (49,000m2) apple orchard.〔 Consequently the Alcotts named it Orchard House.〔 "'Tis a pretty retreat", Bronson Alcott wrote soon after moving in, "and ''ours''; a family mansion to take pride in, rescued as it is from deformity and disgrace".〔 Bronson made significant changes to the building. He installed alcoves for busts retrieved from his failed Temple School, repaired the staircase, installed bookcases, constructed a back studio for Anna's painting, and put up a fence around the property.〔 He also moved the smaller house to adjoin the rear of the main house, making a single larger structure.〔 While the home was being renovated, the family rented rooms next door at The Wayside while the Hawthornes were living in England.〔Matteson, John. ''Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father''. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007: 238. ISBN 978-0-393-33359-6〕 Later, Lydia Maria Child visited the house and recorded her thoughts: "The result is a house full of queer nooks and corners and all manner of juttings in and out. It seems as if the spirit of some old architect had brought it from the Middle Ages and dropped it down in Concord... The whole house leaves a general impression of harmony, of a medieval sort".〔 Saxton, Martha. ''Louisa May Alcott: A Modern Biography''. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995: 337. ISBN 0-374-52460-2〕 The Orchard House is on the historical road to Lexington, is adjacent to The Wayside, and less than half a mile from Bush the home of Ralph Waldo Emerson,〔(Lexington Rd, Google Maps )〕 where Henry David Thoreau and the Alcotts were frequent visitors. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Orchard House」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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