For Immediate Release

Contact: Lucille Daniel Stott, president
Thoreau Farm Trust, Inc.
978-369-3091

October 4, 2004

THOREAU FARM TRUST ANNOUNCES LEADERSHIP GIFT

Concord, MA – At an afternoon reception held Sunday, Oct. 3, the Thoreau Farm Trust (TFT) announced its first major donation, a gift of $25,000 from a supporter who wishes to remain anonymous. The funds represent a first step in the TFT’s effort to raise the $800,000 necessary to gain title to the town-owned Thoreau birth house and two acres of surrounding land at 341 Virginia Road. The house was placed this year on the National Register of Historic Places but has remained uninhabitable since the Town of Concord purchased the 20-acre farm in 1997.
Last July, Concord’s selectmen signed a purchase and sale agreement with the TFT, stating that the house and two acres of the land will be turned over to the local nonprofit as soon as funds are raised to complete the first phase of TFT’s plans for the property: restoration and rehabilitation of the circa 1730 farmhouse.

Overall plans involve raising an additional $1.4 million to construct a barn on the property, which will serve as a small education center focusing on Thoreau’s legacy and on the history of farming in Concord as represented by the agricultural history of this property, parts of which have been in continuous cultivation for 275 years. Currently, the local philanthropic organization Gaining Ground is leasing part of the 20-acre farm to grow food for the hungry.

At Sunday’s event, which began at the Concord Art Association on Lexington Road, TFT President Lucille Daniel Stott updated the 65 invited guests about the group’s plans, and historic materials conservator Bill Finch of Beverly presented a photographic overview of some of the historic elements still present in the eighteenth-century farmhouse. Following the presentations, John and Lorna Mack hosted a reception at their neighboring Lexington Road home, where guests - many of whom own other historic residences in Concord - had a chance to tour their c.1650 Thomas Dane House.