What happened to the house Thoreau built at Walden?
On September 6, 1847, Thoreau left the house which he himself had built and in which he had lived for two years, two months, and two days. Emerson then bought the house from Thoreau and resold it to his gardener, Hugh Whelan, who intended to convert it into a cottage for his family. Whelan’s drinking problems, however, prevented him from completing the necessary modifications and the house remained empty until 1849, when it was purchased by James Clark, who then moved it across town to his own farm and used it for grain storage. The roof was removed in 1868 and used as part of a pigsty, and in 1875 the floor and remaining timbers were made into a stable shed. Later, timbers from the collapsed shed were used to patch up the Clark barn. One replica of the house has been erected across Route 126 from Walden Pond, and another was built at the Thoreau Institute in 2001. Contact the Thoreau Institute for information about visiting the reconstruction. Source: Walter Harding, The Days of Henry
