He was known as the “Greatest Humorist the United States Has Produced,” But how did
he live?
Hi everyone, ken here, welcome to "ThisHouse" Today we are exploring the home of Samuel
Clemens, better known as Mark Twain in Hartford Connecticut.
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To better understand the charming and whimsical characteristics of Mark Twain’s house, we
need to first understand the life he came from.
In 1835, As Halley’s Comet sored overhead in the night sky, Samuel Langhorne Clemens,
though he would become better known as Mark Twain, was born in a small Midwest river town,
growing up in Hannibal, Missouri.
His father provided the family with a good income, working as a judge and as an attorney,
but he passed away when Samuel was only 11 years old.
This prompted his decision to drop out of school while in the 5th grade to start working.
His brother, Orion, gave him a job at his newspaper company, The Hannibal Journal, working
as his typesetter, placing each individual letter or glyph in place to stamp the morning
paper.
In his free time, he found himself at the library, reading books about anything and
everything.
By the time he was 18, he began traveling around the major cities of the US working
as a printer.
His young adulthood was filled with adventure and opportunity.
He traveled to St. Louis, Missouri where he met Steamboat Pilot, Horace E Bixby who taught
Samuel how to navigate the mighty Mississippi all the way down to New Orleans.
While on the river, he adapted the Pen Name, Mark Twain inspired by the pilot’s jargon.
He had a lot of fun voyaging up and down the river, returning to St. Louis where he would
spend long nights drinking and smoking cigars in the seedy sofas of the Old Rock House.
But the good times did not roll, In 1861 the Civil War broke out and he had to choose a
side.
Missouri was a split state, but his good paying job as a steamboat pilot took him down south,
so he sided with the confederate army, but only for 2 weeks.
Escaping conflict, he reconnected with his brother Orion who was now the secretary of
the Nevada Territory.
He hopped on a stagecoach and spent the next two weeks slowly traveling to Virginia City,
Nevada.
A trek which inspired part of his later book, Roughing It.
He went to work as a miner, trying his luck at uncovering silver or gold where the Comstock
lode was discovered, but his attempts were fruitless so he pivoted his career to journalism,
working for a local newspaper.
He was a natural at it.
He began writing comical and satirical columns.
He moved to san Francisco to further his career, where he wrote “The Celebrated Jumping Frog
of Calaveras County which gained him national attention.
Soon enough, he was being sent around the world, first to Hawaii and then all around
Europe and the Middle East.
While traveling abroad, he met a fellow American by the name of Charles Langdon.
The two hit it off with a wonderful conversation and Charles decided to show Samuel a picture
of his sister, Olivia.
It was love at first site, Samuel had to meet her.
After getting to know her, he proposed, but she rejected him.
Samuel waited some time, then popped the question again, and she said yes.
The young couple set out on their first adventure together, moving to Hartford, Connecticut.
They fell in love with the town, and decided to settle down here.
They rented a house known as Nook Farm, and within a couple years decided to build their
own dream home.
Though Samuel was now a successful author and journalist, Olivia had come from a very
wealthy family, so she was able to foot the bill for an opulent estate.
In 1873, They hired Architect, Edward Tuckerman Potter to design for them a rambling mansion
at the height of Victorian fashion.
The house was a combination of Carpenter Gothic and Queen Anne and has sometimes been referred
to as Stick Style.
Though it has never been confirmed, some have claimed that the house was designed as a nod
to Samuel’s love for the river, with it’s enlarged bay windows resembling the likeness
of a Steam Boat.
Entering the home through a large wooden door, you would arrive in the entrance hall.
The floors were laid in a dotted herringbone pattern below hand stenciled walls which had
been designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany and Company.
Following the geometric ceilings directly ahead, the stairs flared out around an oversized
master newel post run with artisan carved balustrade broken up by solid wood Solomonic
columns at each turn.
On the other wall was a hand carved fireplace mantle with heavy relief work.
To the side was an ornately decorated bifold door opening from the entrance hall into the
drawing room.
Turning around, the drawing room welcomed guests for parties with live music.
The walls were hand stenciled with silver and salmon paint which glistened in during
the day as sunlight poured in through the oversized bay window.
Sitting opposite the bay window was a modest, but classically inspired hearth centered on
a crystal chandelier which had been suspended from a plaster medallion, all reflected in
a pier mirror hung between the two front facing windows.
Joined to the drawing room was the dining room, sitting further back in the house, The
walls were finished out with walnut wainscotting run below gold and red hand stenciled lilies
Continuing through the opening to the side, we will pass between curtains to arrive in
the library.
The room was surrounded in half height book shelves, but the centerpiece was an antique
Scottish fireplace mantle with the inscription, “The ornament of a house is the friends
who frequent it.”
We can imagine Mark Twain standing in front of the fireplace, reading poetry to his friends
late into the evening.
This room opened into the conservatory which featured a low lying fountain surrounded by
exotic plants.
Their daughters were known to spend a lot of time playing here and had their own special
name for the observatory, they called it “The Jungle.”
Heading upstairs now, we arrive at the second floor stair landing where we can begin to
explore the bedrooms.
Rare for the time, Samuel and Olivia shared the same bedroom with a hand carved wood bedframe
which they had acquired while visiting Venice, Italy.
Their daughter, Susy’s room was a more relaxed room for a teenager with photos cluttering
the walls and a boudoir for doing her makeup.
The guest room on this floor was decorated in light colors with the textiles featuring
floral patterns complimenting the hand stenciled ceilings.
Facing the stairs was the School Room, where their daughters would be educated by a governess
at home, something that was common for wealthy families at the time.
Going up to the third floor, exposed trusses meet with the geometric ceiling treatment
overhead, framing a tapestry which concealed a balcony above the stairs.
To one end was the billiards room with large windows overlooking the property.
Of all the luxurious and whimsical interiors, the house had a sophistication about it which
offered more modern conveniences.
It contained several bathrooms during a time when indoor plumbing was considered incredibly
rare.
The bedrooms even had dressing rooms in a time when closets were virtually unheard of.
Mark Twain wrote about the house, “To us, our house was not unsentient matter — it
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 its benediction.
We never came home from an absence that its face did not light up and speak out its eloquent
welcome — and we could not enter it unmoved.”
But the house would not be home for them forever.
Throughout his adult life, Samuel had a made a ton of terrible financial decisions, investing
money in companies and products that didn’t perform as he had hoped.
In 1891, he moved with his wife to Europe searching for more opportunity.
Their daughter Susy stayed home to keep an eye on the house, but she tragically died
in the home while they were abroad.
When they returned, the home they once loved felt cursed to them and they left it abandoned
until 1903 when they finally found a buyer.
Olivia passed away the following year in 1904.
Samuel Clemens had often touted that he was born under Halley’s Comet and would die
under it.
Strangely enough, in 1910, Halley’s Comet returned and he had a fatal heart attack the
following day.
The house went on to be used as a school, then a library.
By 1929, much needed maintenance on the home had been largely neglected and it began to
fall into disrepair.
That’s when it was purchased by the newly formed Mark Twain Memorial.
Over the years, with dozens of fundraising efforts, the house was brought back to life,
being fully restored with much of the family’s original furnishings and belongings filling
the home.
Currently, The Mark Twain House and Museum is open for guided tours throughout the year
where visitors can immerse themselves in the life and livelihood of one of America’s
Greatest Authors.
Which room was your favorite?
Let me know down below in the Comments Section.
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