Mark Twain House

Mark Twain House
Mark Twain House
The Mark Twain House
Mark Twain House is located in Connecticut
Location: Hartford, Connecticut
Coordinates: 41°46′1.7″N 72°42′1.8″W / 41.767139°N 72.7005°W / 41.767139; -72.7005Coordinates: 41°46′1.7″N 72°42′1.8″W / 41.767139°N 72.7005°W / 41.767139; -72.7005
Built: 1874
Architect: Edward Tuckerman Potter
Architectural style: Victorian Gothic
Governing body: Private
NRHP Reference#: 66000884
Significant dates
Added to NRHP: October 15, 1966[1]
Designated NHL: December 29, 1962[2]

The Mark Twain House and Museum was the home of Mark Twain (a.k.a. Samuel Langhorne Clemens) from 1874 to 1891 in Hartford, Connecticut, USA. Before 1874, Twain had lived in Hannibal, Missouri. The architectural style of the 19-room house is Victorian Gothic. The house is also notable for the major works written during his residency, including The Gilded Age, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, Life on the Mississippi, Huckleberry Finn, A Tramp Abroad, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

Poor financial investments caused the Twain family to move to Europe in 1891.[3] When they returned to Connecticut in 1900 he lived in a house built for him in Redding, Connecticut, named Stormfield, where he died on April 21, 1910. His home in Hartford functioned as a school, an apartment building, and a library. In 1962 the building was declared a National Historic Landmark.[2][4] Since 1974 it has had a multi-million dollar renovation and an expansion dedicated to showcasing his life and work. The house is facing financial troubles stemming in part from an overestimation of the number of visitors it would receive yearly.[5]

Contents

Life in the house

The library features hand-stenciled paneling, fireplaces from India, embossed wallpapers and an enormous handcarved mantel that the Twains purchased in Scotland (HABS photo)

Mark Twain first came to Hartford in 1868 on business while writing The Innocents Abroad to work with publisher Elisha Bliss, Jr. of the American Publishing Company. At the time, Hartford was a publishing center with twelve publishers.[6] After marrying Olivia Langdon, Twain moved into a substantial home in Buffalo, New York. However, within two years, Twain considered moving to a more opulent house in Hartford.[7] He soon purchased the property in north Hartford, partly to be closer to his publisher, American Publishing Company.[8] Of Hartford, Twain said, "Of all the beautiful towns it has been my fortune to see, this is the chief... You do not know what beauty is if you have not been here."[9] He was attracted to the town which, at the time, had the highest per-capita income of any city in the United States.[7]

The family rented a house at what was called Nook Farm in 1871 before buying land there and building a new house.[6] They moved into the home in 1874 after its completion.[7] The top floor was the billiards room and his private study, where Twain would write late at night; the room was strictly off limits to all but the cleaning staff. It was also used for entertaining male guests with cigars and liquor. Twain had said "There ought to be a room in this house to swear in. It's dangerous to have to repress an emotion like that."[10]

The children had their own area, with a nursery and a playroom/classroom. Mrs. Clemens tutored her daughters in the large school room on the second floor.[11] Twain played with his children in the conservatory, pretending to be an elephant in an imaginary safari. Twain noted the house "was of us, and we were in its confidence and lived in its grace and in the peace of its benediction."[12]

Twain enjoyed living in the house, partly because he knew many different authors from his Hartford neighborhood, such as Harriet Beecher Stowe who lived next door and Isabella Beecher Hooker.[13] Also, he would stop in to visit his friend, actor William Gillette at Gillette Castle (today Gillette Castle State Park).

In this home, Twain produced many of his most notable books, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), Life on the Mississippi (1883).[14] The success of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer inspired Twain to renovate the home. In 1881, he had Louis Comfort Tiffany supervise the interior decoration of the house.[15] Twain was also fascinated with new technologies, leading to the installation of an early telephone in the entrance hall.[16]

Twain's supported the typesetting machine invented by James W. Paige and invested heavily in it.[14] He also formed the firm Charles L. Webster & Company, which published Twain's writings along with Ulysses S. Grant's memoirs.[17] Its first publication was Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1884.[18] The company went bankrupt in 1894, leaving Twain with a large amount of debt.[17] Paige's typesetting machine was overpowered by competition from the linotype machine developed by Whitlaw Reid.[14] After the losses from these investments as well as several bank panics, the Twains moved to Europe in 1891 where living was cheaper.[13] Twain began lecturing across the continent to recoup some money for their family.[14]

Architecture and construction

The Billiards Room where Twain wrote his books

The house was designed by Edward Tuckerman Potter, an architect from New York City.[19] When the house was being built, the Hartford Daily Times noted, "The novelty displayed in the architecture of the building, the oddity of its internal arrangement and the fame of its owner will all conspire to make it a house of note for a long time to come."[13] The cost of the house was paid out of Mrs. Clemens' inheritance.[13]

The house was built on 3.5 acres (1.4 ha) of land and designed with seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a carriage house, and plant-filled conservatory. Bay windows extend up to form turrets that were topped with porches, allowing Twain and guests a view of what was a very pastoral area of Hartford. The home is in the style of Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, including the typical steeply-pitched roof and an asymmetrical bay window layout. Legend says the home was designed to look like a riverboat.[3]

In 1881, an adjoining strip of land was purchased, the grounds re-landscaped, and the home was renovated . The driveway was redrawn, the kitchen rebuilt and its size doubled, and the front hall was enlarged. The family also installed new plumbing and heating and a burglar alarm.[20] After its renovations, the total cost of the home amounted to $70,000, $22,000 were spent on furnishings, and the initial purchase of land cost $31,000.[14]

Post-Twain

Grieving the death of their daughter Susy from meningitis in 1896, Mrs. Clemens could no longer bear living in the home when the family returned from Europe. It was sold in 1903 to Richard M. Bissell, president of a local fire insurance company.[21] In 1905 the house was significantly repaired, but it was also significantly altered, deviating from its original design. The chimneys and brick work were also altered.

Bissell lived in the home with his family until he rented the house to the Kingswood School for Boys in 1917. In 1922, it was sold and used as a coal warehouse before being subdivided into apartments.[21]

In 1929, a group of preservationists, the Friends of Hartford,[22] formed the Mark Twain Memorial and Library Commission and purchased the building to prevent its demolition. They rented the ground floor to meet expenses. During this period, doors were added to the building, further deviating from the original design. Restoration began in 1955 and continued through 1974.[21] The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1963.[13]

The house was opened as a museum in the 1960s. The process of paying off the mortgage, raising money to restore the deteriorating property, and retrieving artifacts, furnishings, and personal possessions took many decades and ended in 1974, just in time for the 100th anniversary of the house.[13] The house earned the David E. Finley Award in 1977 for "exemplary restoration" from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.[23]

Recent renovations

Entrance hall and main staircase (HABS photo)

Restoration and preservation at the Mark Twain House helped bring the house and grounds back to the years between 1881 and 1891, when the Twains most loved the house. The marble floor in the front hallway underwent a historic restoration, and specialists re-stenciled and painted the walls and ceilings and refinishing the woodwork to recover the Tiffany-decorated interiors. Restoration was funded in part by two federal Save America’s Treasures grants totaling $3 million. Scanning computers were also used in the restoration.[24] The home today contains 50,000 artifacts: manuscripts, historic photographs, family furnishings, and Tiffany glass. Many of the original furnishings, including Twain's ornate Venetian bed, an intricately carved mantel from a Scottish castle, and a billiard table, remain at the house.

With the number of admissions leveling off around 53,000, the house's trustees decided that they must expand or be forced to shrink their operations. They commissioned Robert A. M. Stern, the founder of the Manhattan architectural firm that bears his name and the dean of the Yale School of Architecture, to design a visitor's center that would not draw attention away from the house.[13]

The Education and Visitors Center was built adjacent to Twain's Carriage House. The green museum was the first in America to receive a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.[25] The center is a $16.3 million, 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m2) facility that houses artifacts from the museum's collection that are not shown in the house itself. It contains a lecture hall and classroom facilities.[15] The house received $1 million from the state government to meet expenses related to the construction of the museum and restoration of the house. Since the museum opened in November 2003, attendance has increased by 15%.[26]

The house generates $5 million in tourism from 50,000 visitors.[27] The Aetna foundation gave $500,000 to the campaign.[28] The National Endowment for the Humanities gave $800,000 in challenge grants for teacher development programs, a student writing contest, and an educational website.[29]

Since the building of the Visitors Center in 2003, the house has become financially unsustainable and has launched a campaign to raise awareness and funds. In response, the state government, the governor, United Technologies, and many others have all contributed.[30]

In 2009 the house was featured on and episode of the SyFy program Ghost Hunters to investigate claims of paranormal activity.

See also

References

Seal of Connecticut.svg Connecticut portal
  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html. 
  2. ^ a b "Mark Twain House". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=671&ResourceType=Building. Retrieved 2007-10-05. 
  3. ^ a b Haas, Irvin. Historic Homes of American Authors. Washington, DC: The Preservation Press, 1991. ISBN 0891331808. p. 31
  4. ^ Blanche Higgins Schroer and J. Walter Coleman (November 6, 1974). National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Mark Twain House. National Park Service. http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Text/66000884.pdf . Accompanying 5 photos, exterior and interior, from c.1965, 1968, 1974 and pre-1970PDF (2.14 MB)
  5. ^ Writers Unite To Keep Twain House Afloat. The New York Times, September 19, 2008]
  6. ^ a b Corbett, William. Literary New England: A History and Guide. Boston: Faber & Faber, 1993: 11. ISBN 0-571-19816-3
  7. ^ a b c Levine, Miriam. A Guide to Writers' Homes in New England. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Apple-wood Press, 1984: 20. ISBN 0-918222-51-6
  8. ^ "History of the Institution". The Mark Twain House and Museum. 2004. Archived from the original on 2006-06-02. http://web.archive.org/web/20060602053850/http://www.marktwainhouse.org/about/history.shtml. Retrieved 2006-06-12. 
  9. ^ Haas, Irvin. Historic Homes of American Authors. Washington, DC: The Preservation Press, 1991. ISBN 0891331808. p. 29
  10. ^ Paine, Albert Bigelow (1912). "In the Day's Round". Mark Twain: A Biography, Volume III. New York and London: Harper & Brothers. p. 1301. http://books.google.com/books?id=7EMLAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1299. Retrieved July 9, 2009. 
  11. ^ Levine, Miriam. A Guide to Writers' Homes in New England. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Apple-wood Press, 1984: 21. ISBN 0-918222-51-6
  12. ^ Singer, Stephen (June 4, 2002). "Twain's house a symbol of his success". The Associated Press. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20020406.TRMARK/TPStory/Travel. Retrieved 2006-06-12. 
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Charles, Eleanor (January 20, 2002). "In the Region/Connecticut; Visitors' Center to Be Built at Mark Twain House". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9903E4D71138F933A15752C0A9649C8B63. Retrieved 2006-06-12. 
  14. ^ a b c d e Corbett, William. Literary New England: A History and Guide. Boston: Faber & Faber, 1993: 12. ISBN 0-571-19816-3
  15. ^ a b "Remodeling:The Mark Twain House". HGTV. 2006. http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/remodeling/article/0,1797,HGTV_3659_1719037,00.html. Retrieved 2006-06-12. 
  16. ^ "Mark Twain House". frommers.com. 2006. http://www.frommers.com/destinations/hartford/A32009.html. Retrieved 2006-06-12. 
  17. ^ a b "Mark Twain Biography". hannibal.net. 2006. Archived from the original on 2006-04-15. http://web.archive.org/web/20060415062706/http://www.hannibal.net/twain/biography/. Retrieved 2006-06-12. 
  18. ^ Levine, Miriam. A Guide to Writers' Homes in New England. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Apple-wood Press, 1984: 23. ISBN 0-918222-51-6
  19. ^ Haas, Irvin. Historic Homes of American Authors. Washington, DC: The Preservation Press, 1991. ISBN 0891331808. p. 29-30
  20. ^ Levine, Miriam. A Guide to Writers' Homes in New England. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Apple-wood Press, 1984: 22. ISBN 0-918222-51-6
  21. ^ a b c Levine, Miriam. A Guide to Writers' Homes in New England. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Apple-wood Press, 1984: 24. ISBN 0-918222-51-6
  22. ^ Haas, Irvin. Historic Homes of American Authors. Washington, DC: The Preservation Press, 1991. ISBN 0891331808. p. 32
  23. ^ "Senators Dodd, Lieberman Secure $496,000 for Mark Twain House and Museum". Senate.gov. August 5, 2005. http://www.senate.gov/~dodd/press/Releases/05/0805.htm. Retrieved 2006-06-12. 
  24. ^ Kendall, David. "The Mark Twain House". Antiques and the Arts Online. http://www.antiquesandthearts.com/hh/hh1098.htm. Retrieved 2006-06-12. 
  25. ^ Chatalbash, Roy. ""Museums Are Going Green - Why Not You?". Antiques and Fine Art. http://www.antiquesandfineart.com/articles/article.cfm?request=840. Retrieved 2008-06-05. 
  26. ^ Schain, Dennis (January 31, 2005). "Governor Rell Announces $1 Million for Mark Twain House and Museum". ct.gov. http://www.ct.gov/governorrell/cwp/view.asp?A=1761&Q=289418. Retrieved 2006-06-12. 
  27. ^ Larson, John B. (October 13, 2000). "Larson announces $1 million in funding for Mark Twain House". house.gov. Archived from the original on 2006-06-08. http://web.archive.org/web/20060608223047/http://www.house.gov/larson/pr_001013.htm. Retrieved 2006-06-12. 
  28. ^ Bush, David (2001). "Aetna And The Aetna Foundation Announce $500,000 Gift To The Mark Twain House". Aetna. Archived from the original on 2006-10-16. http://web.archive.org/web/20061016085423/http://www.aetna.com/foundation/news/articles/twain.htm. Retrieved 2006-06-12. 
  29. ^ Olson, Elizabeth (December 23, 2005). "Arts, Briefly; New Humanities Grants". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E00E6DE1530F930A15751C1A9639C8B63. Retrieved 2006-06-12. 
  30. ^ Bulger, Adam (July 19, 2008). "With a Little Help ... The Twain House admits its woes". Hartford Advocate. http://www.hartfordadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=8318. Retrieved 2008-07-02. [dead link]

External links

v · d · eU.S. National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut
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