Henry David Thoreau - Henry David Thoreau - Move to Walden Pond: Back in Concord Thoreau rejoined his family’s business, making pencils and grinding graphite. By early 1845 he felt more restless than ever, until he decided to take up an idea of a Harvard classmate who had once built a waterside hut in which one could read and contemplate. In the spring Thoreau picked a spot by Walden Pond, a small glacial lake located 2 miles (3 km) south of Concord on land Emerson owned. Early in the spring of 1845, Thoreau, then 27 years old, began to chop down tall pines with which to build the foundations of his home