Known as “The Home of Authors,” the Wayside has sheltered the families of Bronson Alcott (including his daughter Louisa May), Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Margaret Sidney, the pseudonym of Harriet M. Lothrop, a prolific writer of children's stories. The house was begun by Caleb Ball c. 1714 as a five-bay, center-entrance, two-story dwelling with rear lean-to. In 1845, Bronson Alcott bought the property for his family, adding the central dormer and dividing an existing outbuilding in half and adding a section to the east and west ends, among other additions. His daughters used the barn to practice and present plays. Nathaniel Hawthorne purchased the property in 1852 and made major changes in 1860, most notably the construction of a three-story tower at the rear of the house that contained his study on the top floor. After two other owners, Daniel and Harriet Lothrop bought the Wayside in 1883; their most significant alteration was the construction of the west piazza in 1887. The National Park Service now maintains the Wayside as a museum of its literary occupants.