Explore the Mark Twain house and other of Hartford's celebrities of the 1800's.

1. Mark Twain’s Home
Hartford, CT
1874-1891
c.1884. left to right: Clara, Olivia,
Jean, Sam, Susy & Hash (dog)
c.1884. left to right: Clara, Olivia,
Jean, Sam, Susy & Hash (dog)

2. Between 1871-
1873
Twain leased the
Hookers’ house
while building his
own Hartford
home.
On January 21, 1868
Mark Twain first visited Hartford.
1864 City View of Hartford By John Bachmann

3. Welcome to
Nook Farm,
Twain’s Hartford
house in the 1800’s.

4. Nook Farm
The Hooker House
The Harriet Beecher Stowe House
“Its spacious Victorian homes stood amid carefully
landscaped grounds that emerged imperceptibly
into each other to create the effect of an extensive
park.” p. 7 Nook Farm, Van Why

5. Charles Dudley Warner House
Francis Gillette House
“The houses appeared to be
irregularly spaced on one enormous
fenceless estate. Winding among the
trees were paths and shortcuts which
neighbors used without going to the
street. Doors were always unlocked
and residents of the Farm walked in
and out of each other’s houses at any
time of day without knocking.”
p. 84 Nook Farm: Mark Twain’s Hartford Circle
Nook Farm

6. The Twain House
on the
Park River,
Nook Farm
Photo of Hartford home, 1800s fromDave Thomson collection

7. Explore
the
house...
19 rooms & 5 baths
19 rooms & 5 baths
http://www.marktwainhouse.org/house/floor_plans.php

8. As you explored the house, what themes were present?
The First Floor........Guests/Entertaining
The Second Floor....Family
The Third Floor.....Sam's interests

9. In the book Papa, Susy Clemens describes her
father’s story telling. Twain comments:
and into that romance I had to get all that bric-a-brac and
the three pictures. I had to start always with the cat and
finish with Emmeline. I was never allowed the refreshment
of a change, end for end. It was not permiss-

10. Notice the objects on the
mantle? Write your own
story using the objects
Twain describes and the
objects you see. Click for rubric.

11. As you tour Twain’s house,
make a list of descriptive
phrases about the exterior
and each room.
Later, you will use these to
write a descriptive narrative
about Twain’s house to your
local paper. Click for rubric.
Click for rubric.
Click for rubric.
Explore descriptions

12. Text
Read
The Hartford Daily
Times 1874
description of the
house.

13. Read another
description of
the house from
the Elmira
Advertiser, 1874

14. Read this
description from
Living Leaders of
the World, 1878

15. Twain’s description in a letter to his wife
Olivia Clemens, dated July 3, 1874
“You may look at the house or the grounds from any point
of view you choose, & they are simple exquisite. It is a
quite, murmurous, enchanting poem, done in the solid
elements of nature. The house & barn do not seem to
have been set up on the grassy slopes & levels by laws &
plans & specifications--it seems as if they grew up out of
the ground& were part & parcel of Nature’s handiwork.
The harmony of size, shape, color--everything--is
harmonious. It is a home and the word never had so much
meaning before...”

16. Why did he leave?
Initially, the family left
to live in Europe to
save money.
Later, the family does
not return because of
Susie’s death.

17. Nook Farm: Mark Twain’s Hartford Circle
by Kenneth R. Andrews
1950
“His exaggerated grief over Susie’s death convinced him that his misery
would be deepened if he were to live again in Nook Farm where life once, in
bitter contrast, had been full and pleasant...Until his death he returned
frequently for brief visits and looked upon his surviving cronies, all of whom
he remembered with more than ordinary pleasure and mourned when they
died.” pg. 233
“His exaggerated grief over Susie’s death convinced him that his misery
would be deepened if he were to live again in Nook Farm where life once, in
bitter contrast, had been full and pleasant...Until his death he returned
frequently for brief visits and looked upon his surviving cronies, all of whom
he remembered with more than ordinary pleasure and mourned when they
died.” pg. 233
“His exaggerated grief over Susie’s death convinced him that his misery
would be deepened if he were to live again in Nook Farm where life once, in
bitter contrast, had been full and pleasant...Until his death he returned
frequently for brief visits and looked upon his surviving cronies, all of whom
he remembered with more than ordinary pleasure and mourned when they
died.” pg. 233
“His exaggerated grief over Susie’s death convinced him that his misery
would be deepened if he were to live again in Nook Farm where life once, in
bitter contrast, had been full and pleasant...Until his death he returned
frequently for brief visits and looked upon his surviving cronies, all of whom
he remembered with more than ordinary pleasure and mourned when they
died.” pg. 233

18. Samuel Colt Mansion
James L. Goodwin
Mansion
Hartford’s Elite

20. Resources:
Clemens, Susy. Papa. Doubleday & Co, Inc., NY, 1985
Faude, Wilson H., Mark Twain’s House:Handbook for Restoration. Queens House, NY, 1978
Andrews, Kenneth R., Nook Farm:Mark Twain’s Hartford Circle. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, 1950
“Mark Twain’s House”, The Hartford Daily Times. March 23, 1874
Wallace & Parton, Living Leaders of the World. 1878
“Mark Twain’s House”, Elmira Advertiser. January 30, 1874 (reprinting the Titusville Herald, PA)
Clemens, Samuel, Letter to Olivia L. Clemens. July 3, 1874 (The Mark Twain House Collection)
All photos courtesy of The Mark Twain House Collection. For classroom use only.
Special thanks to Patricia Philippon, Chief Curator, The Mark Twain House, Hartford, CT