GPS City GuideHartfordHarriet Beecher Stowe House

Stop 22 of 30 · Hartford audio walking tour

Harriet Beecher Stowe House

Hartford · 1852 · Publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin

What you'll hear here: about a minute on Harriet Beecher Stowe House — the story behind what you're looking at, playing hands-free as you arrive.

Gray brick, two stories, 73 Forest Street in Hartford, Connecticut: this is the Stowe Center for Literary Activism, once the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe. She wrote the 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin and lived here for the last 23 years of her life; this was her family's second home in Hartford. The 5,000 sq ft (460 m2) cottage-style house sits adjacent to the Mark Twain House and is open to the public.

Look up at the house's basically rectangular form set on a brick foundation and admire its complex roof: a jerkin-headed gable running parallel to the street, a hip-roof extension to the rear, small dormers flanking a central dormer flush with the front facade. Notice the gables' bargeboard and the Italianate brackets under the eaves. Step inside and you would find a conventional center-hall plan with two parlors, a dining room, kitchen and pantry on the first floor and bedrooms on the second.

The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and declared a National Historic Landmark in 2013. Notice the decorative bargeboard along the gables and the Mark Twain House standing just next door.

Where it is

Coordinates
41.76698, -72.70078
Area
Hartford
Era
1852 · Publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin
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Three stops free. No account needed. The audio plays itself as you walk.