Ahead of you is the Ralph Waldo Emerson House at 18 Cambridge Turnpike, a National Historic Landmark and house museum. The home Emerson and his family called Bush is open mid-April to mid-October, with an admission fee. The house you see was built in 1828 by the Coolidge family and originally named "Coolidge Castle.
It began as a summer house on the village outskirts beside the Cambridge and Concord Turnpike. Its four-square, two-story frame is in a house style common to many New England towns. As you look, think of the moment in July 1835 when Emerson wrote in his journal, "I bought my house and two acres six rods of land of John T. Coolidge for 3,500 dollars.
He had courted Lydia Jackson — whom he called "Lidian" — and told her he could not live in her hometown, writing, "Plymouth is streets", "I live in the wide champaign. He and Jackson married on September 14 and moved into the house the next day, along with his mother. Notice the house's simple four-square frame beside the turnpike, set on the two acres and six rods Emerson bought.