The Old Manse was home to residents who helped spark American independence and, across generations, shaped the young nation’s literature, culture, and philosophy. In 1770, Reverend Will Emerson urged his congregation to look beyond their farms to the larger struggle against British rule, and five years later Concord became a center of rebellion and the site of the Battle of Concord, one of the first battles of the American Revolution. In 1835, Reverend Dr. Ezra Ripley donated land near the ancient Bridge for a monument, beginning a growing effort to remember the beginnings of the United States. That same year, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote Nature at The Old Manse, and its opening lines helped form Transcendentalism, a uniquely American philosophy holding that every individual has a capacity for good unlocked through experience and reflection in God’s creation, nature. In 1842, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote Mosses from an Old Manse there, the first book to bring him popular acclaim, while his wife Sophia painted downstairs; together they advanced as one of the first distinctly American authors and one of the first acclaimed female American artists. In 1845, Sarah Alden Bradford Ripley, praised by Emerson for her insatiable curiosity and intellectual power, balanced the roles of minister’s wife, teacher, and mother with her place in Concord’s literary and philosophical circles. In 1938, after more than 150 years in the same family, descendants led by Sarah Ripley Thayer Ames arranged with The Trustees to purchase the house and about four acres for $17,500, preserving it for the public and helping set The Trustees on a course of acquiring places of natural and historical importance across Massachusetts.