Emerson died in October 1776 in West Rutland, Vermont, while returning home from Fort Ticonderoga.

In October 1834, Ralph Waldo Emerson moved to Concord and boarded at the Manse where he lived with his aging step-grandfather Ezra Ripley.

In May 1845, future President of the United States Franklin Pierce visited along with their mutual Bowdoin College friend Horatio Bridge.

Peabody recalled the meeting fondly and recorded her first impression of Pierce as "loveliness and truth of character and natural refinement.

"[12] Another visitor was Margaret Fuller, whose sister Ellen had married another Concord writer named Ellery Channing in 1842.

Upon hearing of her engagement, Fuller had written to Sophia Peabody, "If ever I saw a man who combined delicate tenderness to understand the heart of a woman, with quiet depths and manliness enough to satisfy her, it is Mr.

[14] In the introduction to that collection, he described the Old Manse: "Between two tall gateposts of roughhewn stone... we behold the gray front of the old parsonage, terminating the vista of an avenue of black ash trees.

Returning to Concord seven years later, by then living on the other side of town at The Wayside, Sophia Hawthorne visited the Old Manse on October 1, 1852, and referred to it as "the beloved old house".

The house was conveyed complete with all its furnishings, and contains a remarkable collection of furniture, books, kitchen implements, dishware, and other items, as well as original wallpaper, woodwork, windows and architectural features.

The on-site book store in the house specializes in the American Revolution, women's history, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Transcendentalism, and sustainability.