Harriet Beecher Stowe House (Hartford, Connecticut) facts for kids
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Harriet Beecher Stowe House
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U.S. Historic district
Contributing property |
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| Location | Hartford, Connecticut |
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| Built | 1871 |
| Architectural style | Gothic |
| Website | www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org |
| Part of | Nook Farm and Woodland Street District (ID79002674) |
| NRHP reference No. | 70000710 |
Quick facts for kids Significant dates |
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| Added to NRHP | October 6, 1970 |
| Designated NHL | February 27, 2013 |
| Designated CP | November 29, 1979 |
The Harriet Beecher Stowe House is a special historic house museum in Hartford, Connecticut. It was once the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe, a famous American writer. She wrote the very important book Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852. Harriet Beecher Stowe lived in this house for the last 23 years of her life. It's a charming cottage-style house, right next to the Mark Twain House. Today, you can visit it and learn about her life and work. The house became a National Historic Landmark in 2013.
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About the Stowe House
The Stowe House is a two-story building made of brick. It is painted gray and sits on a strong brick foundation. The house has a unique roof with different shapes and angles. It also has decorative wooden trim called bargeboard on its gables. The edges of the roof have fancy Italianate brackets.
Inside, the house has a classic layout. On the first floor, you'll find two living rooms, a dining room, a kitchen, and a pantry. The bedrooms are located upstairs on the second floor. This house was the first one built especially for Harriet Beecher Stowe and her family.
Harriet Beecher Stowe's Life in Hartford
Harriet Beecher Stowe and her husband, Calvin Ellis Stowe, used to live in Massachusetts. Calvin was a teacher at the Andover Theological Seminary. When he decided to leave his job in 1863, Harriet started planning their first home in Hartford.
Building a house during the American Civil War was tough because costs kept changing. But Harriet loved being in charge of the project. She even wrote to her publisher, James T. Fields, about how excited she was about the garden. She named this first home "Oakholm." By May 1, 1864, they were able to move in.
Moving to Forest Street
By 1873, keeping up with Oakholm became too expensive for the Stowe family. So, they sold that house and moved to their new home on Forest Street. This house was originally built by Franklin Chamberlin. He was the same person who sold the land next door to Mark Twain, where the Mark Twain House was built.
Harriet Beecher Stowe lived in the Forest Street house for the rest of her life, which was 23 years. While living here, she continued to write. One of her books from this time was Pogunuc People (1878). She was very active, even going on two lecture tours.
She also helped support local arts and education. She pushed for the Wadsworth Atheneum, an art museum, and helped start the Hartford Art School. This school is now part of the University of Hartford. Harriet Beecher Stowe passed away in her upstairs bedroom in 1896. Her children, sister, and other family members were with her.
The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center
The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center works to keep Harriet Beecher Stowe's Hartford home and its historical items safe. It also encourages important discussions about her life and work. The Center hopes to inspire people to work for social justice and positive change.
After Harriet Beecher Stowe died in 1896, her family sold the house. But in 1924, her grandniece, Katharine Seymour Day, bought it back. Katharine also bought the nearby Mark Twain House in 1929, saving it from being torn down. Katharine Day left her Hartford properties to a special foundation. This foundation was created to honor Stowe's legacy.
Today, this organization is known as the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center. It was officially started in 1941. The Center carefully restored the house between 1965 and 1968. It opened to the public as a historic house museum in 1968. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. It was named a National Historic Landmark in 2013.
Now, you can take guided tours of the house. You'll see original furniture and items that belonged to the Stowe family. More than 25,000 people visit the center every year.
What Else is at the Center?
Besides the Stowe House, the Center also manages other buildings. There's an 1873 carriage house that now serves as the visitor's center. There's also the Katharine Seymour Day House, built in 1884.
The Stowe Center protects the house and its collections. It has a research library filled with letters and documents from the family. The collections include about 6,000 objects. There are also over 200,000 manuscripts, books, photographs, and other materials. The site is part of the Connecticut Women's Heritage Trail.
The Stowe Prize
Every two years, the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center gives out a special award called The Stowe Prize. This prize goes to an American author. Their work must have made a big impact on an important social issue. This is in the spirit of Stowe’s famous book, Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Here are some of the people who have won the Stowe Prize:
- Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (2011), for Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.
- Michelle Alexander (2013), for The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.
- Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015), for "The Case for Reparations".
- Bryan Stevenson (2017), for Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption.
- Matthew Desmond (2018), for Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City.
- Albert Woodfox (2020), for Solitary.
- Clint Smith (2022), for How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America.
See also
