The family patriarch ultimately conjoined the home with a smaller tenant farmhouse and named it Orchard House, after the 40 apple trees on the land.
At the time, the family home was a run-down manor house that had been on the property since the 1660s - a building “essentially thrown into the deal for free because it was in such horrible condition,” Turnquist said. I don’t know how we would have managed it with all the artifacts.”Īlcott’s father, Amos Bronson Alcott, bought the 12 acres of land where Orchard House now sits for $945 in 1857. “But then we have to explain that there are airplanes going over this house, there’s traffic on the street, and so many delicate original items.
“A lot of guests coming through think the movie was all filmed in Orchard House because the exterior looks so perfect,” Turnquist said of the replica, which was torn down after filming wrapped. Production designer Jess Gonchor spent hours going through the 19th century home so that his team could construct its own version of the American Colonial structure two miles down the road on a 50-acre piece of land.
But unlike with previous incarnations of Alcott’s story, the filmmaker took pains to make the movie in Concord, using the natural landscapes that inspired the author and her contemporaries, Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Gerwig’s “Little Women,” which was nominated for six Oscars including best picture, was not, in fact, shot at Orchard House. When guests come in, if they’re greeted with joy, any wait is much more manageable and even pleasant.” And that’s part of why we spent some time beta testing ways to make things work a little smoother. “Ballets or plays or PBS productions of the book - all of those do affect people’s interest, but not as powerfully as a major motion picture. “This is somewhat similar to what happened in 1994,” said Turnquist. In 1994, when she was still working as a tour guide, she saw how many fresh faces turned up following the release of the Gillian Armstrong adaptation starring Winona Ryder and Susan Sarandon. Turnquist, who has served as the museum’s executive director for just over two decades, is well acquainted with the impact a “Little Women” movie can have on the home. She even came up with a system to handle the influx of tourists, stationing a guide in each room instead of assigning a docent to every group.Īnd her initiatives have proven vital: Visitation at Orchard House is up threefold compared with previous winters. She ordered tons of copies of the updated version of the book, filled with pictures from the movie. She hired and trained new tour guides to lead guests around the Concord, Mass., home where Louisa May Alcott wrote her seminal novel in 1868.
So before the Christmas release of Greta Gerwig’s film, she got Orchard House in order. Jan Turnquist knew that things would change after “Little Women” came out.