“There is often surprise from folks who can’t get over what Louisa could do with such a small space,” said Turnquist, adding that Alcott’s father built the desk for her. But much of that has to do with the fact that Louisa May Alcott herself put the profits from “Little Women” back into the house - giving it fresh paint and wallpaper and replacing the floor mats with carpeting.īut one of the most popular stops on the home tour is one of its more modest features: the tiny desk at which Alcott wrote “Little Women.”

He lived there with his wife and daughters until 1877.īecause there’s so much emphasis on how poor the March family is in “Little Women,” some visitors are surprised by how large the Alcott residence seems, Turnquist said. The family patriarch ultimately conjoined the home with a smaller tenant farmhouse and named it Orchard House, after the 40 apple trees on the land. At the time, the family home was a run-down manor house that had been on the property since the 1660s - a building “essentially thrown into the deal for free because it was in such horrible condition,” Turnquist said. Production designer Jess Gonchor spent hours going through the 19th century home so that his team could construct its own version of the American Colonial structure two miles down the road on a 50-acre piece of land.Īlcott’s father, Amos Bronson Alcott, bought the 12 acres of land where Orchard House now sits for $945 in 1857. But unlike with previous incarnations of Alcott’s story, the filmmaker took pains to make the movie in Concord, using the natural landscapes that inspired the author and her contemporaries, Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Gerwig’s “Little Women,” which was nominated for six Oscars including best picture, was not, in fact, shot at Orchard House. When guests come in, if they’re greeted with joy, any wait is much more manageable and even pleasant.” And that’s part of why we spent some time beta testing ways to make things work a little smoother. “Ballets or plays or PBS productions of the book - all of those do affect people’s interest, but not as powerfully as a major motion picture. “This is somewhat similar to what happened in 1994,” said Turnquist. In 1994, when she was still working as a tour guide, she saw how many fresh faces turned up following the release of the Gillian Armstrong adaptation starring Winona Ryder and Susan Sarandon.

Turnquist, who has served as the museum’s executive director for just over two decades, is well acquainted with the impact a “Little Women” movie can have on the home.

Little women orchard house