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Old 01-29-2010, 08:30 PM
 
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Thank you, thank you! I'll be in Boston in about a week, so this will ensure I don't go hungry! Nice of you to take the effort to give such an interesting rundown--speaks very well of Bostonians!
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Old 02-02-2010, 09:29 PM
 
Location: Cambridge, MA
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Anybody who studied the Transcendentalists and "utopian colonies" should definitely put Fruitlands on their to-see list. It's in the town of Harvard - zero commuter-rail access, but not all that far from Concord.
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Old 02-03-2010, 10:23 AM
 
Location: Newton, Mass.
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Originally Posted by goyguy View Post
Anybody who studied the Transcendentalists and "utopian colonies" should definitely put Fruitlands on their to-see list. It's in the town of Harvard - zero commuter-rail access, but not all that far from Concord.
Agreed. There's not too much to see today at Brook Farm, which is within city limits, but there's an interesting museum at Fruitlands.
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Old 02-03-2010, 03:50 PM
 
Location: Dallas
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Megakudos to CityGirl for the mega posts. For my part I am only going to mention two things.

1 - I want to emphasize the FREEDOM TRAIL. You can walk it for nothing or ride around on a duck or trolley tour. The stretch between Park Street station and the North End to me is THE must do must see thing for a short trip to BOS. It takes you right through everything a tourist could ever hope to discover in BOS in barely a two hour walk.

2. Although the train does go to Concord, I'm not sure - in fact I don't believe - that you can tour Concord sensibly (or even at all) without a car. It's a very countrified small woodsy town. I used to have to go there a lot for work and hated driving all the way out there but could never formulate a success scheme to use public transit ( like I have for many other places like Salem, Rockport, Attleboro, PVD etc). Make sure you check that out before you board a train. I don't think Walden Pond is accessible by T and I am skeptical about taxi service in CC.
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Old 02-03-2010, 03:56 PM
 
Location: 5 years in Southern Maryland, USA
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You can get a lot of advice on touring boston, and other places, on Reviews of vacations, hotels, resorts, vacation and travel packages - TripAdvisor .
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Old 02-03-2010, 04:47 PM
 
Location: Newton, Mass.
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Originally Posted by Bostonian08 View Post
Although the train does go to Concord, I'm not sure - in fact I don't believe - that you can tour Concord sensibly (or even at all) without a car.
It would be hard if you're ambitious about seeing Concord.

You can access the town center and Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (which includes many authors' graves) fairly easily on foot from the train station. The Concord Museum and Emerson's house are a couple of blocks south of Monument Square in the center, so they're doable as well.

But Walden Pond and the Old North Bridge/Old Manse are both about a mile and a half from the train station, in opposite directions, and both are down country roads. Other sights, like Orchard House and the Wayside, are a ways down yet a third country road. It would require some lengthy winter walking to see any, let alone all, of these without a car. I like Walden very much, and I wouldn't want to come to Concord from all the way across the USA and not see the site of the battle that started the country because it's a measly mile away. Orchard House and the Wayside are nice but perhaps secondary.

It might be worth renting a car just for that day. That will make it easy to get to Concord and make it possible to get out to Harvard, MA for Fruitlands. You can probably rent for $35/day plus the taxes, etc. near the airport.
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Old 02-05-2010, 10:34 AM
 
9,961 posts, read 17,477,729 times
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Originally Posted by holden125 View Post
It would be hard if you're ambitious about seeing Concord.

You can access the town center and Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (which includes many authors' graves) fairly easily on foot from the train station. The Concord Museum and Emerson's house are a couple of blocks south of Monument Square in the center, so they're doable as well.

But Walden Pond and the Old North Bridge/Old Manse are both about a mile and a half from the train station, in opposite directions, and both are down country roads. Other sights, like Orchard House and the Wayside, are a ways down yet a third country road. It would require some lengthy winter walking to see any, let alone all, of these without a car. I like Walden very much, and I wouldn't want to come to Concord from all the way across the USA and not see the site of the battle that started the country because it's a measly mile away. Orchard House and the Wayside are nice but perhaps secondary.

It might be worth renting a car just for that day. That will make it easy to get to Concord and make it possible to get out to Harvard, MA for Fruitlands. You can probably rent for $35/day plus the taxes, etc. near the airport.
Thanks for all the advice. Yeah, I had worried about the feasibility of seeing all the historical sights around Concord without a car. I guess renting a car for a day might be the best option. With our historical interests I think going to Concord is a given as long as we don't have a major blizzard or ice storm to contend with.

If we did have a rental car, is there anything else interesting to see on the way out to Concord or in that general area? Fruitland sounds interesting too so with a car we'll might check that out.
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Old 02-05-2010, 11:48 AM
 
Location: Newton, Mass.
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Originally Posted by Deezus View Post
If we did have a rental car, is there anything else interesting to see on the way out to Concord or in that general area?
The most obvious is probably Lexington, right next door. The Battle of Lexington and Concord actually saw the first shots fired in Lexington, then there was a skirmish in Concord, but the town that saw most of the action was my hometown of Arlington, where some serious fighting took place as the British returned to Boston from Concord.

Anyway, Lexington has the historic Battle Green, where the first shots were fired, the Munroe and Buckman Taverns, the National Heritage Museum, and the Hancock-Clarke House, important sites for the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

To get to Route 2 (also the way to Concord if you don't go to Lexington), you can take the Storrow Drive west out of Boston. Just past the Harvard Square exit, follow the signs for "Arlington-2-3, Fresh Pond Pkwy" (be careful to follow those signs, it gets a little tricky). You'll have to deal with 2 rotaries, but keep following the signs for Routes 2 and 3. A little past the Fresh Pond Mall, bear left for Route 2 West (which now splits from Route 3).

You can get to the Lexington sites pretty easily by taking Route 2 west to Exit 57. Turn right and follow signs for Rts 225/4, which will merge you onto Mass. Av. At Marrett Rd, you turn left and the National Heritage Museum is right there on the right. To see the other sights, go back to Mass. Av. and turn left. The Munroe Tavern is on the left a couple of blocks up. Continue past that and the green, and the Buckman Tavern, are just past the downtown shops. You can't miss it, it's the big park with the Minuteman statue where the road forks. The Hancock-Clarke House, where Hancock and Sam Adams had gone to hide out, is just past this. Take the right fork at the Green (still 225/4) and bear right immediately on Hancock St. It's up a bit on the left.

To follow the Battle Road to Concord, you take Mass. Av (which is the left fork at the Green). After a couple of miles you'll pass over the highway. Make the first right after that, on Wood St, then the first left on Old Mass Av. At the end, turn right on Route 2A and follow that all the way in to Concord. This is the road the British took, and it's a pretty drive. The Wayside and Orchard House are on this road. Just past them you'll enter the village part of Concord. Where the Cambridge Tpk. forks in from the left is where you'll find the Concord Museum and Emerson's house.

To bypass Lexington and go straight to Concord, just continue on 2 West. After Route 128 (I-95) it will not be a limited-access highway. After about 3 miles, you'll have to turn left to continue on 2 West. At that point, turn left to stay on Route 2 for Walden Pond, or go straight to go directly to the Emerson House and Concord Museum.

To go from Concord to Fruitlands, go back to Route 2 West. It becomes a highway again after a bit. Take Exit 38A and make the first right on Old Shirley Road. Fruitlands is about a mile and a half up on the same road.

The towns around Concord generally offer very nice country roads and there are some things to see of local or seasonal interest. For example, there's plenty of apple picking or pumpkin picking to be done in that area in the fall. Other than Lexington, nothing jumps off the page for visitors with limited time.
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Old 02-06-2010, 03:30 PM
 
Location: Dallas
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If I were to suggest a day trip I would go with Salem. Salem's got the all the witch stuff plus pirates, seafarers, the House of Seven Gables etc. Very cool little place out on Derby St.

//www.city-data.com/forum/membe...ums-salem.html

In the same neighborhood is Marblehead which probably has more still standing homes built in the 1600's than Boston. Very cool.
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Old 02-12-2010, 11:49 AM
 
1,201 posts, read 2,661,683 times
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Originally Posted by holden125 View Post
Agreed. There's not too much to see today at Brook Farm, which is within city limits, but there's an interesting museum at Fruitlands.
To say there's "not too much to see" at Brook Farm is an understatement - today, it's pretty much a cemetery in West Roxbury.

I'm not sure how much is going on in Fruitlands this time of year; I know they run a restaurant in the better weather. So, I'm not sure whether it's worth a trip all the way to Harvard.

If your girlfriend is interested in Hawthorne, by all means put Salem on the tour (as Bostonian08 suggests). Salem has The House of the Seven Gables (Hawthorne's childhood home and the subject of the novel of the same name). The house was built in 1668, and represents one of the best maintained early colonial structures in America.

Salem is interesting in itself with its colonial and infamous witch history, and it has the exquisite Peabody Essex Museum (with some great East Asian art and relics from Salem's 19th century days as a premier mercantile port).

And, lastly, next door to Salem is Marblehead, an amazing town. It has an incredibly in tact colonial village that would make you think you're in an English coastal town.
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