The Hawthornes
After living for a time in a rented home in Lenox, Massachusetts, author Nathaniel Hawthorne considered purchasing a home for his family. He assured his wife Sophia Peabody that his publishers Ticknor & Fields "promise the most liberal advances of money, should we need it, towards buying the house." On March 8, 1852, Hawthorne finalized his purchase of the house for $1,500 from the Alcotts. After buying the house, Hawthorne wrote, "Mr Alcott... had wasted a good deal of money in fitting it up to suit his own taste—all of which improvements I get for little or nothing. Having been much neglected, the place is the raggedest in the world but it will make, sooner or later, a comfortable and sufficiently pleasant home." The Hawthornes had previously lived in Concord at The Old Manse, which they moved to after their July 9, 1842, wedding. Their new home was about two miles from there and the couple moved in with their three children in June. Nathaniel renamed it "The Wayside", noting that it stood so close to the road that it could have been mistaken for a coach stop. He explained in a letter: "I think a better name, and more morally suggestive than that which... Mr. Alcott... bestowed on it." Bronson never accepted the name change and continued referring to it as "Hillside".
Read more about this topic: The Wayside