- The Mark Twain House -
Hartford, Connecticut
"To us, our house...had a heart, and a soul, and eyes to see us with, and approvals and solicitudes and deep sympathies; it was of us, and we were in its confidence and lived in its grace and in the peace of its benediction."
Samuel Clemens - a.k.a. Mark Twain - moved to Hartford with his wife Olivia a year after their marriage in 1870. In 1873, they hired Edward Tuckerman Potter to build a home, resulting in this Victorian/Gothic wonder. I asked the tour guide to what extent Twain's own ideas contributed to the design of the house, and was told that Twain gave only one simple directive: "I want a red house." He got it. Olivia, on the other hand, was apparently more involved in the plan, producing her own sketches of what she envisioned. Nearly all of the other surviving buildings designed by Potter are churches or cathedrals of the Gothic style, and similar design features are evident here in the steep roofing, the buttressed gables, and the ornamental towers and chimneys of the Twain House.
The Clemons family occupied the house for 18 years, which were the best years of their lives. Unfortunately, it didn't last. They vacated the home in 1891 when financial difficulties led Twain to embark on a speaking tour throughout Europe; although the tours were very profitable, allowing him to repay all of his debts by the time of his return to the U.S., the death of their daughter Susy made it emotionally difficult for them to reoccupy the old house where the child had grown up, so they sold it in 1903.
Thereafter, it was occupied by other owners, and used for a variety of other purposes; it became a school for boys, then a warehouse, and later an apartment building. As a result, the original furnishings were removed or lost over time, and the building was subject to many alterations, as well. In 1929, a group of Hartford preservationists took steps to save the building; by 1974, the 100-year anniversary of its construction, the building had been painstakingly restored to its former appearance, using old photographs and written descriptions as guides. Although the interiors are virtually identical to their former appearance now, only a very few of the furnishings are original.
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