The history of the barn behind the Emerson House in Concord, built circa 1828 and used for a variety of purposes by the Emerson family. The Ralph Waldo Emerson Memorial Association—RWEMA— completed an extensive restoration of this historic structure in August 2020.

On this day in 1847, Bronson Alcott and Henry David Thoreau began work on an elaborate summerhouse for their friend Ralph Waldo Emerson. The unusual design became a neighborhood curiosity.