Overview
Explore a bygone Transcendentalist community whose pastoral landscape houses wide-ranging collections of art and artifacts. In 1843, Amos Bronson Alcott and Charles Lane turned a swath of Harvard farmland into a Transcendentalist experiment in subsistence farming and Emersonian self-reliance, named Fruitlands, which disbanded after only seven months. In 1914, Clara Endicott Sears opened the grounds to the public, establishing a museum in the property's 1820s farmhouse. Today, the 210-acre landscape encompasses five collections: the original Fruitlands Farmhouse; the Shaker Museum, the first such museum in the country; the Wayside Visitor Center; the Seasonal Gallery; and the Four Seasons Gallery. Enjoy the exhibits, hike the grounds, or attend events like the summer concert series and the annual fall craft festival.
