The Mark Twain House

To us, our house . . . had a heart, and a soul, and eyes to see us with; and approvals and solicitudes and deep sympathies; it was of us, and we were in its confidence and lived in its grace and in the peace of it benediction.  – Mark Twain

     Shortly after marrying, Sam and Livy Clemens moved to Hartford, CT to be near his publisher. Initially they rented a house, but later purchased land on Farmington Avenue. In 1873 they hired New York City architect Edward Tuckerman Potter to design their house.
     The house on Farmington Avenue is a grand 19-room Victorian mansion that served the Clemens family for about 18 years. Financial problems forced them to move to Europe in 1891, and they never returned to Hartford. Susy’s death in 1896 made it too hard for Livy to return to their Hartford home and they sold the property in 1903.
     The Mark Twain House was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1963, and an in-depth look at the house can be seen on a virtual tour here.

Stormfield

New York Times: “Do you like it here at Stormfield?”
Samuel Clemens: “Yes, it is the most out of the world and peaceful and tranquil and in every way satisfactory home I have had experience of in my life.”

     Twain had the entire house designed by John Mead Howells and built before even stepping foot in Redding, CT. He moved into Stormfield on June 18, 1908, accompanied by a couple of reporters to document the event. Initially the home was to be called “Autobiography House,” since it was built with money earned from the publication of chapters from his autobiography.  By the time he moved in, though, Twain was calling it “Innocence at Home,” which was in honor of the Angelfish girls.  His daughter Clara objected to the name, and eventually it was called “Stormfield,” after his story Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven.

     Stormfield was Twain’s last home, where the famous burglary occurred and his daughter Clara was married. He died there, and the estate was passed on to Clara. In July 1917 the estate was advertised for sale, as Clara found the country home to be too far away from New York City for her needs. Twain had orinigally had the home built to be near enough to New York, yet not too near, and enjoyed by the family in the Summer and Winter.