Warner's Pond
& Gerow Recretion Area
HISTORY & CULTURE
Since the late 1600s, there has been a dam and, therefore, some form of a reservoir in the area we now know as Warner's Pond. The pond has had several owners throughout its long history including, in the 1850s, Ralph Warner, after whom the pond is named. The small hamlet that grew alongside Warner’s tub and pail factory on Nashoba Brook became known as "Warnerville." Historical references to the pond often begin with this period of ownership – a time when the area experienced significant growth and began to resemble the thriving community now called West Concord. There is much more to learn and appreciate, however, about the long and rich history of this site that includes Warner's Pond and its landmark dam.
Historical Context
Warner's Pond is an important feature in a historic landscape, with origins that reach back to the founding and settling of Concord.
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A dam was originally constructed in the late 1600s to mill wood, grain, and textiles –– essential resources for sustaining settler life. As the town evolved, the dam continued to play a vital role in supporting its growth throughout the centuries. It provided power to two manufacturing businesses, which significantly contributed to the local economy and created stable employment opportunities. This in turn led to the development of new neighborhoods and the flourishing of the community.
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In 1859, a significant historical event leading up to the American Civil War took place on a large parcel of land beside Warner's Pond. Twenty years later, part of this same land became the site where Massachusetts constructed what is now the oldest running state prison for men.
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In time, the dam would cease being used for manufacturing, but would continue to create a beautiful reservoir that is a valuable cultural asset to its surrounding community. Read on to learn more about some prominent historical figures and events related to Warner's Pond.
Nashobah Praying Indians
& John Hoar
Nashobah Praying Indians
& John Hoar, 1600's
For 10,000 years Nipmuc, Penacook, Pawtucket, and Massachuset peoples lived and thrived in the area now known as Concord. They had a territory named Musketaquid at the confluence of the Assabet and Sudbury Rivers, where the Concord River begins – near the base of Nashawtuc Hill.
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Chief Tahattawan, a Massachusett Federation Sagamore, was the leader who eventually helped English settlers “purchase” Musketaquid, an approximate six square mile tract of land, to become the Town of Concord. Tahattawan was Nashope, and his primary residence was a little further away at Nashobah, which roughly means “land between the waters”, refering to the area nestled between Nagog Pond, Long Pond, and Fort Pond in Littleton.
By the time English Settlers reached Concord, Native Peoples and their Nations were severely impacted by foreign pathogens and diseases brought over by the earliest European settlers. Eventually some Native Peoples living in Concord fled to join tribes elsewhere; others moved onto “Praying Plantations'' to try to survive the impact of European settlement (disease and land encroachment) in this area. Here is a general outline of events from Daniel V. Boudillion's History of the Nashobah Praying Indians:
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1646: The Massachusetts General Court granted John Eliot, a Puritan minister, his request to establish settlements where Indigenous Peoples who were willing to adopt English customs (e.g., dress, language, and Christianity) would, in theory, be protected from fearful English colonists and warring Indigenous Tribes. These settlements, known as Praying Plantations, or Praying Villages, were situated in a loose ring around greater Boston.
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1654: Tahattawan identified a parcel of land, now Littleton, for the Native Peoples in this region to establish a praying village named the Nashobah Praying Village.
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1659: John Hoar, one of Concord’s earliest English Settlers and the Town’s first lawyer, lived on three hundred acres in the western part of Concord, along the Nashoba Brook.
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1672: At fifty years of age, Hoar exchanged a large portion of his three hundred acres with Edward Wright, a fur trapper, who lived closer to town. Wright was living in a house that is now famously known as the Alcott-Orchard House.
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Wright would construct a dam sometime in the late 1600’s on the Nashoba Brook that was “two logs high” to mill grain, fibers and wood for the early settlers. This is the original dam and pond in the location now known as Warner’s Pond.
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John Hoar, who moved into Wright’s home across town, was a lawyer, and a friend and protector of the people living in the Nashobah Praying Village.
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1675: King Philip's War (Metacomet's War) broke out and some settlers grew extremely fearful of Native Peoples and decided it would be safer to move all Praying Indians (there were fourteen Praying Villages in total around the Boston area) to Deer Island off the coast of Boston.
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The Nashobah Praying Indians were not fighting for either side in the war, but rather wanted to peaceably remain in their Praying Village. However, staying in place was not an option. John Hoar, who was a friend and protector of the Nashobah Praying Indians, tried to keep them at his home in Concord Center, but soon fearful settlers forced them out to Deer Island with the other Native Peoples. Deer Island was an inhospitable place where isolated Indians were suffering, getting sick, starving and dying.
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1676: Once the war was over, the surviving Indians returned to their Praying Villages, and the Nashobah Praying Village remained a little longer.
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Present: Sarah Doublet Forest in Littleton is within the historic Nashoba Indian Praying Village, and is named after Wunnuhhew (English name Sarah Doublet). Wunnuhhew was a descendant of Tahattawan, and she was the last known living Nashope/Nashobah in the area.
History of the Nashobah Praying Indians: Doings, Sufferings, Survival, and Triumph, by Daniel V Boudillion
By Doc Searls from Santa Barbara, USA
Benjamin Church's The Entertaining History of King Philip's War, by the American engraver and silversmith Paul Revere
Edward Wright
Early European Settlement
Edward Wright
1600's - Early Concord Settlement
Edward Wright (1626 - 1691) was one of Concord's earliest English settlers as well as a contemporary and friend of Simon Willard. Willard is renowned for helping to negotiate a six mile tract of land at Musketaquid from its Native American inhabitants – land subsequently settled as Concord.
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Like Willard, Edward Wright was born in England and came to New England as a fur trapper. In 1636, Willard helped build a dam, known as the Milldam, in Concord Center on the Mill Brook for the purpose of milling wood, grain, and fibers. This dam and its pond no longer exist, and today, large portions of the Mill Brook run under businesses on Main Street in Concord Center.
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In the latter half of the 1600s, Wright moved from his family's first Concord home (where the Alcott House now stands) to a location further west of town. He similarly built a dam on the Nashoba Brook for milling materials and creating goods that also supported Concord's earliest settlement. However, unlike the Milldam, a dam and pond (later to be known as Warner's Pond) remain in nearly the identical location more than 300 years later.
Today, you can visit Edward Wright's gravesite at Burial Hill alongside many other celebrated figures from Concord's history.
Edward Wright and his direct descendants have a lasting legacy in Concord:
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In 1731, Edward Wright's son Peter Wright established a fund to help people in need. Just as his father's dam and pond remain a community resource to this day, Peter Wright's goodwill continues on as the "Silent Fund," under the care of The Hugh Cargill Trust Committee. It currently supports "summer camperships for children and holiday gifts for deserving families with young children and also Town seniors."
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The famous Wright Tavern in Concord Center is named after Edward Wright's great grandson Amos Wright (1738 - 1792). Amos ran the tavern during the American Revolution, and on April 19, 1775, the local militia gathered in Wright’s tavern to await the forces in the early morning hours. And after the British Regulars retreated back to Boston, Concordians met at Wright Tavern to celebrate.
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Further down the family line, Hapgood Wright donated land named after him - the "Hapgood Wright Town Forest" - which is well known for Fairyland Pond, a manmade pond that Louisa May Alcott (and other famous transcendentalists) often visited and wrote about. "It was Concord’s first acquisition of conservation land, and with subsequent additions, became its largest at 181 contiguous acres." (Town Brochure)​
Read More:
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The Concord Bridge: History of Warner’s Pond By Lydia Rheinfrank - Correspondent
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"A walk through the Old Hill Burying Ground and the Old South Burying Ground Interviewed September 13 and 14, 1999, Concord Oral History Program, Coordinated by Renee Garrelick"
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THE PEOPLE OF MUSKETAQUID: Concord's First Residents, by Discover Concord MA Fall 2020
David Loring
Early Manufacturing
David Loring (1800-1870) is the second recorded person to purchase the pond's water rights, so that he could run a manufacturing business. During this time, the pond was known as Loring Pond.
Around 1817, David Loring established “Loring Lead Works,” which first made lead pipes, and, later, sheet lead. In the 1830s, it used 300,000 pounds of lead annually. Loring ran this company until 1854. It is not clear how Loring Pond (later to become Warner’s Pond) was used to support the manufacturing of these goods. (Note: today, there is Loring Road in West Concord).
David Loring constructed his residence just north of his lead pipe factory at 169/171 Commonwealth Avenue in 1830 and "a small village of homes, shops, and other industrial sites developed around his mill site." While his lead pipe and sheet metal businesses prospered, Loring also became a director of the Fitchburg Railroad and a trustee of the "Middlesex Institution for Savings". Loring then moved across town to 110 Walden St, which is now the Concord Home for the Aging/Timothy Wheeler House.
A contemporary of Henry David Thoreau, Loring and Thoreau did some surveying work together. Some of these surveys are held in the Concord Library's Special Collections.
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David Loring is also believed to have been part of the abolitionist (anti-slavery) movement. His name appears on the list of “Men from Concord'' who petitioned then Governor of Massachusetts, Henry J. Gardner, to take action in helping black, male citizens from Massachusetts captured and held as prisoners in the state of Missouri to return home to the Commonwealth.
Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, an active abolitionist after whom the former Sanborn Middle school was named, is the Concord official who drafted this petition, gathered the 11 names that appeared as signees, and ultimately filed it with the State. The date on the petition is symbolic: July 4th 1856. Sanborn would have intentionally chose the 4th of July to remind the Governor of the values upon which our country was created.
The list of important “Men of Concord” who signed this petition includes:
Ralph Waldo Emerson
William Whiting
Henry D. Thoreau
John Thoreau
John S. Keyes
John Brown Jr.
Albert Stacy
Nathan B. Stow
David Loring
J.M. Smith
F.B. Sanborn
This list named Concord’s most prominent male abolitionists, and David Loring is counted among them. Five years after this petition was sent, our nation would enter the Civil War.
This is but one deep connection West Concord, and specifically Warner's Pond, has to the Civil War era. The Massachusetts Encampment of 1859, is also an impressive historical event worth more attention. (read about it here: link)
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Henry David Thoreau visited Loring Pond one winter in 1850 and wrote an excerpt in his journal:
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“December 16: Last Sunday, on the 14th, I walked on Loring’s Pond to three or four islands there which I had never visited, not having a boat in the summer. On one containing an acre or two, I found a low, branching shrub frozen into the edge of the ice, with a fine spicy scent somewhat like sweet fern and a handsome imbricate bud. When I rubbed the dry-looking fruit in my hands, it felt greasy and stained them a permanent yellow, which I could not wash out; it lasted several days, and we named the island Myrica Island.”
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It is remarkable to imagine Thoreau walking out on the ice to explore these magical places. More complete excerpt here: Journal II: 1850 - September 15, 1851
And Thoreau's journal collection is on the Walden Woods Project website: https://www.walden.org/collection/journals/
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Loring was eventually forced out of business by competitors with more modern methods of production, and in 1854, Ralph Warner took over the site to create Warner’s Pail and Tub Factory. Loring Pond then became known as Warner’s Pond.
David Loring
Early 1800's - Early Manufacturing
Ralph Warner
Industrial Manufacturing
Ralph Warner
Later 1800's - Industrial Manufacturing
Ralph Warner is the third recorded person to purchase the water rights of the pond, and Loring Pond became known, as it is today, Warner's Pond.
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Ralph Warner took over the site in 1854 to create Warner’s Pail and Tub Factory. R Warner and Company was one of the original businesses to reside at the current Factory 152 location; today, this is where Nashoba Brook Bakery is located and runs its operations.
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By 1880, Ralph Warner was a prominent figure in a growing and thriving community. Warner built his house on Commonwealth Avenue in 1870. The small hamlet associated with his tub and pail factory on Nashoba Brook became known as Warnerville, and his workers built more than 25 single and double-family homes along Commonwealth Avenue. Many of those homes still stand today.
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He also built Warner Hall as a community gathering place where the Concord Junction Brass Band played popular music such as waltzes and marches. Before West Concord existed by name, he donated part of a building on Commonwealth Ave to become the area’s own post office, known as the “Railroad Junction” post office. Warner also donated land on which was built the West Concord School, opened in 1886.
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Central to Warnerville and other expanding communities were recreational opportunities in and around Warner’s Pond. “The Grove” behind “Commonwealth Row” was a popular summer swimming and picnic spot.
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In 1878, the now-oldest running state prison for men in Massachusetts opened just north of Warnerville. Prisoners from this reformatory helped to maintain a beach area with a raft and also swam at the Pond. At the time, the people who ran the reformatory – and even some of the men serving time – were integral to this area's community.
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The pond was full of small boats. For many years, there was even a steam launch boat affectionately named the "Maude Blake", which was rented out for boating parties. In winter, people enjoyed ice skating, sledding, and ice fishing.
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Ice cutting was an important activity, as the ice was needed for ice chests in this time before refrigerators. Ice houses, which were used to store blocks of ice, stood at the Reformatory end of the pond until they burned down in 1890.
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In 1893 or 1894, Warner’s factory succumbed to a fire. Today, The Pail Factory Bridge, just downstream of the dam, is the remaining memorial to this historical enterprise. To keep his workers employed after the fire, Warner employeed them to build houses on Winthrop, Pine, and Highland Streets.
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Soon after the fire, the West End Land Company purchased Warner’s mill and pond, but the name of the pond remained Warner’s Pond. During the West End’s ownership, a bridge was built to connect the village to the large six-acre island “Isle of Pines” in the center of the pond. At this time, a few summer camps (small living structures) were constructed on the island.
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At the turn of the 20th century, Warner's Pond was a central and critical gathering spot for folks living in the quickly expanding neighborhoods of what would soon unify and become "West Concord."
Excerpt from 2013 Historic and Cultural Resources Survey of West Concord Concord, Massachusetts:
"The primary catalysts for the rapid growth and expansion of the mid 19th century villages was the construction in 1871 of a railroad junction just south of the factory village of Warnerville and the construction of the State Reformatory in Concord to the north of the railroad junction in 1878."
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Massachusetts Encampment - 1859
September 7th, 8th & 9th
Warner's Pond
Eve of the
American Civil War
Growing Conflict
For three days in 1859 – September 7th, 8th, and 9th – thousands of volunteer troops from across Massachusetts came together for "The Massachusetts Encampment" – a practical and symbolic military display of our Commonwealth's volunteer army.
The event helped Massachusetts’ volunteer soldiers get organized for possible conflict over the increasing tensions between non-slave holding states, such as the Commonwealth, and slave holding states. Furthermore, it elevated the efforts of Concord's local anti-slavery abolitionists by unifying them with larger, statewide military mobilization.
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The encampment let the people of the Commonwealth prepare practically and mentally for what ultimately become military combat.
This event took place on a large field enclosed by Warner's Pond to the west, Nashoba Brook to the south, and the Assabet River to the east. This tract of land was accessible by a road to the north (now Route 2) and even more importantly, a large and active train junction at the field's southeast corner (now the West Concord MBTA commuter rail stop).
The Massachusetts Encampment of 1859 was held at the Concord location for both practical and symbolic reasons:
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It was a field large enough to stage tens of thousands of militiamen and everything needed to drill and live in an encampment for three days. It also provided enough space for the thousands of spectators anticipated to observe the event.
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Trains from across the state could deliver legislators, soldiers, and spectators, along with their luggage and goods, right to the train junction at the southeast corner of the field.
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Provisions were ready and accessible, including ice from the ice houses on Warner’s Pond, pails of wood for fires from the Warner Pail Factory, and water from the the three adjacent bodies of water: Warner's Pond, the Nashoba Brook, and the Assabet River.
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The Town of Concord provided the symbolic backdrop of the values of freedom and liberty on which our country was founded. This would have highlighted the wrongs of slavery and why armed conflict might be the means necessary to end it.
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It is said that 100,000 people came to The Massachusetts Encampment of 1859. The crowd included soldiers, legislators, and spectators. Nathaniel Banks was the elected Commander-in-Chief and Governor of Massachusetts at the time, and he was proud to acknowledge that the Massachusetts Encampment “Created an impression that they would be a formidable foe to encounter.”
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In 1861, not quite three years later, when President Abraham Lincoln called upon the North to send troops, volunteers from Massachusetts were among the first to journey to the front lines. The Massachusetts Encampment of 1859 had prepared legislators, volunteer militia, and citizens to answer the President’s call.
The American Civil War began on April 12th, 1861, and it remains the most costly and deadly war ever fought on American soil.
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As the headquarters for the Massachusetts Encampment of 1859 was set up along the edge of Warner's Pond, the pond is a place we can visit today and contemplate, in the words of Palumbo, “how the concept of freedom, the seeking of freedom, and the winning of freedom is an unfinished task that spans generations and eras.”
Read More:
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National Archives; The Declaration of Independence
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Discover Concord Spring 2021; A Duty So Severe: Concord and the Civil War
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Discover Concord Summer 2021; George Washington Dugan: No Longer Missing No Longer Forgotten
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Concord Library Special Collections; Anti Slavery in Concord
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The Concord Bridge; After 160 years, Concord will honor its Black Civil War soldier
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Massachusetts Historical Society; Massachusetts in the Civil War
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The Governor’s Address to the Third Division, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, 22 Sept. 1858
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The Adjutant General’s 1859 Report Excerpt on the State Encampment
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MCI Concord
Opened in 1878
MCI Concord
When it closed in the summer of 2024, the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Concord (MCI-Concord) was a level 4, medium level security prison for men. It opened in 1878 as the New State Prison at Concord, and then became a "reformatory" in 1884. As a reformatory, the courts would send sentenced people who were believed to be capable of reform to Concord, where convicted offenders could learn trades, prove themselves reformed, be paroled, and effectively return to society using their new trade skills. Eventually the reformatory again became a prison, and a Northeastern Correctional Facility opened across the way. MCI Concord was the oldest running state prison for men in Massachusetts. The Correctional Facility will remain in operation.
Just to the North of Warner's Pond, beside the rail trail, there is a humble prison cemetery with the graves of 217 former inmates who passed away while incarcerated. These graves are marked with a series of letters and numbers carved onto small stones. A large cross sited above the small cemetery can be spotted from Route 2. There is a project being conducted to restore and learn from the cemetery in conjunction with the Concord Prison Outreach organization with CPA Funding. (Read More)
There are stories of prison/reformatory inmates helping to maintain swimming beaches at Warner's Pond, and even of prisoners swimming on hot days. And of course there were generations of Concord residents who worked at the Concord Prison facility in various capacities, including teaching trades such as cabinet making to inmates. Many families lived on "Green Row" or "White Row" near the prison, and there would be upwards of a hundred children living in these neighborhoods at a time. Warner's Pond was a beloved community resource with lots of recreational activities.
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One family made their way to Concord for employment at the prison as an electrical engineer and settled down: The Gerow Family. In 2018, generations later, the Gerow’s worked with the town of Concord to turn seven acres of land along the northern edge of Warner’s Pond into a public park with aquatic recreation.