Just who are Joan
and Alida anyway?
We’re two history nerds who are crazy about Concord, hot for Hawthorne,
and thrilled by Thoreau!
Well, ok. We’re actually fully licensed
Concord Town Guides, but all
that other stuff is still true.
After a few years of working with visitors at The Old Manse, we began to notice that although lots of people arrive here with a burning love of literature and history, they end up seeing only a fraction of what Concord has to offer. Sometimes they even have to return home with their history-craving not fully satisfied!
So we got to thinking...What if there was a way for visitors to experience as many historic sites as possible, without the difficulty of trying to plan it themselves? What if there was a single tour that could encompass ALL our authors and their most significant ideas - in just a few hours?
Well, that just tickled our literary, loquacious, little hearts. And thus, Gatepost Tours was born.
Our ultimate goal is that you thoroughly enjoy your time here in Concord while getting to see more than the average enthusiast. We’re so excited to share all the things that make this town an exceptional place to visit. But first, we feel we should warn you: Exploring nineteenth-century literature might be way more fun than you ever imagined.
If you can handle that, then go ahead, book a tour!
You know you want to.
Give us a call or send an email. We’d love to hear from you!
Happy travels,
Alida and Joan
Joan, being absolutely fabulous in Las Vegas
Joan Spinazola
previous occupation
stand-up comic
Favorite Concord resident
Ezra Ripley
Number of jokes told
millions!
Number of funny jokes told
3.14 (she likes pie)
Alida Bailey
previous occupation
computer nerd
favorite Concord resident
the elephant (ask me why!)
number of left feet
two
Number of feet tall
two
Alida, geeking out on the wallpaper while
giving a tour at The Old Manse
©Copyright 2011 Gatepost Tours, LLC
A little irreverent. A lot of fun.
“I held it as a proof that they left their cares behind them as they passed between the stone gateposts at the entrance of our avenue...”
Nathaniel Hawthorne on the happiness of visitors to The Old Manse. Mosses From an Old Manse, published in 1846
Some classes we’ve taken
- Town History and Guide Training (2008/2009)
- Advanced Concord History “Digging Deeper” (2010)
-
-Conscience of a Community:
Slavery and Anti-Slavery in Concord
(Feb-Apr 2011)
Since 2007 we’ve been guiding, educating and learning from Concord’s wonderful visitors who, whether they meant to or not, gave us an idea...
Some of our favorite history books we’ve read
(and highly recommend!)
The Peabody Sisters, Megan Marshall
The Minutemen and Their World, Robert A. Gross
American Transcendentalism, Philip F. Gura
Emerson: The Mind On Fire, Robert D. Richardson
The Remarkable Mrs. Ripley, Joan W. Goodwin
Hawthorne in Concord, Philip James McFarland
Dearest Beloved: The Hawthornes and the Making
of the Middle-Class Family, T. Walter Herbert
Louisa May Alcott, Madeleine Stern
Eden’s Outcasts, John Matteson
Black Walden, Elise Lemire
Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind, Robert D. Richardson
The Old Manse and gateposts. Drawing by May Alcott, originally published in her book, Concord Sketches, 1869 © The Louisa May Alcott Memorial Association/Orchard House.
Sharing a joke with Emerson at the Concord Library!