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August 10, 2006
Twain house in Hartford still the place to be
by Kathryn Higgins
"Architects cannot teach nature anything." Mark Twain
Imagine a brilliant man of letters, a world traveler, inventor, newly respectable and nouveaux riche thanks to a good marriage, a man who suddenly makes more money than his wealthy wife with the publication of a successful novel (let's call it "Tom Sawyer"), a witty, progressive man who everyone wants to visit and who welcomes everyone. In 1870, what kind of home would this man have? It turns out that for Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, Hartford was the place to be.
"You do not know what beauty is if you have not been here," he wrote in 1878. Hartford was a literary enclave at the time (Harriet Beecher Stowe and Noah Webster, among others, lived there), and a way station for intellectual types traveling between New York and Boston. When Twain married Olivia Langdon of Elmira, N.Y., they bought land in Hartford and commissioned architect Edward Tuckerman Potter to design them a house (with Olivia's money). In 1874, when Twain was 39, the couple moved into the house with two young daughters, and commenced 17 years of happiness and hospitality in their home as Twain reached the peak of his literary success. I had the good fortune to go to his home with a group of writers, all suitably awestruck, practically genuflecting as we walked in the door. A modern museum and caf have been built onto the original house, which one tours accompanied by a guide. Ours, Pat, kept us entertained with Clemens family tales as she showed us architectural and design features.
The house is red brick, painted with more red. Is it a Tudor? Is it a Swiss Chalet? A glorified barn? It is known for being whimsical and stylistically idiosyncratic. At the time it was built it was considered an expression of modernity. As Twain wrote: These are the bricks of various hue And shape and position, straight and askew,
With the nooks and angles and gables too, Which make up the house presented to view, The curious house that Mark built.
In 1881, Twain and "Livvy" had the Associated Artists, a team of decorators that included Louis Comfort Tiffany (of Tiffany glass fame), decorate the house. They used "modern" motifs, reflective glass and metallic paints.
Their designs stunned our humble assemblage when we walked into the foyer. We stood remarking on the remarkable room, which was completely covered with a geometric-looking native American pattern.
"They had the best of everything in this house," said Pat as she led us from one fabulous room to the next. Twain bought every newfangled invention and was the first to own many modern conveniences, like Lilliputian flush toilets, a burglar alarm, and hot and cold running water. (Hartford was one of the first to provide city water.)
Twain was proud to own one of the first telephones, but it frustrated him probably as much as my wireless modem frustrates me and he was known for shouting at the operators. When we finished the tour, we all felt like we'd been a guest of the Clemens family, shooting pool and smoking with Twain and watching the kids put on "The Prince and the Pauper" in the living room. So when we went back to the museum and watched the Ken Burns biographical film, we were all practically reduced to tears. (Twain made bad investments and lost the house; was predeceased by his wife; and three of the Clemens children died very young.)
We ameliorated the effects of the movie with a trip to the caf for soup and sandwiches — some of us needed sweets — and then to the museum gift and bookshop, which nearly consumed some of the group and they had to be forcibly extracted.
Overall, an extremely satisfactory outing on several levels: emotionally (better than a General Electric commercial), culturally (we were smarter and better conversationalists until the effects wore off), gastronomically (we got to eat), and materially (got some good stuff). A 10 for any Twain enthusiast. The Mark Twain House is at 351 Farmington Ave., Hartford. For more information, call (860) 247-0998 or visit www.MarkTwainHouse.org.
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Posted by Bustraan on August 10, 2006 4:50 PM
