Visiting the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut
One of the most famous house museums in the state of Connecticut is the Mark Twain House located in the state’s capital, Hartford. This house is built in the Victorian Gothic architectural style, containing a turret, covered porch, glass walled sun room or conservatory, is three stories high, and from the outside, the house is the color of burnt sienna. Balconies appear on the third floor of the house outside a number of rooms. Since the house’s completion in 1874, it has seen a number of renovations and restorations for visitors to the famous house.
Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835 in Florida, Mississippi. In his early adult years he lived on the east coast, working in journalism in New York, then returned to Missouri in his early twenties. He operated steamboats up and down the Mississippi River until the Civil War broke out in 1861. For awhile he traveled west then finally settled in Connecticut in 1871 with his new wife, Olivia Langdon. In Connecticut, he worked for The Hartford Courant, one of the oldest continuously published newspapers in the nation. He hired Edward Tuckerman Potter to build the house for him in Hartford. The house was built on three and a half acres of land and contained living quarters for Mark and his family, as well as servants quarters. Mark’s strong background in journalism led him to become a successful writer in the nineteenth century. Mark is probably best known for his “Tom Sawyer” and “Huckleberry Finn” novels which remain classics in American literatures and read by both adults and children.
The interior of Mark’s house was decorated by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The foyer is wide and has a marble floor, with a staircase leading up to the second and third floors. Mark loved hosting dinner parties and his dining room was always well kept, but there was also a screen positioned between the table and wall where his butler would hide behind and openly laugh at Mark’s jokes if the party host told a joke to his guests and his guests, for some reason or other, did not get the joke. On the same floor was the drawing room, or living room, where Mark would entertain his guests after dinner. Mark also had an extensive book collection which he kept in the library on the first floor. The library has an oak mantle, bookcases, Asian pottery and glassware, and right off of the library is the sun room. The sun room has glass walls, many exotic plants, and a fountain in the center. One guest room is located on the first floor and contains beautiful mahogany furniture. The kitchen was renovated in 1881 to modernize it. On the second floor of the house is the master bedroom, Mark’s daughter’s bedrooms, a schoolroom, three bathrooms, another bedroom, and guest room. Mark’s three daughters Clara, Jean, and Susy were homeschooled by Olivia and a governess. The bed in the master bedroom came from Venice, Italy, and has beautiful carvings in the bed’s posts. Another significant feature of the house is that all of the bathrooms had indoor plumbing.
The third floor of the house contains the billiards room and study, another guest room, and more servants rooms. The billiards room was where Mark would invite his male guests up on Friday night to play pocket billiards on Friday nights. This room also contained Mark’s private study where he would do his writing. During his later years Twain also wrote about social criticisms in addition to writing novels.
The Mark Twain House also has a museum store. An exhibition hall and cafe is located on grounds. The house is located on 351 Farmington Avenue in Hartford, Connecticut. Guided adult and school tours are available.
Image Credit: Makemake, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
