Minute Man National Historical Park

Sites

Concord's Old North Bridge was the site where the Battle of Concord began on April 19, 1775, the second battle of the day after the brief fight at dawn on Lexington Common. Ralph Waldo Emerson's 1837 poem "Concord Hymn" immortalized the North Bridge Fight as "the shot heard round the world." At this site stands Daniel Chester French's The Minute Man statue from 1874, and across the bridge is the Obelisk Monument. Nearby are the grave of two regular army soldiers killed at the bridge and the Old Manse.

The five-mile Battle Road Trail between Lexington and Concord follows a restored colonial landscape approximating the path of the running skirmishes between British regulars and American militia. It includes a monument at the site where Paul Revere was captured during his midnight ride, the Captain William Smith House, and the Hartwell Tavern, a restored 18th-century inn where living history programs are presented from May through October. The Wayside, a National Historic Landmark, was home to Concord muster-master Samuel Whitney on April 19, 1775, and later to authors Amos Bronson Alcott, Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Margaret Sidney; the Alcotts called it "Hillside," and Hawthorne renamed it "Wayside."

It is also part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. Barrett's Farm, the home of Colonel James Barrett about 1.5 miles west of North Bridge, was the destination of British regulars who crossed the bridge to search for artillery and ammunition. The house and 3.4 acres were purchased and restored by Save Our Heritage, a Concord non-profit, and transferred to the National Park Service in 2012. Lexington Battle Green, formerly Lexington Common, is the site of the first action on April 19, 1775, owned and maintained by the Town of Lexington, and where the Captain Parker Statue by Henry Hudson Kitson is located.