Harriet Beecher Stowe Home

We headed back to Connecticut again today.  This time to Hartford to visit the homes and museum of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Mark Twain.  Actually both homes are in the same neighborhood called Nook Farm.  In the early 1850's two brothers bought 140 acres on a bend or "nook" of the Park River.  They then started selling parcels of the land out to friends and family members.  Over the years the Nook Farm neighborhood became a tightly knit neighborhood of intellectuals, reformers and political leaders who wielded a lot of influence in America both socially and politically.  

Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and Mark Twain both had homes very close to each other and today you can take a combined tour of both homes which is what we did.  

Visitor Center for Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe's Home

Harriet Beecher Stowe at one time owned a much larger mansion in this area but as she got older, she decided to downsize.  She bought the only Spec House in the neighborhood and called it home for the last 23 years of her life.   The rest of the homes were designed for the owners.  Her home had a modest 14 rooms and they were furnished with most of her own furniture and memorabilia.  I wish we could have taken pictures inside but that was a "no go".

a tightly knit community of intellectuals, political leaders, and reformers who together and individually wielded an outsized influence on the country’s intellectual and social development. - See more at: http://connecticuthistory.org/hartfords-nook-farm/#sthash.eiYgvRgT.dpuf

n the early 1850s, brothers-in-law John Hooker and Francis Gillette purchased 140 wooded acres just west of Hartford’s last trolley stop on a bend, or nook, of the winding Park River. The men built their homes and parceled out land to family members and friends. What evolved in the years after the Civil War was Nook Farm, a tightly knit community of intellectuals, political leaders, and reformers who together and individually wielded an outsized influence on the country’s intellectual and social development. - See more at: http://connecticuthistory.org/hartfords-nook-farm/#sthash.eiYgvRgT.dpuf

In the early 1850s, brothers-in-law John Hooker and Francis Gillette purchased 140 wooded acres just west of Hartford’s last trolley stop on a bend, or nook, of the winding Park River. The men built their homes and parceled out land to family members and friends. What evolved in the years after the Civil War was Nook Farm, a tightly knit community of intellectuals, political leaders, and reformers who together and individually wielded an outsized influence on the country’s intellectual and social development. - See more at: http://connecticuthistory.org/hartfords-nook-farm/#sthash.eiYgvRgT.dpuf

In the early 1850s, brothers-in-law John Hooker and Francis Gillette purchased 140 wooded acres just west of Hartford’s last trolley stop on a bend, or nook, of the winding Park River. The men built their homes and parceled out land to family members and friends. What evolved in the years after the Civil War was Nook Farm, a tightly knit community of intellectuals, political leaders, and reformers who together and individually wielded an outsized influence on the country’s intellectual and social development. - See more at: http://connecticuthistory.org/hartfords-nook-farm/#sthash.eiYgvRgT.dpuf

In the early 1850s, brothers-in-law John Hooker and Francis Gillette purchased 140 wooded acres just west of Hartford’s last trolley stop on a bend, or nook, of the winding Park River. The men built their homes and parceled out land to family members and friends. What evolved in the years after the Civil War was Nook Farm, a tightly knit community of intellectuals, political leaders, and reformers who together and individually wielded an outsized influence on the country’s intellectual and social development. - See more at: http://connecticuthistory.org/hartfords-nook-farm/#sthash.eiYgvRgT.dpuf

 

Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and an author of more than 20 books.  The most famous, of course, was "Uncle Tom's Cabin"  and when she met President Lincoln he said "So this is the little woman who wrote the book that made the great war".  Of course, she wasn't the cause of the war but she certainly brought to light the evils of slavery and the slave trade.