Site
The site is a partially shaded, sloping lawn at 12 Main Street on Monument Square in Concord, Massachusetts. In the heart of Concord Center, the town-owned property identified as Parcel 1693, is often overlooked. The first non-Indigenous settlement was here at the site of the Milldam. A water wheel once powered a gristmill, used by the surrounding farms. During the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was the home of the Middlesex Hotel, a prominent gathering place for town people and visitors with business at the courthouse nearby. George W. Dugan worked here before volunteering to serve and dying in the Civil War as part of the famed group of Black soldiers of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment. The small county jail was at the rear of the property. In a derelict condition, the property was donated to the town and the hotel demolished in 1900, as a commemoration of the 125th anniversary of the American Revolution on April 19, 1775.
The entire parcel today includes a cluster of memorials and historic markers, a municipal parking lot, and open green space. Key landmarks surrounding the site include Wright’s Tavern (a muster point for Minutemen during the Battle of Lexington and Concord), the former County House (now a Catholic rectory), the Town House (Concord’s primary municipal offices) and a large granite obelisk honoring the Union soldiers of Concord who died in the Civil War.
A vibrant town center, Concord Center serves nearly 20,000 residents and tens of thousands of visitors each year. The neighborhood is rich with unique retailers, restaurants, and cultural sites within well-preserved historic properties.
The art installation site itself is the open green space of Parcel 1693. The defined area is approximately 120 feet deep and 70 feet wide. An open lawn is punctuated by a single tree with a bench facing Monument Square. The lawn gently slopes to the wetland vegetation surrounding Mill Brook, a narrow waterway that flows under Main Street. A stone and bronze marker at the rear of the site marks the approximate site of the former county jail. Subsurface stormwater management is located deeply below portions of the lawn area.
Artists/creative teams may incorporate landscape and architectural features provided there is no permanent impact. Water and electricity access is not available within the installation area itself but is proximate.