“A Home – & The Word Never Had So Much Meaning Before”---A Visit to Mark Twain's House in Hartford

  Yesterday, we had a field trip to Mark Twain's House in Hartford. 

    Actually, although I know Mark Twain was a very famous writer before I visited his house in Hartford, I thought I knew a lot about him already,  I didn't know he had ever lived in so luxurious a house in his life in Hartford. I just know he was born into a very plain family alongside Mississippi River and had ever been a pilot and apprentice and he had written a lot of short stories and his most popular work was children's favorite: The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn.

     So when I got off the school bus which took us to the foot of Mark Twain's House, I was really amazed. Mark Twain's House is a three-story red-brick building, which is located at the top of a large slope of lawn. As we followed the tour guide to visit the house, we knew that  this building is made up of 23 rooms with a long and large roofed corridor or veranda. the interior of  the house is lavishly and exquisitely decorated and furnished which really cost a large fortune of Mark Twain and his wife in 1873, actually the cost of the house was mostly from Mark Twain's wife Olivia "Livy" Clemens. The house even had a round protruded greenhouse or garden house connecting the large study room. In the nursery room, we saw a lot of toys and beds and books and there is a spacious school room with a lot of pictures and books. Obviously Mark Twain spent his happiest and most productive years in this house. In this house he wrote a lot of books among which The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn is the most well-known. It is a pity that visitors are not allowed to take any pictures of the interior of the house, which is so warm and beautiful!

        Samuel and Olivia "Livy" Clemens were married in 1870 and moved to Hartford in 1871.In 1873‚ they engaged New York architect Edward Tuckerman Potter to design their house. The family moved into their house on September 19‚ 1874. Construction delays and the ever-increasing costs of building their dream home frustrated Sam. In spite of this‚ he was enamored with the finished product‚ saying‚ “It is a home - & the word never had so much meaning before.”

      It was also in this house, Mark Twain experienced his saddest time in life, because of  failure in investment on a Compositor, financial problems drove Mark Twain and Livy to move the family to Europe in 1891. Their eldest daughter, Susy died in 1896, which made it too hard for Mark Twain and his wife to return to their Hartford home‚ and so in 1903 Mark Twain sold the house.

   

       It's another surprise for me that Mrs Stower who wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin" also lived very near Mark Twain. Obviously Mrs Stower favored light-colored house. So her house is quite different picture. Personally I prefer Mrs Stower's House.