STATE & NATION TRAVEL · events
Concord's Wayside pairs Hawthorne stories with a free Halloween evening on October 24
By Staff Writer · Published October 14, 2026
The NPS program brings nineteenth-century Halloween customs to the Massachusetts authors' house. Plan for the evening event, not regular daytime tours.
Official event date: National Park Service · October 23, 2026
The National Park Service has listed an October 24 evening program at The Wayside in Concord, Massachusetts, combining late-1800s Halloween customs with selections from Nathaniel Hawthorne's short fiction. The free event runs from 6 to 8:30 p.m. and is co-sponsored by Friends of Minute Man National Park.
For travelers, the important distinction is that this is a scheduled special event at a seasonal historic house, not an announcement of extended daily tour hours. NPS describes The Wayside as open seasonally and for special programs; visitors planning a daytime stop should check the separate operating schedule.
What Travelers Need to Know
The October 24 program is free, and NPS event data lists no registration or reservation requirement. Recheck the official event page before departure; the listing does not specify a rain plan.
NPS identifies the visitor parking location as 28 Hawthorne Lane, Concord. The house is across the street from the parking area; do not navigate to the park headquarters address instead.
The NPS visitor guide says the house is not wheelchair accessible and that some grounds have uneven terrain. Ask the park about the evening program's accessible arrangements before making the trip. Program-status questions can be directed to 978-369-6993.
About the Location
The Wayside is a historic house within Minute Man National Historical Park, rather than a separate Halloween attraction. Its Concord history includes both the Revolution and the writers who later made the town a literary destination. In 1775, resident Samuel Whitney served as muster master for Concord's minute men; the house is one of the park's surviving buildings associated with April 19.
The literary connection makes Hawthorne's fiction particularly relevant to this setting. His family owned the house from 1852 to 1869. Before them, the Alcotts lived here from 1845 to 1852, during part of Louisa May Alcott's childhood later reflected in Little Women. Children's author Harriett Lothrop, who wrote as Margaret Sidney, and her family subsequently preserved the property. The house joined Minute Man National Historical Park in 1965, becoming the first literary site in the NPS system.