What Were They Fighting For? The Robbins House and the North Bridge

2023
The Robbins House

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next post: A Fight for Freedom: Patriots of Color Walking Tour

Thank you to everyone who #StoodupForEllen last ni

Thank you to everyone who #StoodupForEllen last night! The Robbins House is honored that so many town residents consider this the path forward to honor Ellen Garrison's legacy as an educator and her fight for racial equality.

Check out the doorknob. It looks like some transce

Check out the doorknob. It looks like some transcendental humans were out and about last night in the neighborhood. #TRH #AlwaysStandingUpForEllen

Come learn about Ellen Garrison's activism at a le

Come learn about Ellen Garrison's activism at a lecture at Bemis Hall in Lincoln this Friday at 12:30 pm.

Did you know that April is National Poetry Month?

Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? We have you covered with a little Robbins house trivia. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote a poem entitled Peter’s Field. Peter’s Field most likely referenced Peter Hutchinson, who was the last African American owner of The Robbins House. Peter purchased the home in 1852 and lived with his wife, Nancy, and several of their children in the home until 1868. Emerson described Peter’s farm, and by extension the original area of farmland attached to The Robbins House out in the Great Field like this:

KNOWS he who tills this lonely field
To reap its scanty corn,
What mystic fruit his acres yield
At midnight and at morn?]
That field by spirits bad and good,
By Hell and Heaven is haunted,
And every rood in the hemlock wood
I know is ground enchanted.
[In the long sunny afternoon
The plain was full of ghosts:
I wandered up,
I wandered down,
Beset by pensive hosts.
For in those lonely grounds the sun
Shines not as on the town,
In nearer arcs his journeys run,
And nearer stoops the moon.
There in a moment I have seen
The buried Past arise;
The fields of Thessaly grew green,
Old gods forsook the skies.

Happy Reading!

Come to Ellen's birthday celebration! We are holdi

Come to Ellen's birthday celebration! We are holding a birthday tribute this Sunday, April 14th from 3-5 pm at the Armory! Hear some inspiring words from Ellen's letters, listen to some music and poetry, and have some cake!

Our last stop on our #WalksWithEllen tour of town

Our last stop on our #WalksWithEllen tour of town is at the Brooks House. When Ellen moved to Boston in the early 1840’s, shortly after the death of her mother Susan, she carried with a letter of recommendation from Concord anti-slavery activist Mary Merrick Brooks. The letter was to Maria Weston Chapman, one of the founders of the Boston Female Antislavery Society. In the letter, Mary Brooks called Ellen, “a very intelligent girl for one of so few advantages, having born away the prize most frequently in our common schools for superiority of learning…she…is desirous to know something about the meetings of your Society in Boston, which she thinks of attending, if possible.” Mary Brooks also knew Ellen’s mother, Susan, of course, because Susan Garrison was one of the founding members of the Concord Female Anti-Slavery Society. Susan Garrison hosted the second meeting of the organization in her home in 1837. Interestingly the house was moved from Sudbury Road in the late 1800’s to the new Hubbard Street. During the late 19th-century, the house was one of several boarding houses run by widows on the streets west of the milldam.
If you have enjoyed learning about Ellen Garrison’s connections to sites in modern Concord, stay tuned for the Walks With Ellen walking tour coming this summer.

Join us for a birthday celebration for Ellen Garri

Join us for a birthday celebration for Ellen Garrison on Sunday, April 14th from 3-5 pm at the Concord Armory.

Have some cake and learn about Ellen's inspiring story!

Want to learn more about the Robbins and Garrison

Want to learn more about the Robbins and Garrison women and their neighbors in the Great Field? Come for a talk at the Concord Public Library on Tuesday, March 26th. Here's the link to register: https://concordlibrary.assabetinteractive.com/calendar/women-of-the-great-field-the-robbins-and-garrison-women-and-their-neighbors/

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