They came. They saw. They Concord.

Wow - what a month so far! A fantastic whirlwind of tours, stories, walks in the dark and heaps of new friends!


Many thanks to everyone from North Dakota, Rhode Island, Washington, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and even Australia who made the pilgrimage to Concord and delighted us with their company, interesting tales, generous smiles and photos.


Below you'll find just a few of the things our visitors "Concord" while on one or another of our tours...


Enjoy!

Author's Ridge in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. 

(No, no. Not THAT Sleepy Hollow - the one with the headless fella is in NY.)

Well over a million people visit the Old North Bridge every year. 

Good thing they don't all come at the same time.

Oh, Concord. Stop showing off and being so darn picturesque already! 

Ditto.

More of Sleepy Hollow. We only recently learned that you can still 

buy a plot here. Is it wrong that Joan was very excited about that?

Speaking of Joan, here she is with the girls from Park Tudor on a literary tour. 

Could they have been more charming and adorable? Nope! Perfect. Loved them all!

One of the windows in Henry's replica cabin out at Walden Pond. Since 

there were only two windows, that's 50% of the view right there.

This view of Walden from the beach ain't too shabby either.

Quick author's (blogger's?) note on these last few pictures:

First off, we're not ghost hunters, nor is that the point of our haunted walk. We're 

historians with a healthy amount of skepticism who happen to enjoy old, mysterious stories. 

We make a clear distinction between legend and history during our tours because we've 

found that truth is often a lot creepier than fiction.

But having said that, we LOVE the idea that some people come along and look for 

ghosts on their own. These pictures were sent to us by guests who did just 

that, so we thought it would be fun to share them here! 

Hmm... the white orb hovering just above the Colonial Inn sure looks 

like the moon, but we're forced to concede that, actually, it's not. 

The moon that night was still rising in the east when this photo 

was taken, and this is facing northwest.

The supposedly haunted Room 24 at the Colonial Inn. (Upper two windows)

There's so much history to this portion of the building that it's

hardly surprising people claim to have seen ghosts here!

Old Hill Burial Ground and orb (upper left)

Though this picture was taken in Boston, not Concord, we thought it was

just so pretty and reminded us of snow falling on the gravestones. 

Do you have photos to share of your visit in Concord? Send them to info@gateposttours.com  - We'd love to post them here or on our Facebook page!

And if you haven't taken a ghost tour with us yet, but would like to, there are still spots available on this Saturday's (the 29th) Ghosts in the Gloaming, at 8pm. 

Send us an email or call 978.399.8229 to make a reservation!

For those of you from out of town, book a room at the Colonial Inn and 

our tour is included as part of their Haunted Happenings package. 

Let us know if you stayed in Room 24! 

Last, many thanks to our new friends Deb, Doris, 

Jenny and Jan for the wonderful pictures!

It's October. Get yer ghost on!

Though we've been quiet on the blog-front, it's only because we've been geeking out so hard with tours, research and many, many lovely books to read. In fact, our current favorite, Death In Early America, is geekishly unputdownable, while providing excellent fodder for our most recent tour offering: Ghosts in the Gloaming.

We know. How cliche to offer a haunted tour in October. But really, it's not like July is idyllically ideal (Phantoms on the 4th?) or that peoples' thoughts naturally turn to ghosts during the December holiday and Christmas season. Well, except for yours, Mr. Dickens.

In any case, it's become difficult to overlook all the spooky jiggery-pokery that's gone down in Concord over the last 375 years.

Just for kicks, let's trot out this charming sample from 1845, shall we?

"I never saw nor imagined a spectacle of such perfect horror. The rigidity...was dreadful to behold. Her arms had stiffened in the act of struggling; and were bent before her with the hands clenched. She was the very image of death-agony; and when the men tried to compose her figure, her arms would still return to that same position; indeed it was almost impossible to force them out of it for an instant. One of the men put his foot upon her arm, for the purpose of reducing it by her side; but, in a moment, it rose again... It is impossible to express the effect of it; it seemed as if she would keep in the same posture in the grave and that her skeleton would keep it too, and that when she rose at the day of Judgement, it would be in the same attitude."

Ah, Nathaniel Hawthorne. You melancholy man! 

Rather than a dark bit of fiction however, this gruesome imagery is taken directly from Hawthorne's own journal while he lived here at the Old Manse. He was describing the recovery of the body of young Martha Hunt - a neighbor and school teacher - who apparently came to the irrevocable conclusion that throwing herself into the river was a far more enticing prospect than carrying on in this life. For Nathaniel, it became almost like a real-life haunting as the entire episode affected him so strongly. Not to mention, a truly bizarre twist in this story turned up during our research. It would appear that Ms. Hunt wasn't the only female in her family to perish beneath the cold waters of the Concord river...

Oooo. Good stuff, isn't it? 90 minutes of ghost stories, burial customs, haunted places and graveyards that feature lost riders, ethereal ministers, disturbed damsels and um...chamberpots.

If you think you're ready for more, give us a call and we'll give you - a flashlight! All the better to see where you're going while we explore Concord and all her creepy tales after dark.

10 reasons to take a walking tour of Concord with Gatepost Tours

Don't let Henry's somber face fool you.
This man had a serious sense of humor!

1. We can cover 10,000 years of history in 90 minutes without even breaking a sweat. Don't worry though, you'll mostly only hear about 375 of them.

2. Learning some historic stuff is a great way to impress your friends at parties.

3. We promise you'll never be able to look at Henry David Thoreau in quite the same way ever again.

4. Gatepost tour-guides like to laugh. A lot.

5. A very old graveyard is an excellent place from which to learn about spies and drunk people. 

Perhaps Lieutenant Colonel Smith should be inspecting the
troops rather than the inside of Major Pitcairn's right ear.

6. You'd like to take in some important historic sites while you're here, but have no idea where to start.

7. You'll get a free tote bag. Seriously. It's red.

8. Walking the same ground as Hawthorne, Alcott, Thoreau and Emerson is just so cool.

9. You've always wondered what Concord has to do with George W. Bush. Doesn't everyone?


But by far, the most important reason you should come on our walking tour is that....

10. You'll love how wicked fun it is to learn about Concord! (And to use the word "wicked" like a prah-pah New England-ah)

For more information on how to book this, and all our other tours visit our website. 


Happy travels and we look forward to seeing you in Concord soon!

Monument Square in 1839 and Monument Square today. 

19th-Century Hair Apparent. Very Apparent.

Over the last few weeks, we've noticed something rather peculiar about some of our favorite male authors. Their hair. Be it on face or head, it seems to have the curious habit of expanding as they progressed through life. As a matter of fact, the amount of hair sported appears directly proportional to the number of years achieved. The Law of Maximizing Manes.

This is quite contrary to the stereotypical shiny pate we've come to expect for men of a certain age. That's not to say there weren't plenty of candidates for Rogaine running around in the 19th-century, but these authors, as a whole, certainly possess more than the average allotment of stylish strands.

To illustrate our theory, we've chosen to highlight several of these veritable writers in various stages of coif-keeping...

Hard to believe someone as hot as Hawthorne might ever have a bad hair day. 

Nat's expansion was of the horizontal variety. Luckily, this prescient 

nod to Bozo was only a temporary aberration from an otherwise perfect record.

William Cullen Bryant, another hottie and best known for his poem, "Thanatopsis". 

It would seem his hair was migratory in nature as it swelled and relocated southward over the years.

Though the reason behind Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's choice of beard-wearing was extremely tragic, we feel he carries his snowy look with dignity and aplomb. And yes, we know that was an unfairly tantalizing bit of information for the curious among you, so read up on the death of Frances (Fanny) Appleton  - but only if you'd like to feel really, really sad now.

Henry David Thoreau went through several evolutionary stages with his hair, the complicated and swirly top-knot iteration being our favorite. Then there was his famed "neck rug" about which Louisa May Alcott declared, [Thoreau's facial hair] "will most assuredly deflect amorous advances to preserve the man's virtue in perpetuity".  Purely coincidental we're sure, but perhaps it's worth noting that Henry never married.

Mark Twain always kept a classy, yet carefree looking 'do and we're particularly impressed with the ethereal fluff-factor in the later photo. Even his eyebrows display a charming likeness to cotton balls jauntily perched upon his forehead.

Another iconic beard, this one belonging to Walt Whitman. Unlike Hawthorne, Whitman's later-life hair expansion was multi-directional and encompassed nearly his entire head. An object of fascination to many, references to the beard show up regularly in other works of literature. In Allen Ginsberg's poem "A Supermarket in California", he asks "Where are we going, Walt Whitman?...Which way does your beard point tonight?" Louisa, on the other hand,  would not have been impressed.

But the award for best expansion of facial hair surely goes to William Gilmore Simms. Though not the most famous 19th-century author, (especially given the Southerner's pro-slavery leanings) we can't help being delighted with these photos of him. This...tuft, for lack of a better word, is distinguished in the extreme for both its length and flatish, fan-like quality. We can't even begin to imagine how this didn't end up in most of his food. Which of course would be very handy if you prefer to wick soup and drink directly into your mouth rather than fiddle with all that pesky flatware.

If you'd like to know more about any of these fine fellows besides what they looked like, you could do a lot worse than checking out Rob Velella's American Literary Blog. A unique, independent blog about 19th-century literature, authors, poetry and loads of other cool stuff, including a schedule of Rob's appearances as Poe, Hawthorne and Longfellow. 

And when you're done reading that, book a literary tour with Gatepost for a thoroughly entertaining & educational look at Concord's intriguing authors!

Tantalizing Tidbits

It’s been such a busy month so far at Gatepost Tours that we completely missed posting last week.

Therefore, to assuage our collectively guilty conscience and also to give an idea of what we have been doing with our time, we’d like to share five favorite things we’ve either read or learned more about recently.

Here they are, in no particular order:

View of Walden from Thoreau's Cove, (early 20th c.?)

 1. In Walden, Thoreau jokes that he was “desirous to recover the long lost bottom of Walden Pond, ”  and continues, "Many have believed that Walden reached quite through to the other side of the globe." So in the winter of 1846, Henry set out to accurately measure the basis for these rumors with nothing fancier than a compass and a sounding line tied to a stone. The results? 102 feet, at its deepest (give or take a little with ice and annual fluctuations). Modern investigations and a complete mapping of the pond's bottom by the U.S Geological Survey, confirmed Henry's findings within 2 feet. 

2. Even grown men admit to crying at the scene where John the blacksmith dies in Louisa May Alcott’s Hospital Sketches. We’ll be kind enough not to reveal the identity of the particular gentleman who recently confessed to us this astonishing fact. And if you haven't read the book, we dare you to try and do so without laughing out loud or boo-hooing at least once! Definitely up there with Louisa's best.

 3. The American Civil War may have profoundly altered the voice of our national literary identity. If you’d like to learn more about this fascinating theory, we highly recommend the lecture, “Writing the Civil War” which will be presented Wednesday, May 25^th at The Wayside in Concord. For those who can't make it in person, we'll ask permission to post some highlights here.

 4. The Emerson children were once given a parrot that they adopted as a pet.  Daughter Edith recalls that when addressing her about the parrot, Ralph Waldo referred to it as “your green cat.”

Nathaniel "hottie" Hawthorne

 5. As tribute to the dreary stretch of clouds, rain and chill we’ve recently endured this May in New England, we offer the following insight from Mr. Hawthorne on how he beat the gloom of a similarly endless rain back in 1842.

The sunshiny Sophia

 “Still another rainy day - the heaviest rain, I believe, that has fallen since we came to Concord…In this sombre weather, when ordinary mortals almost forget that there was ever any golden sunshine, or ever will be any hearafter, my little wife seems absolutely to radiate it from her own heart and mind…As for myself, I am little other than a cloud, at such seasons; but she contrives to make me a sunny one; for she gets into the remotest recesses of my heart, and shines all through me.”

Awww...what a softie! (And a hottie!) Even the most cynical, un-romantic among us have to admit that’s pretty darn sweet.

But in the absence of Sophia Hawthorne’s evident warmth, we’ll just have to go find something else to cheer us until the sun reappears. It’s pretty much a toss-up between a pint of Guinness or a good book. Or...a pint of Guinness AND a good book! What could be nicer on a dismal-weather day?

Celebrating Mother's Day the historic way

(We wrote this a couple of years ago for the Concord Journal, and figured it'd be nice to dust it off and spiffy it up for Mother's Day 2011)

Each May, we find ourselves bombarded with commercials and newspaper ads for Mother’s Day. We are enthusiastically reminded to show appreciation for this most essential woman in the form of flowers, jewelry or chocolate. Maybe a spa day. Or, there’s the often talked about but rarely executed Breakfast In Bed, which often comes complete with Disastrous Kitchen, for no extra charge. Card racks are crammed with a profusion of pink sentiments while florists are florid with foliage.

But, the curious might ask, how did we come to officially celebrate Mother’s Day at all? Certainly, we’ve been eulogizing mothers in this world for quite some time. Thousands of years actually, before Hallmark was even a glimmer in the corporate eye.

The Goddess Isis, wall painting, c. 1360 B.C.

One tradition dates back to the ancient Egyptians and the seriously bizarre tale of Isis and her son, Horus, whose father needed to be not only resurrected but also reassembled in order to contribute anything to Horus’ existence. Luckily, Isis was a pretty competent single mom (most goddesses are) and managed to raise Horus well enough to become the first ruler of a unified Egypt, thus ensuring her own title as Mother of the pharaohs. This rather unforgettable story eventually made its way into Roman culture and the Mother Isis became a revered figure, along with Magna Mater, who stems from the earlier Greek Mother deity, Rhea.

A later incarnation of the holiday came from the early Catholics in Europe as worshippers gathered during Lent to honor their “mother church.” By the 1600s, this had expanded to include real, earthly mothers, earning the new denomination Mothering Day. While the British continued the observance of Mothering Sunday in England, its tradition was lost here in the American Colonies for about 200 years.

Fortunately for us, a woman named Anna Jarvis was born in 1864 and achieved historical and legislative success when president Woodrow Wilson signed into law the Mother’s Day proclamation of 1914. For more than six years, Anna had campaigned for the official celebration of Motherhood to be sanctioned and recognized in this country, despite never having achieved that epithet herself.

Anna Jarvis

Instead, Anna was inspired by her own impressive mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis (1832-1905), social activist, pacifist and champion for improved health and sanitary conditions for families during and after the Civil War. Adding to her already saintly stature was the fact Mrs. Jarvis also found time to give birth to twelve (that’s right, TWELVE) children.

What might Concord contribute to a list of historically magnificent matriarchs? If we reach into our past we shall find three women in particular who stand out, even by today’s super-mom standards.

Silhouette of
Cynthia Dunbar Thoreau

Although Thoreau’s mother, Cynthia Dunbar, is chiefly known via her relation to Henry David, she can plainly stand on her own achievements. She was an intelligent and outgoing woman admired for her excellent housekeeping skills, extremely generous, and often shared the family table with those in need. Outspoken and opinionated, Cynthia was a bit unconventional (turns out she was five months pregnant at the time of her wedding) but she and her husband John raised four bright, influential, if equally individualist children. Cynthia also participated in the Female Charitable Society, and the Ladies Anti-Slavery Society through which their house became a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Abigail Alcott

Abigail Alcott was of course the mother to our famous Louisa May. While raising her four daughters and supporting the many progressive adventures of her husband, Bronson, Abby also involved herself in the noble causes of women’s suffrage, temperance, relief for the poor and abolition. Before moving to the Orchard House in Concord, Abby helped her husband with his Temple School in Boston and was also one of the first paid social workers in Massachusetts. For a time, the entire family lived at Fruitlands, the communal farm in Harvard where Abby put in long hours of labor. When asked once by a visitor if Fruitlands had any beasts of burden, Abby pointedly replied “only one woman.” And yet, Louisa would later say of her mother, if you loved Marmie from “Little Women,” you would have loved her even more in real life.

Sarah Alden Bradford Ripley

Perhaps the most brilliant and relatively unknown Concord mother was Sarah Alden Bradford Ripley, wife of the Rev. Samuel Ripley and resident of the Old Manse. Beginning at age 4, Sarah ultimately taught herself seven languages and eventually mastered many sciences of the day. These included botany, chemistry, astronomy and mathematics. In later years, Harvard would send its troubled students out to Samuel and Sarah for rustication, where Sarah would tutor them in diverse subjects, all while running a household, participating as a minister’s wife and raising eight children. Even the famously intelligent Ralph Waldo Emerson would seek out his aunt Sarah’s opinions to eagerly discourse with her on matters of theology and metaphysics. (Sheesh! it's no wonder she's often referred to as "Smart Sarah")

So this Sunday, as we reflect on the outstanding mothers in our own lives, perhaps spare a thought for the interesting history of how we came to embrace this special day and three exceptional moms from Concord's past . And by all means, don’t be afraid to do something a little unorthodox to help the celebration along. Although, no reassembling of husbands please, even if you are a goddess!

For those of you in and around Concord, here are a few suggestions of historic-themed things to do this Mother's Day weekend:

Visit the home of Smart Sarah and enjoy a Mother's Day program at The Old Manse 

Enjoy a special brunch at Concord's Colonial Inn 

Check out the fascinating Civil War exhibit at the Concord Museum 

Take a tour of the Thoreau Birth House, home of Cynthia Dunbar

Learn more about the real Marmie at Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House 

Rum and Revolution

Mr. Ambrose Gosling is a charming and generous man. The fact that he's dead doesn't seem to inhibit his lively personality in the least. 


Indeed, if you find yourself in the same room with him for longer than about thirty seconds, there's an excellent chance he'll offer you a drink, or perhaps a pinch of snuff. From the depths of his anachronistic waistcoat, a small wooden box will materialize, filled with fragrant, powdered tobacco, of which you are encouraged to inspect, admire, or more bravely, insufflate as you see fit. 

"For many years, only the upper class and royalty used snuff," Gosling may tell you, by way of encouragement. (Go on, all your 200 year-old friends are doing it.)

Mr. Gosling demonstrates the proper way to ingest snuff

And then there's the rum. Gosling's Rum to be specific, which came about when the English-born Ambrose and his brother James relocated from London to Bermuda around 1806 and founded their flagship spirit known as Black Seal. 

For those who wish to imbibe an historically accurate Dark 'n Stormy - a fetching blend of ginger beer, rum and lime - Gosling's is the preferred choice, the only choice really, when it comes to Bermuda's national drink. 

Still owned and run by the Gosling family today, rum enthusiasts will be happy to learn that Black Seal, for the first time in roughly two centuries, has been recently made available in the U.S. (Check out the CNN article from April, 2011 for more on this very special libation.)


But, getting back to Ambrose. Though long departed, his character has been resurrected by Jeremy Bell, an Edinburg native turned Bostonian, who proffers an abundance of talent, charisma and captivating tales during the remarkable show he calls "Rum and Revolution".

When Gatepost Tours discovered that Jeremy and his daughter, Katie, were to perform at Main Street's Cafe in Concord, well, the darkest and stormiest of nights wouldn't have kept us away. 

Always ready with a grand toast!

Even if you're the type who would rather drive at high speed into a brick wall than endure 18th-century history and music, it's just not possible to sit through "Rum and Revolution" without feeling thoroughly entertained. Yes, there are old songs, but they're rousing, impertinent songs about drinking, sailing and, amusingly, women who may or may not bestow a kiss upon Jeremy's smiling, roguish cheek 

(they usually do).

Next come the stories. Shocking, funny anecdotes and little known facts about some of our most famous Revolution-era Americans. Such as Ben Franklin who wrote a song about pirates, another about rum punch, and then wished to die in a barrel of Madeira. It would appear that Franklin wasn't our only founding father with a penchant for this intensely sweet, port-like wine either,  since General Washington himself was in the habit of throwing back an entire bottle every night. (Perhaps herein lies a clue as to the dearth of indigenous dental work in that man's mouth?)

The skilled Katie Bell plays along with with her dad

Combined throughout with expertly played violins, fiddles, a cello and even a concertina, the entire experience is enthusiastically dispatched by the reincarnated Mr. Gosling as he sings, expounds, regales and basically delivers the best history lesson you never meant to have. Also, we have it on good faith that the compulsive urge to don a tricorn hat does fade after a few hours.


In case you're wondering, we did gladly partake of the Dark n' Stormy's (fantastic). And the Madeira (lovely but cannot possibly conceive drinking a whole bottle).  

Though, alas, neither of us worked up enough courage to actually sniff the snuff....

Maybe next time.

GT

PS - If an evening of musical irreverence just doesn't do it for you, then you might consider spending time with Tripp and Toddy (another of Jeremy's delightful creations) and instead, enjoy the sight of them trying to kill each other.  If that doesn't get your Revolutionary Spirit roaring, we don't know what will!

Who wouldn't dig the spectacle of two grown men trying to take each other out with swords?

Keep on the lookout for a Tavern Tour (of Concord and Lexington) coming soon from Gatepost, with a dinner show to follow from Revolutionary Spirits. An exclusive event offered just four times a year! Details to come...

Too bad our costumes aren't as cool as theirs!