A Great Escape: Brook Farm Historic Site

Part of a real escape is finding a quiet place to walk and talk or just enjoy nature while still living in a very busy Boston neighborhood.  

Escaping for a few hours can create just the right amount of time to rejuvenate your soul. In the 1840’s a group of Transcendentalists decided to make the greatest escape of their lives and created a commune right here in West Roxbury.  

Located off Baker Street in West Roxbury are 179 acres that include: rolling hills, wetlands and woods, known as: The Brook Farm Historic Site. It is one of the first sites in Massachusetts to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated a National Historic Site. 

In 1977, the Boston Landmarks Commission designated a Landmark, Boston’s highest recognition for historic sites.    “…This is one of the most beautiful places I ever saw in my life…There are woods, in which we can ramble all day…” Nathaniel Hawthorne, Letter 1841. (Author's note: Quote taken from the brochure of Brook Farm).

Image walking the same path that some of our greatest thinkers Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Dana, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller walked? Perhaps while you are absorbing the view and walking the same hills you, too, will escape into your own thoughts as you hold hands with your love and escape the busy world around you into a haven of nature right here, in West Roxbury.