Meet Your Host Backcountry Cabins 4-Season Activities Private hiking trails Romantic getaway? Pet-friendly vacation Meet Our Guests! Rental Rates/Prices AvailabilityCalendar E-Z Inquiry Form Email Us Phone Help Desk Join Mailing List Maps & Directions Frequently Asked Questions Safety First!  and Guest Information Adirondack Photos Adirondack Poetry An Adirondack Miscellany Personal Potpourri The Fourpeaks Story 1968-present Select Link Pages

CLICK HERE to return to Thoreau House Home Page. Henry Thoreau's cabin at Walden Pond. In 1845, Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) quit work at his Dad's pencil factory in Concord, Massachusetts and moved to Walden Pond, where he remained for two and one half years, building a small cabin in deep woods and undertaking an experiment in solitary living. CLICK & GO! (On this page.)   In 1854, he published Walden . . .   Visitors to Thoreau House will want to experience the writing . . .   "I lived alone, in the woods . . ."   "I dug my cellar into the side of a hill . . ."   "I hewed the main timbers . . ."   "Before boarding I laid up the foundation of a chimney . . ."   "I began to occupy my house on the fourth of July . . ." "Before winter I built a chimney, and shingled the sides of my house." "At length, the winter set in good earnest."   "I have thus a tight, shingled and plastered house."   [Click on Photo For Full Size Image. Scroll down for all 20 photos on this page.]

Replica at Walden Pond State Reservation, Concord, MA.

Rear view, woodshed, free-standing chimney.

Cabin in woods.

Cabin in winter.

Cot, fireplace, writing table.

In 1854, he published Walden, a famous work, variously taken to be practical philosophy, a "how-to" for alternative living, an atheistical guide for the perplexed, and just natural history. Virtually unnoticed for 60 years, it came in time to be judged the finest example of writing in America, not only at home, but in Europe where it is even more highly venerated.
Writing of the period tends to be dense and difficult for modern tastes. But Thoreau's expressions, his earnest messages and musings, are wrought throughout with wit and poetic sensibility, making them accessible to (almost) all. (Continued)

[Click on Photo For Full Size Image. Scroll down for all 20 photos on this page.]

Drawing by Thoreau's sister, Sophia.

Open door, stone in doorway.

Lots of light.

No admittance to replica.

Ceiling with rough timbers.

Visitors to Thoreau House will want to experience this writing first hand, so we have the books right there and this story of how he built his house (you might say, cabin or hut) here in his own words. A further appreciation of the writings and excerpts from "Economy" is in preparation for April 2005. The photos are of the replica of Thoreau's cabin at Walden Pond State Reservation, Concord, MA. Text references to "Economy," Walden (1854) except where noted.  (Continued)

[Click on Photo For Full Size Image. Scroll down for all 20 photos on this page.]

Fireplace.

Light from large windows.

Writing desk.

Thoreau in 1854, Walden published.

Title page to Walden, or Life in the Woods (Sophia's drawing).

"I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months."

"Near the end of March, 1845, I borrowed an axe and went down to the woods by Walden Pond, nearest to where I intended to build my house, and began to cut down some tall arrowy white pines, still in their youth, for timber. It was a pleasant hillside where I worked, covered with pine woods, through which I looked out on the pond, and a small open field in the woods where pines and hickories were springing up."

"My house was on the side of a hill, immediately on the edge of the larger wood, in the midst of a young forest of pitch pines and hickories, and half a dozen rods from the pond, to which a narrow footpath led down the hill. In my front yard grew the strawberry, blackberry, and life-everlasting, johnswort and goldenrod, shrub oaks and sand cherry, blueberry and groundnut."  "Sounds," Walden.

"I dug my cellar into the side of a hill sloping to the south... six feet square by seven feet deep, to a fine sand... The sides were left shelving and not stoned...."

"The entrance to the cellar was 'thro a trap door in the center of the room. The king-post was an entire tree, extending from the bottom of the cellar to the ridge-pole, upon which we descended, as sailors do into the hold of a vessel."   "Joseph Hosmer, from an account of his visit to Thoreau's cabin." (Borst).

"I hewed the main timbers six inches square, most of the studs on two sides only, and the rafters and floor timbers on one side, leaving the rest of the bark on... each stick was carefully mortised or tenoned by its stump, for I had borrowed other tools by this time."

"By the middle of April, for I made no haste in my work, but rather made the most of it, my house was framed and ready for the raising. I had already bought the shanty of James Collins, an Irishman who worked on the Fitchburg Railroad, for boards.”

"At length, in the beginning of May, with the help of some of my acquaintances, rather to improve so good an occasion for neighborliness than from any necessity, I set up the frame of my house…"

"Before boarding I laid up the foundation of a chimney at one end, bringing two cart loads of stones up the hill from the pond in my arms. I built the chimney after my hoeing in the fall, before a fire became necessary for warmth…"

"When I came to build my chimney I studied masonry. My bricks being second-hand ones required to be cleaned with a trowel, so that I learned more than usual of the qualities of bricks and trowels... I filled the spaces between the bricks about the fireplace with stones from the pond shore, and also made my mortar with the white sand from the same place... Indeed I worked so deliberately, that though I commenced at the ground in the morning, a course of bricks raised a few inches above the floor served for my pillow at night... I was so pleased to see my work rising so square and solid by degrees, and reflected, that, if it proceeded slowly, it was calculated to endure a long time. The chimney is to some extent an independent structure, standing on the ground and rising through the house to the heavens; even after the house is burned it still stands sometimes, and its importance and independence are apparent."  "House Warming," Walden.

"I began to occupy my house on the fourth of July, as soon as it was boarded and roofed, for the boards were carefully feather-edged and lapped, so that it was perfectly impervious to rain..."

"When I first took up my abode in the woods... the fourth of July, 1845, my house was not finished... but was merely a defence against the rain, without plastering or chimney, the walls being of rough weather-stained boards, with wide chinks, which made it cool at night. The upright white hewn studs and freshly planed door and window casings gave it a clean and airy look..."  "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For," Walden.

Before winter I built a chimney, and shingled the sides of my house, which were already impervious to rain, with imperfect and sappy shingles made of the first slice of the log, whose edges I was obliged to straighten with a plane”

"My house had in the meanwhile been shingled down to the ground on every side..." "House Warming," Walden. "...with imperfect and sappy shingles made of the first slice of the log, whose edges I was obliged to straighten with a plane."

"...before I plastered my house, the chimney carried smoke particularly well, because of the numerous chinks between the boards...surrounded by the rough brown boards full of knots, and rafters with bark on high overhead. My house never pleased my eye so much after it was plastered, though I was obliged to confess that it was more comfortable. Should not every apartment in which man dwells be lofty enough to create some obscurity overhead, where flickering shadows may play at evening about the rafters?"-p. 242, Walden. "I did not plaster till it was freezing weather. I brought over some whiter and cleaner sand for this purpose... In lathing I was pleased to be able to send home each nail with a single blow of the hammer and it was my ambition to transfer the plaster from the board to the wall neatly and rapidly ... I was surprised to see how thirsty the bricks were which drank up all the moisture in my plaster before I had smoothed it..."  "House Warming," Walden.

"At length, the winter set in good earnest, just as I had finished plastering, and the wind began to howl around the house as if it had not had permission to do so till then."  "House Warming," Walden.

"I had no lock nor bolt but for the desk which held my papers, not even a nail to put over my latch or windows. I never fastened my door night or day." "The Village," Walden.

"I have thus a tight, shingled and plastered house, ten feet wide by fifteen feet long, and eight feet posts, with a garret and closet, a large window on each side, two trap doors, one door at the end, and a brick fireplace opposite."

CLICK HERE to return to Thoreau House Home Page. . 
Are you in this picture? Fourpeaks hosts now welcome paying guests to a 700-acre rest and playground for vacations in the Adirondack Great Camp tradition. Couples appreciate Fourpeaks secluded settings. Adventure families have fun exploring our accessible wilderness. Folks with dogs enjoy the open spaces to run their pets. A private nature retreat, a place for restoring personal energies. Are you in this picture?  CLICK HERE to find out!    [More about this at Frequently Asked Questions.]

Inquire about a Fourpeaks Adirondack Vacation/Getaway.   (Easy Inquiry Form.)

Email us  with questions or feedback.   (Easy Email form.)

Phone our Help Desk with  Tollfree or  Cell phone contact any time.

No time for Fourpeaks right now?
Keep up with us through occasional newsletters. CLICK for sample.
"Hints of Balsam and Pine from our Corner of the Adirondacks"
Join our mailing list!  (Easy form.)

Enjoyed your Fourpeaks visit?  CLICK to Tell a Friend!  (Easy popup Email form.)
Please Rate Our Fourpeaks Website. Whether you're an experienced webmaster or just a novice surfer, you may have feedback or suggestions to help us improve. We well remember the visitor a year or so ago who complained about the unpleasant glare from the HTML default royal blue links. That lead us to entirely revamp our background and link colors, making them softer, more eye pleasing. And the Florida expert who warned us about frustrating visitors with blind links. We followed his advice and now carefully identify each link so visitors know before they "click" exactly where they're clicking to.
Your comments or suggestions will be equally appreciated. 
[CLICK HERE for easy email form for your feedback/suggestions.]  Thanks.