It is rare to find the very home where a beloved feminist author penned her most famous work, Little Women—a novel that has never been out of print for over a century and has been translated into more than 50 languages. Rarer still is to find that home still preserved just as she and her family left it, filled with their personal belongings. Add to that a rich history spanning centuries, and you have Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts.

Since 1770, The Old Manse has stood majestically on the banks of the Concord River, overlooking the North Bridge where, on April 19, 1775, one of the first battles of the American Revolution unfolded.

As the 250th Anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord approaches, a witness house sits at the top of Concord’s Main Street, full of stories of rebels and traitors whose actions shaped the America we know today. It is the Wright Tavern, a red wood building with black shutters; one of the last standing colonial-era taverns from that fateful day of April 19, 1775. 

The tale of this tavern begins with a dangerous hole in the ground.