Mark Twain House
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Mark Twain House
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The Mark Twain House
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| Location | 351 Farmington Avenue, Hartford, Connecticut |
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| Coordinates | 41°46′1.7″N 72°42′1.8″W / 41.767139°N 72.700500°WCoordinates: 41°46′1.7″N 72°42′1.8″W / 41.767139°N 72.700500°W |
| Built | 1874 |
| Architect | Edward Tuckerman Potter |
| Architectural style | Victorian Gothic |
| Website | www.marktwainhouse.org |
| NRHP Reference # | 66000884 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
| Designated NHL | December 29, 1962 |
The Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut was the home of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) and his family from 1874 to 1891. Designed by Edward Tuckerman Potter, the house was built in the American High Gothic style. Clemens biographer Justin Kaplan has called it "part steamboat, part medieval fortress and part cuckoo clock."
While living there, Clemens wrote many of his best-known works, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, Life on the Mississippi, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Tramp Abroad, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.
Poor financial investments prompted the Clemens family to move to Europe in 1891. The Panic of 1893 further threatened their financial stability, and during 1895-1896, Clemens, his wife, Olivia, and their middle daughter, Clara, spent a year traveling so Clemens could lecture and earn the money to pay off their debts. Twain recounted the trip in Following the Equator (1897). Before the family could be reunited with their other two daughters, Susy and Jean, who had stayed behind, Susy died at home on August 18, 1896 of spinal meningitis. The family could not bring themselves to reside in the house after this tragedy and spent most of their remaining years living abroad. They sold the house in 1903.
The building later functioned as a school, an apartment building, and a public library branch. In 1929 it was rescued from possible demolition and put under the care of the newly formed Mark Twain Memorial, a nonprofit group. In 1962, the building was declared a National Historic Landmark. A restoration effort led to its being opened as a house museum in 1974. In 2003 a multimillion-dollar, LEED-certified visitors' center was built that included a museum dedicated to showcasing Twain's life and work.
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