Concord, Massachusetts

File:Massachusetts - Cape Cod Canal through Lexington - NARA - 23941295 (cropped).jpg

File:Egg Rock Inscription.jpg

The area which became the town of Concord was originally known as "Musketaquid", situated at the confluence of the Sudbury and Assabet rivers.{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9025094/Concord#195620.hook|title=Concord|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=April 9, 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016154159/https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9025094/Concord#195620.hook|archive-date=October 16, 2007}} The name was an Algonquian word for "grassy plain", fitting the area's low-lying marshes and kettle holes."Native Americans, Colonial Settlement, and the Concord River". Lowell Land Trust. Retrieved July 28, 2013. Native Americans had cultivated corn crops there; the rivers were rich with fish and the land was lush and arable.{{cite web|url=http://www.newenglandancestors.org/education/articles/research/special_guests/member_staff/peter_bulkeley_deacon_and_co_founder_of_concord_m_659_517.asp

|title=Peter Bulkeley: Settlement in Concord|publisher=New England Historic Genealogical Society|access-date=April 9, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927032104/http://www.newenglandancestors.org/education/articles/research/special_guests/member_staff/peter_bulkeley_deacon_and_co_founder_of_concord_m_659_517.asp |archive-date=September 27, 2007}} The area was largely depopulated in 1633 by an epidemic of smallpox,{{cite web|last=Shattuck|first=Lemuel|author-link=Lemuel Shattuck|title=History of the Town of Concord, Mass|publisher=RootsWeb|year=1835|url=http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ma/middlesex/towns/concord/histch01.txt|access-date=February 5, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071120161419/http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ma/middlesex/towns/concord/histch01.txt |archive-date=November 20, 2007}} a disease likely to have been introduced to the New World by European explorers and settlers.{{Cite journal|last=Riley|first=James C.|title=Smallpox and American Indians Revisited|journal=Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences|volume=65|issue=4|pages=445–477|year=2010|doi=10.1093/jhmas/jrq005|jstor=24631803|pmid=20219730|pmc=}}

In 1635, a group of English settlers led by Rev. Peter Bulkley and Major Simon Willard received a land grant from the General Court and negotiated a land purchase with the local indigenous tribes. Bulkeley was an influential religious leader who "carried a good number of planters with him into the woods";Moses Coit Tyler (1883). A History of American Literature, G. P. Putnam's Sons. Willard was a canny trader who spoke the Algonquian language and had gained the trust of Native Americans."Simon Willard's Life In Concord." Marian H. Wheeler, Willard Family Association. Retrieved on July 28, 2013. They exchanged wampum, hatchets, knives, cloth, and other useful items for the {{Convert|6|sqmi|km2|adj=on|spell=in}} purchase from Squaw Sachem of Mistick, which formed the basis of the new town, called "Concord" in appreciation of the peaceful acquisition.{{cite book|title=Boston Monthly Magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qvo-AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA535|year=1825|publisher=S.L. Knapp|pages=535–536}}

{{main|Battles of Lexington and Concord}}

The battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War.{{cite web|url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-american-revolution-begins|title=The American Revolution begins|access-date=June 21, 2018|work=History.com|date=November 13, 2009 |publisher=A&E Television Networks, LLC.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180324020541/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-american-revolution-begins|archive-date=March 24, 2018}} On April 19, 1775, 700 British Army troops led by Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Smith marched from Boston to Concord to confiscate a cache of arms stored in the town. Unbeknownst to them, Patriot leaders had moved most of the cache elsewhere. 150 Patriot minutemen from local towns, who had been forewarned of the Army's march by Samuel Prescott on April 18, quickly mustered and confronted the British in Lexington. Though who fired the first shot is unknown, a firefight broke out and the British fired a volley at the Americans before dispersing them with a bayonet charge, killing eight. The British proceeded into Concord and dispersed into company-sized formations to search for the cache. At 11:00am, 400 minutemen engaged 100 British troops at the Old North Bridge, leading to a number of casualties on both sides and forcing them to fall back and rejoin the Army's main force.{{cite web|url=http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/apr19.html|title=Today In History: April 19th|publisher=The Library of Congress|access-date=April 3, 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070302164826/http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/apr19.html|archive-date=March 2, 2007}}

After the British completed their search for the cache in Concord, they marched back to Boston, but were constantly attacked by minutemen in hit-and-run attacks, suffering more casualties before reaching Charlestown, Boston. The minutemen then blockaded the narrow land accesses to Charlestown, initiating the siege of Boston. Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson subsequently described the shot fired by the minutemen at the Old North Bridge in his 1837 poem "Concord Hymn" as the "shot heard round the world".{{cite book|last=Randolph|first=Ryan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DItAX0GNQpwC&pg=PT85|title=Paul Revere and the Minutemen of the American Revolution|year=2002|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group|isbn=9780823957279|via=Google Books|access-date=April 9, 2007}}{{cite web|last=Gioia|first=Dana|url=http://www.danagioia.net/essays/elongfellow.htm|title=On 'Paul Revere's Ride' by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow|access-date=April 2, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070203195658/http://www.danagioia.net/essays/elongfellow.htm|archive-date=February 3, 2007}} In 1894, the Lexington Historical Society petitioned the Massachusetts State Legislature to proclaim April 19 "Lexington Day"; Concord countered with "Concord Day". Governor Frederic T. Greenhalge opted for a compromise, proclaiming the day as Patriots' Day. In April 1975, Concord hosted a bicentennial celebration of the battle, featuring an address at the Old North Bridge by President Gerald Ford.{{cite web|url=http://www.mass.gov/lib/|title=Featured Resource: Photograph Collection 374|publisher=The State Library of Massachusetts|access-date=April 9, 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070221042633/http://www.mass.gov/lib/|archive-date=February 21, 2007}}

File:The Old Manse (view from Concord River), Concord, Massachusetts.JPG, home to Ralph Waldo Emerson and later Nathaniel Hawthorne]]

Concord has a remarkably rich literary history centered in the 19th century around Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), who moved there in 1835 and quickly became its most prominent citizen.{{cite web|url=http://www.concordlibrary.org/scollect/Emerson_Celebration/Introduction.html|title=Emerson in Concord|publisher=Concord Public Library – Special Collections|access-date=April 18, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929163320/http://www.concordlibrary.org/scollect/Emerson_Celebration/Introduction.html|archive-date=September 29, 2007}} A successful lecturer and philosopher, Emerson had deep roots in the town: his father, Rev. William Emerson (1769–1811), grew up in Concord before becoming an eminent Boston minister, and his grandfather, William Emerson Sr., witnessed the battle at the North Bridge from his house, and later became a chaplain in the Continental Army.{{cite web|url=http://www.concordnet.org/library/scollect/Emerson_Celebration/Section_1_Essay.html|title=Emerson's Concord Heritage|publisher=Concord Public Library – Special Collections|access-date=April 9, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070205235202/http://www.concordnet.org/library/scollect/Emerson_Celebration/Section_1_Essay.html |archive-date=February 5, 2007}} Emerson was at the center of a group of like-minded Transcendentalists living in Concord.{{cite web|url=http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/northeast/wldn.htm|title=Henry David Thoreau|publisher=Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation|access-date=April 9, 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070408022438/http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/northeast/wldn.htm|archive-date=April 8, 2007}} Among them were the author Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) and the philosopher Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888), the father of Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888). A native Concordian, Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) was another notable member of Emerson's circle. This substantial collection of literary talent in one small town led Henry James to dub Concord "the biggest little place in America."{{cite news|last=Kehe|first=Marjorie|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1219/p14s02-bogn.html|title=Scenes from an American Eden|newspaper=The Christian Science Monitor|access-date=March 6, 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070210092738/http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1219/p14s02-bogn.html|archive-date=February 10, 2007}}

Among the products of this intellectually stimulating environment were Emerson's many essays, including Self-Reliance (1841), Louisa May Alcott's novel Little Women (1868), and Hawthorne's story collection Mosses from an Old Manse (1846).{{cite web|last=Perry|first=Bliss|url=http://www.authorama.com/american-spirit-in-literature-6.html|title=The American Spirit in Literature: The Transcendentalists|publisher=Authorama.com (public domain)|access-date=April 9, 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929091421/http://www.authorama.com/american-spirit-in-literature-6.html|archive-date=September 29, 2007}} Thoreau famously lived in a small cabin near Walden Pond, where he wrote Walden (1854).{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/walden/|title=Thoreau's Walden, Present at the Creation|publisher=National Public Radio|access-date=April 9, 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070403133625/http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/walden/|archive-date=April 3, 2007}} After being imprisoned in the Concord jail for refusing to pay taxes in political protest against slavery and the Mexican–American War, Thoreau penned the influential essay "Resistance to Civil Government", popularly known as Civil Disobedience (1849).{{cite web|last=McElroy|first=Wendy|url=http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0503e.asp|title=Henry David Thoreau and 'Civil Disobedience'|publisher=The Future of Freedom Foundation|access-date=April 9, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070404173449/http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0503e.asp|archive-date=April 4, 2007}} Evidencing their strong political beliefs through actions, Thoreau and many of his neighbors served as station masters and agents on the Underground Railroad.{{cite web|url=http://www.calliope.org/thoreau/thurro/thurro2.html|title=Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, and the Underground Railroad|publisher=The Thoreau Project|access-date=December 6, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111116030252/http://www.calliope.org/thoreau/thurro/thurro2.html|archive-date=November 16, 2011}}

The Wayside, a house on Lexington Road, has been home to several authors.{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/archive/mima/wayside/index1.htm|title=The Wayside|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=April 9, 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070510062509/http://www.nps.gov/archive/mima/wayside/index1.htm|archive-date=May 10, 2007}} It was occupied by scientist John Winthrop (1714–1779) when Harvard College was temporarily moved to Concord during the Revolutionary War.{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/archive/mima/wayside/Histfrm1.htm|title=The Wayside: History|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=April 9, 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071120022552/http://www.nps.gov/archive/mima/wayside/Histfrm1.htm|archive-date=November 20, 2007}} The Wayside was later the home of the Alcott family (who referred to it as "Hillside"); the Alcotts sold it to Hawthorne in 1852, and the family moved into the adjacent Orchard House in 1858. Hawthorne dubbed the house "The Wayside" and lived there until his death. The house was purchased in 1883 by Boston publisher Daniel Lothrop and his wife, Harriett, who wrote the Five Little Peppers series and other children's books under the pen name Margaret Sidney.{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/archive/mima/wayside/Marg.htm|title=The Wayside Authors|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=April 9, 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070422161547/http://www.nps.gov/archive/mima/wayside/Marg.htm|archive-date=April 22, 2007}} Today, The Wayside and the Orchard House are both museums. Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and the Alcotts are buried on Authors' Ridge in Concord's Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.{{cite news|last=Lipman|first=Lisa|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20001129.TR29GRAV/TPStory/Travel|title=Writers rest in Sleepy Hollow|publisher=The Globe & Mail|access-date=April 9, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930065400/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20001129.TR29GRAV/TPStory/Travel|archive-date=September 30, 2007}}

The 20th-century composer Charles Ives wrote his Concord Sonata ({{circa|1904–1915|lk=no}}) as a series of impressionistic portraits of literary figures associated with the town. Concord maintains a lively literary culture to this day; notable authors who have called the town home in recent years include Doris Kearns Goodwin, Alan Lightman, Robert B. Parker, and Gregory Maguire.

In 1849, Ephraim Wales Bull developed the now-ubiquitous Concord grape at his home on Lexington Road, where the original vine still grows.{{cite web|url=http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/1988-48-4--he-sowed-others-reaped-ephraim-wales-bull-and-the-origins-of-the-concord-grape.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150609153316/http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/1988-48-4--he-sowed-others-reaped-ephraim-wales-bull-and-the-origins-of-the-concord-grape.pdf|archive-date=June 9, 2015|url-status=live|title="He Sowed; Others Reaped": Ephraim Wales Bull and the Origins of the 'Concord' Grape|last=Schofield|first=Edmund A.|year=1988|pages=4–15}} Welch's, the first company to sell grape juice, maintains a headquarters in Concord.{{cite web|url=http://www.welchs.com|title=All About Welch's: General Company Information|publisher=Welchs.com|access-date=March 28, 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170405211550/http://welchs.com/|archive-date=April 5, 2017}} The Boston-born Bull developed the Concord grape by experimenting with seeds from some of the native species. On his farm outside Concord, down the road from the Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne and Alcott homesteads, he planted some 22,000 seedlings before producing the ideal grape. Early ripening, to escape the killing northern frosts, but with a rich, full-bodied flavor, the hardy Concord grape thrives where European cuttings had failed to survive. In 1853, Bull felt ready to put the first bunches of Concord grapes before the public and won a prize at the Boston Horticultural Society Exhibition. From these early arbors, the fame of Bull's ("the father of the Concord grape") Concord grape spread worldwide, bringing him up to $1,000 a cutting, but he died a relatively poor man. The inscription on his tombstone reads, "He sowed—others reaped."{{cite web|url=https://www.concordgrape.org/bodyhistory.html|title=The History|year=2014|access-date=June 21, 2018|work=Concord Grape Association|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180621043045/https://www.concordgrape.org/bodyhistory.html|archive-date=June 21, 2018|url-status=dead}}

On September 5, 2012, Concord became the first community in the United States to approve a ban on the sale of water in single-serving plastic bottles. The law banned the sale of PET bottles of {{Convert|1|L|U.S.oz|sp=us|spell=in}} or less starting January 1, 2013.{{cite web|last=Llanos|first=Miguel|title=Concord, Mass., the first US city to ban the sale of plastic water bottles|url=http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/07/13710037-concord-mass-the-first-us-city-to-ban-sale-of-plastic-water-bottles?lite|work=NBC News|access-date=September 7, 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120909003553/http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/07/13710037-concord-mass-the-first-us-city-to-ban-sale-of-plastic-water-bottles?lite|archive-date=September 9, 2012}} The ban provoked national controversy. An editorial in the Los Angeles Times characterized the ban as "born of convoluted reasoning" and "wrongheaded."{{cite news|title=Concord Misfires in Plastic Bottle War|url=https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-xpm-2012-sep-13-la-ed-plastic-bottles-ban-concord-20120913-story.html|access-date=April 11, 2014|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=September 13, 2013|url-status=live|archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20140412103708/http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/13/opinion/la-ed-plastic-bottles-ban-concord-20120913|archive-date=April 12, 2014}} Some residents believed the ban would do little to affect the sales of bottled water, which was still highly accessible in the surrounding areas,{{cite web|title=Concord, Massachusetts Bans Sale of Small Water Bottles|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-20895902|work=BBC News|publisher=BBC|access-date=April 11, 2014|date=January 2, 2013|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140428032426/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-20895902|archive-date=April 28, 2014}} and that it restricted consumers' freedom of choice.{{cite news|last=Weir|first=Richard|title=Battling Bottle Ban in Concord: Activists' Anger Not Kept Bottled Up|url=http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/01/battling_bottle_ban_concord|access-date=April 11, 2014|newspaper=Boston Herald|date=January 6, 2013|page=3|url-status=live|archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20140413143850/http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/01/battling_bottle_ban_concord|archive-date=April 13, 2014}} Opponents also considered the ban to unfairly target one product in particular, when other, less healthy alternatives such as soda and fruit juice were still readily available in bottled form.{{cite news|last=Lefferts|first=Jennifer Fenn|title=Concord to Revisit Ban on Water Bottles|newspaper=Boston Globe|date=October 13, 2013|page=Region 5}}{{cite web|title=Nanny State Alert: Massachusetts Town Bans Bottled Water!|url=http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/04/04/nanny-state-alert-massachusetts-town-bans-bottled-water|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140411040524/http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/04/04/nanny-state-alert-massachusetts-town-bans-bottled-water|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 11, 2014|work=Fox News Insider|publisher=Fox News|access-date=April 11, 2014|date=April 4, 2013}} Nonetheless, subsequent efforts to repeal the ban have failed in open town meetings.{{cite news|last=Anderson|first=Leslie|title=Concord Town Meeting rejects repeal of plastic water bottle ban|url=http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/concord/2013/12/concord_rejects_repeal_of_plastic_water_bottle_ban.html|access-date=July 30, 2015|newspaper=Boston Globe|date=December 5, 2013|page=3|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151006112657/http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/concord/2013/12/concord_rejects_repeal_of_plastic_water_bottle_ban.html|archive-date=October 6, 2015}} An effort to repeal Concord's ban on the sale of plastic water bottles was resoundingly defeated at a Town Meeting. Resident Jean Hill,[https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/11/19/jean-hill-who-led-concord-plastic-bottle-ban-effort-dies/ZAfuGr4YcoLPi4TXkMUMKI/story.html "Jean Hill, who led Concord plastic bottle ban effort, dies at 90"] – Boston Globe, November 19, 2017 who led the initial fight for the ban, said, "I really feel at the age of 86 that I've really accomplished something." Town Moderator Eric Van Loon didn't even bother taking an official tally because opposition to repeal was so overwhelming. It appeared that upwards of 80 to 90 percent of the 1,127 voters in attendance raised their ballots against the repeal measure. The issue had been bubbling in Concord for several years. In 2010, a ban approved in a town meeting, which wasn't written as a bylaw, was rejected by the state attorney general's office. In 2011, a new version of the ban narrowly failed at a town meeting by a vote of 265 to 272. The ban on selling water in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles of one liter or less passed in 2012 by a vote of 403 to 364, and a repeal effort in April failed by a vote of 621 to 687.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of {{convert|25.9|sqmi|km2}}, of which {{convert|24.9|sqmi|km2}} is land and {{convert|1.0|sqmi|km2}}, or 3.75%, is water. The city of Lowell is {{convert|13|mi}} to the north, Boston is {{convert|19|mi}} to the east, and Nashua, New Hampshire, is {{convert|23|mi}} to the north.

Massachusetts state routes 2, 2A, 62, 126, 119, 111, and 117 pass through Concord. The town center is near the confluence of the Sudbury and Assabet rivers, forming the Concord River, which flows north to the Merrimack River in Lowell. Gunpowder was manufactured from 1835 to 1940 in the American Powder Mills complex extending upstream along the Assabet River.{{cite book|last=Mark|first=David A.|title=Hidden History of Maynard|publisher=The History Press|year=2014|pages=78–82|isbn=978-1626195417}}

{{Further|Annursnac Hill}}

{{Geographic location

|width=auto

|Centre=Concord

|North=Carlisle

|Northeast=

|South=Wayland

|East=Bedford

|Southeast=Lincoln

|Southwest=Sudbury

|Northwest=Acton

|West=Maynard

}}

Local government consists of a five-member executive Select Board{{cite web|title=Select Board|url=https://concordma.gov/1180/Select-Board|publisher=Town of Concord|access-date=February 27, 2022}} and a legislature utilizing open town meeting.

On the federal level, Concord is part of Massachusetts's 3rd congressional district, represented by Lori Trahan. The state's senior (Class I) member of the United States Senate is Elizabeth Warren. The junior (Class II) senator is Ed Markey.

{{See also|List of Massachusetts locations by per capita income}}

{{Historical populations|type=USA

|1850|2249

|1860|2246

|1870|2412

|1880|3922

|1890|4427

|1900|5652

|1910|6421

|1920|6461

|1930|7477

|1940|7972

|1950|8623

|1960|12517

|1970|16148

|1980|16293

|1990|17076

|2000|16993

|2010|17668

|2020|18491

|2022*|17954

|footnote=*=population estimate. {{Historical populations/Massachusetts municipalities references}}{{cite web|title=City and Town Population Totals: 2020−2022|publisher=United States Census Bureau|access-date=November 25, 2023|url=https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/popest/2020s-total-cities-and-towns.html}}

}}

At the 2020 census, there were 18,491 people, 7,295 housing units and 6,439 families residing in the town. The population density was {{convert|714.0|PD/sqmi|PD/km2|sp=us|adj=off}}. The average density of housing units was {{convert|282.0|/sqmi|/km2|sp=us|adj=off}}. The racial makeup of the town was 82.94% White, 2.61% African American, 6.18% Asian, 4.55% Hispanic or Latino (of any race), 0.02% Native American, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 1.02% from other races, and 6.86% from two or more races.

There were 6,439 families, of which 35.98% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.98% were married couples living together, 22.4% had a female householder with no spouse present, 12.4% had a male householder with no spouse present, and 28.42% were non-families, and 24.59% of all households were made up of individuals. The average family size was 3.18.

25.1% of the population were under the age of 18, 4.2% from 18 to 24, 25.8% from 25 to 44, 28.4% from 45 to 64, and 16.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females, there were 100.3 males. For every 100 women aged 18 and over, there were 101.8 men.

At the time of the 2020 census, the median household income was $184,086. About 2.5% of the population was below the poverty line, including 1.7% of those under age 18 and 1.1% of those aged 65 or over.

The town's name is pronounced by its residents as {{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|ɒ|ŋ|k|ər|d}} {{respell|KONG|kərd}}, in a manner indistinguishable from the American pronunciation of the word "conquered."{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.bartleby.com/61/94/C0549400.html|title=Concord|dictionary=The American Heritage Dictionary|access-date=April 10, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071120005244/http://www.bartleby.com/61/94/C0549400.html|archive-date=November 20, 2007}} In the local dialect of Greater Boston, it is frequently heard with the {{IPA|[ər]}} in the second syllable replaced by {{IPAblink|ʏ}} ({{IPA|[ˈkɒŋkʏd]}}{{Respell|KAHN|kəd}}).{{cite web|title=How to Pronounce Massachusetts Town Names|url=http://www.worcestermass.com/pronounce/middlesexcounty.shtml#concord|website=WorcesterMass.com|publisher=Charles R. Grosvenor Jr.|access-date=September 21, 2020}}

According to Concord's 2022 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report,https://concordma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/47403/Comprehensive-Annual-Financial-Report-FY2022 the principal employers in the town are:

File:Outbound train at West Concord station, May 2017.JPG]]

Concord and West Concord stations are served by the MBTA's Fitchburg Line. Yankee Line provides commuter bus service between Concord and Boston.[http://www.yankeeline.us/acton---concord-commuter-service.html Yankee Line – Acton & Concord, MA to Boston, MA Commuter Service\] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170824220716/http://www.yankeeline.us/acton---concord-commuter-service.html|date=August 24, 2017}}

Concord's sister cities are:{{cite web|title=2015 Annual Report: Finance|url=https://concordma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2287/Finance-PDF|website=concordma.gov|publisher=Town of Concord|page=33|date=June 30, 2015|access-date=May 14, 2021}}

• Nanae, Japan
• Saint-Mandé, France

File:Walden Pond in November, Concord MA.jpg in November]]

• Barrett's Farm
• Reuben Brown House, home of notable revolutionist
• Concord Art Association
• Concord Free Public Library
• Concord Museum
• Concord Scout House, popular venue for contra dancing and other events{{cite news|last1=Brown|first1=Nell Porter|title=The New England Folk Festival|url=https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2020/03/h2-new-england-folk-festival|access-date=August 16, 2020|work=Harvard Magazine|date=February 18, 2020}}{{cite web|title=Thursday Contras|url=https://www.neffa.org/thursday-contras/|website=New England Folk Festival Association|access-date=August 16, 2020}}
• Concord's Colonial Inn
• Corinthian Lodge[http://www.concordmasons.org/history Corinthian Lodge] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714203015/http://www.concordmasons.org/history|date=July 14, 2014}}. Concord, Massachusetts.
• Egg Rock, where the Concord River forms at the confluence of the Sudbury and Assabet rivers
• Emerson Hospital
• Ralph Waldo Emerson House
• Estabrook Woods
• Fairyland Pond
• First Parish in Concord[https://firstparish.org/wp/ First Parish in Concord]
• Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge
• Massachusetts Correctional Institution – Concord
• Minute Man National Historical Park
• The Minute Man statue
• Northeastern Correctional Center
• The Old Manse, home of Emerson and Hawthorne
• Old North Bridge
• Orchard House
• Punkatasset Hill
• Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
• Walden Pond
• The Wayside, home of Louisa May Alcott, Hawthorne, and Margaret Sidney
• Wheeler-Minot Farmhouse, also known as Thoreau Farm, birthplace of Henry David Thoreau
• Wright's Tavern

• Concord-Carlisle Regional High School, the local public high school
• Concord Middle School (Sanborn and Peabody, unified under the new Ellen Garrison building)
• Alcott School, Willard School, and Thoreau School, the local public elementary schools
• Concord Academy and Middlesex School, private preparatory schools
• The Fenn School is a 4-9 boys' school.{{cite web|url=https://www.fenn.org/page.cfm?p=532|title=The Fenn School: Why a Boys' School}}
• The Nashoba Brooks School is co-ed PK-3 and a girls' school 4-8.{{cite web|url=https://www.nashobabrooks.org/grades-4---8/why-a-girls-middle-school|title=Why a Girls Middle School?}}

{{main|List of people from Concord, Massachusetts}}

Concord is featured in the 2012 video game Assassin's Creed 3,{{cite web|url=https://www.ign.com/wikis/assassins-creed-3/Lexington_and_Concord|title=Lexington and Concord|date=May 16, 2013|access-date=January 21, 2019|work=IGN|publisher=Ziff Davis, LLC}} the 2020 video game Assassin's Creed Valhalla and the 2015 video game Fallout 4.{{cite web|url=https://www.gamepur.com/guide/21665-fallout-4-how-get-100-concord-useful-items-loot-map-location.html|title=Fallout 4: How to get 100% Concord Useful Items Loot Map Location Guide|first=Vignesh|last=Rao|date=August 1, 2016|access-date=January 21, 2019|work=Gamepur|archive-date=January 21, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190121233131/https://www.gamepur.com/guide/21665-fallout-4-how-get-100-concord-useful-items-loot-map-location.html|url-status=dead}} The video game Walden, a game, based on Henry David Thoreau's Walden, is set in the town.{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2018/12/13/676129780/reading-the-game-walden|title=Reading The Game: Walden|last=Sheehan|first=Jason|date=December 13, 2018|website=NPR.org|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191111201757/https://www.npr.org/2018/12/13/676129780/reading-the-game-walden|archive-date=November 11, 2019|access-date=December 2, 2019}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/walden-pond-modern-day|title=What Is Walden Pond?|last=Giaimo|first=Cara|date=August 10, 2018|website=Atlas Obscura|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191202181913/https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/walden-pond-modern-day|archive-date=December 2, 2019|access-date=December 2, 2019}}

Scenes from the 2017 comedy film Daddy's Home 2 were filmed at Concord scout house.{{cite web|url=http://concord.wickedlocal.com/news/20170404/will-ferrell-mark-wahlberg-use-concord-scout-house-as-location-to-film-daddys-home-2|title=Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg use Concord Scout House as location to film|date=April 4, 2017|access-date=January 21, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181007090021/http://concord.wickedlocal.com/news/20170404/will-ferrell-mark-wahlberg-use-concord-scout-house-as-location-to-film-daddys-home-2|archive-date=October 7, 2018|work=Wicked Local|first=Henry|last=Schwan|publisher=GateHouse Media, LLC.}} Parts of the 2019 film Little Women were shot on the Concord River.{{cite web|url=https://www.boston.com/culture/entertainment/2018/10/08/emma-watson-filmed-scenes-for-little-women-in-boston-this-weekend|title=Emma Watson filmed scenes for 'Little Women' in Boston this weekend|first=Kevin|last=Slane|date=October 8, 2018|access-date=January 21, 2019|work=Boston.com|publisher=Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC}}

Jane Langton's Homer Kelly murder mystery novels are largely set in Concord. Her 1964 novel 'The Transcendental Murder' was described in the Boston Globe in 1975 as 'a hymn to Concord, its history, its houses, its hallowed ground, its people and patriots, and its ghosts (Emerson and Thoreau)'.{{cite news|last1=Marquard|first1=Bryan|title=Jane Langton, who set her mystery novels in Concord and beyond, dies at 95|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/obituaries/2019/01/01/jane-langton-who-set-her-mystery-novels-concord-and-beyond/Uok8JLfSUGnBZB5eJHN5UI/story.html|access-date=February 19, 2022|work=Boston Globe|date=January 1, 2019}}

Italian director Lucio Fulci's 1981 horror film The House by the Cemetery was partly filmed in Concord - notably the Holy Family Church, a Main Street realty and the Concord Free Public Library.{{cite web|url=https://limelightmagazine.com/2022/07/29/filminglocationspotlight-thehousebythecemetery/|title=Filming location spotlight: The House by the Cemetery (1981)|work=Limelight Magazine|date=July 29, 2022}}

The Mother-Daughter Book Club series of children's novels is set in Concord.{{Cite web|title=The Mother-Daughter Book Club|url=https://www.concordbookshop.com/book/9781416970798|website=The Concord Bookshop|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200519132203/https://www.concordbookshop.com/book/9781416970798|archive-date=May 19, 2020|access-date=May 19, 2020}}

File:Central part of Concord, Mass.jpg|An engraving of the central part of Concord, {{c.|1840–44|lk=no}}

File:Sleepy Hollow Cemetery welcome sign (Concord, Massachusetts).jpg|Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

File:The Wayside Concord Massachusetts.jpg|The Wayside, home in turn to Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Margaret Sidney

File:Thoreau and Walden Streets in Concord, Mass.JPG|Street names in Concord

File:Spooky looking house in Concord Massachusetts.JPG|Cyrus Pierce House (23 Lexington Road)

File:Church and cemetery in Concord, Mass 2012-0082.jpg|Holy Family Church, and the Old Hill Burying Ground, on Monument Square in Concord

File:Concord town line sign (Massachusetts).jpg|Entering Concord sign, with the year of the town's foundation

File:Concord 250 Concord Massachusetts 2025.jpg|Concord 250, April 19, 2025https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/boston/news/concord-massachusetts-parade-250-watch-live/https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/250th-anniversary-of-the-battles-of-lexington-and-concord/

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Concord, Massachusetts
• USS Concord, name of five ships

{{Reflist|2}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080404033909/http://www.salemdeeds.com/atlases_results.asp?ImageType=index&atlastype=MassWorld&atlastown=&atlas=MASSACHUSETTS+1871&atlas_desc=MASSACHUSETTS+1871 1871 Atlas of Massachusetts.] by Wall & Gray. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080404035120/http://www.salemdeeds.com/atlases_pages.asp?ImageName=PAGE_0010_0011.jpg&atlastype=MassWorld&atlastown=&atlas=MASSACHUSETTS+1871&atlas_desc=MASSACHUSETTS+1871&pageprefix=Map of Massachusetts.] [https://web.archive.org/web/20080404034546/http://www.salemdeeds.com/atlases_pages.asp?ImageName=PAGE_0044_0045.jpg&atlastype=MassWorld&atlastown=&atlas=MASSACHUSETTS+1871&atlas_desc=MASSACHUSETTS+1871&pageprefix=Map of Middlesex County.]
• History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_QGolOAyd9RMC Volume 1 (A–H)], [https://archive.org/details/historymiddlese00drakgoog/page/n314 Volume 2 (L–W)] compiled by Samuel Adams Drake, published 1879–1880. 572 and 505 pages. [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_QGolOAyd9RMC/page/n287 Concord article] by Rev. Grindall Reynolds in volume 1, pages 380-405.
• Rorabaugh, William J. "Who Fought for the North in the Civil War? Concord, Massachusetts, Enlistments," Journal of American History 73 (December 1986): 695–701 [https://www.jstor.org/pss/1902983 online]
• {{Cite book|first=Lemuel|last=Shattuck|author-link=Lemuel Shattuck|url=https://archive.org/details/historyoftownofc00shat_1|title=A history of the town of Concord, Middlesex County, Massachusetts|year=1835|location=Concord|publisher=John Stacy}}
• Wilson, Thomas. Concord's Wright Tavern. Arcadia Publishing, 2024.

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{{EB1911 poster|Concord (Massachusetts)|Concord, Massachusetts}}

{{Wikivoyage|Concord (Massachusetts)}}

• [http://www.concordma.gov/ Town of Concord official website]

{{Massachusetts}}

{{Middlesex County, Massachusetts}}

{{Greater_Boston}}

{{Merrimack River}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1635 establishments in the Massachusetts Bay Colony

Concord

Category:Populated places established in 1635

Category:Towns in Massachusetts

Category:Towns in Middlesex County, Massachusetts

Category:Transcendentalism