For all that Henry David Thoreau is remembered — the writings, the civil disobedience, the environmentalism — his decision to live deliberately is perhaps most responsible for setting Thoreau apart from his peers and keeping Concord’s favorite son relevant among the activists, scholars and thinkers of today.
So it’s fitting that Thoreau Farm, which opens to the public for the first time on June 26, would have a deliberately different perspective than the historic homes of his peers, which have been preserved as windows into and honoring the past.
“It’s not about a dead house, it’s about life,” said Debbie Bier, a Thoreau Farm board member who operates an heirloom garden outside the house, where Thoreau was born. “It’s not just an interpretation of history, but it’s about looking at the past, taking the present and bringing it into the future.”
Thoreau’s birth house, on Virginia Road, is light on the author-tested furnishings as compared to the Old Manse or Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House, which works because the man only lived there eight or nine months and the lack of original items leaves plenty of room for forward-looking exhibits and educational programming.
The 1700s farmhouse was meticulously restored and renovated in a $950,000 project that balances the house’s historic appearance with modern codes and green technologies.
“Our first priority was making sure this house was preserved,” said Nancy Grohol, executive director of Thoreau Farm. “The next step is going to be developing the educational programming. Like Thoreau, we’re going to keep it simple.”
While much of the programming won’t debut until season two, when Thoreau Farm opens next weekend visitors will find an heirloom garden out back and exhibitions inside encouraging guests to look at their lives and ask how the way they live echoes the choices they’ve made.
“You don’t have to like Thoreau, you don’t even have to agree with him,” said Grohol. “We just want to make people aware here.”
Inside Thoreau’s birth house, the room in which he was born and the parlor will be open to the public. In the parlor, quotes and questions will ask visitors to reflect on what they can do to live deliberately and the birth room will feature information about Thoreau’s mother and how [Thoreau] came to live in the house, as well as his ideas on nature, social justice and inner life.
Another feature inside the house will be walls covered with pictures of famous and everyday people who’ve been influenced by Thoreau to live deliberately and affect positive change on their environments.
“We’re asking visitors to reflect on this and see what they can do to live deliberately,” said Grohol. “We want this house to be very forward-looking, because Thoreau’s ideas were so forward-looking, especially about the environment and social justice.”
As only the parlor and birth room are open to the public, Thoreau Farm Trust rents offices inside the house to the Thoreau Society and Gaining Ground, a nonprofit that farms 20 acres on the property to provide organic produce to low-income residents and local food pantries.
“I love it,” said Mike Frederick, executive director of Thoreau Society, which has maintained offices at the birth house since October. “The Thoreau Farm has the real elegance of the front door and the oak tree out front and the brick wall. Behind us is Gaining Ground, a real working farm out back and when they have programs it’s wonderful to see the school kids out there making use of that property.”
Frederick said the pastoral setting gives the sense of the landscape Thoreau experienced living in Concord during the 1800s.
And even as the restoration of the home allows visitors to visualize the home on Virginia Road Thoreau was talking about when he wrote of his mother’s memories, the modern, green elements invite conversation about Thoreau’s philosophy as it applies to today’s world.
“What I think that means is to live deliberately is really to think for yourself,” Frederick said. “To know that you’re making decisions that affect your life, your family’s lives and the lives of your neighbors and the world that you belong to. Living in our own age where there are population pressures, it brings up things like sustainability, sustainable living.”
