Thoreau’s Cabin in Sudbury
There’s a little cabin on the perimeter of my kids’ school, and I had never thought much about it until someone a tad more curious than I posted in our town’s Facebook group, asking “Hey, what is this?” And guess what? The answer was so interesting!
Turns out the cabin is a replica of the cabin that the darling of Transcendentalist-era Concord (aka Henry David Thoreau) lived in for 2+ years. His reflections of this time became Walden; or Life in the Woods, first published in 1854. If you’re American, you probably had to read excerpts of Thoreau’s reflections on self-reliance, nature, and “human development” in either high school or college. Before I explain why the heck there is a Walden cabin replica in a high school parking lot, there are two things to note about Thoreau, who society has romanticized just a bit.
While Thoreau did, sort-of live in an “austere way,” his was a self-imposed “exile.” Historian Elise Lemire has written a book called Black Walden that shares the history of the black residents who lived in Walden Woods because they couldn’t prove their freedom outside of Concord. The area was also a landing spot for Irish immigrants – who weren’t considered “white.”
Critics like to joke about how Thoreau liked to go in to town to see his mother, for example – and probably get a nice, home-cooked meal. If you’ve been to Walden, you know that it is not far from Concord’s town center.
But anyway, the cabin at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School was created as part of a 1997 class called…Building Thoreau’s Cabin. It was built in the school’s auto shop. The Boston Bricklayers Union was impressed because the students built it using minimal power tools, so they donated labor to build the chimney and fireplace. The teacher who spearheaded this project is now retired, but his website is a fascinating compendium of all of his interests, many of which he shared in an incredibly dynamic fashion with his students. This cabin is a perfect example of bringing the written word and history to life. #ReadingIsRelevant
originally published on instagram