Honoring the states we serve · Connecticut

The Mark Twain House: Where America's Great Storyteller Wrote His Masterpieces

On Farmington Avenue in Hartford, Connecticut, stands one of the most remarkable homes in America: a red-brick Victorian mansion of steep roofs, turrets and porches. From 1874 to 1891 it was home to Samuel Clemens, the writer the world knows as Mark Twain, and the place where he wrote the books that made him famous.

Who was Mark Twain?

Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in Missouri in 1835 and grew up in the river town of Hannibal, on the Mississippi. He worked as a printer, a riverboat pilot, a miner and a newspaper reporter before becoming one of the most popular writers and speakers of his age. His pen name, Mark Twain, comes from a riverboat call meaning water two fathoms deep, safe water for a steamboat.

His humor, his ear for the way ordinary Americans really spoke, and his sharp eye for injustice made him, in the view of many readers and writers, the father of American literature.

A home built for a family

Clemens married Olivia Langdon in 1870, and the couple settled in Hartford's Nook Farm neighborhood, a community of writers and reformers. Their neighbor was Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. The Clemenses hired New York architect Edward Tuckerman Potter to design a house in a bold High Gothic style, and the family moved in in 1874.

The seventeen years they spent there were the happiest and most productive of Clemens's life. In this house he wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), Life on the Mississippi (1883), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Prince and the Pauper and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

Leaving Hartford

Poor investments strained the family's finances, and in 1891 they closed the house and moved to Europe, where living was less expensive. In 1896 their daughter Susy died of meningitis in Hartford, a loss from which the family never fully recovered, and they never lived in the house again.

The Mark Twain House today

The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962 and opened as a museum in 1974. Restored to the years when the Clemens family lived there, it welcomes visitors from around the world, and a museum center beside the house tells the story of Twain's life and work.

Planning your visit

• Address: 351 Farmington Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105.
• Hours, tours and tickets: check marktwainhouse.org before you go.
• Nearby: the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center next door, the Connecticut State Capitol, and Elizabeth Park's rose gardens.

Making a home in Connecticut

From Hartford and New Haven to Stamford, Danbury and the shoreline towns, Connecticut offers historic neighborhoods, good schools and easy access to Boston and New York. Beyond Financing, Inc. is licensed in Connecticut as a mortgage broker. Whether you are buying your first home, are self-employed, or file taxes with an ITIN, our team will compare programs from several lenders and explain every step in English, Português or Español.

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More stories from the states we serve →

Sources

• The Mark Twain House & Museum, marktwainhouse.org
• Wikipedia, "Mark Twain House" and "Mark Twain"

Part of our series honoring the communities in the nine states where Beyond Financing, Inc. is licensed. Beyond Financing, Inc., NMLS #2394496. Equal Housing Opportunity. This is not a commitment to lend; all loans are subject to credit approval and program guidelines. Not affiliated with The Mark Twain House & Museum or Beyond Finance, LLC.