2. Concord Center, 1860s.
Early photographic print.
CFPL Photofile.

This photograph shows Concord as it looked during the Civil War era.  The home of Nathan and Mary Merrick Brooks is visible in the distance, to the right, in this view west down Main Street.  (Mrs. Brooks was one of Concord's most active abolitionists.)   The house, which stood at the intersection of Main and Sudbury, was moved in 1872 to permit construction of the Concord Free Public Library.  The fenced brick Hastings place at the corner of Walden and Main (where the Thoreau family lived for a time) was moved back when Main Street was widened to improve the view of the planned library from the town center, and taken down late in the nineteenth century.