Harriet Beecher Stowe House (Brunswick, Maine)

Last updated

Harriet Beecher Stowe House
Whitmore House, Brunswick, ME.jpg
USA Maine location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location Brunswick, Maine
Coordinates 43°54′46″N69°57′39″W / 43.91278°N 69.96083°W / 43.91278; -69.96083
Built1850
Architectural style Greek Revival
Part of Federal Street Historic District (ID76000092)
NRHP reference No. 66000091
Significant dates
Added to NRHPOctober 15, 1966 [1]
Designated NHLDecember 29, 1962 [2]
Designated CPOctober 29, 1976

The Harriet Beecher Stowe House is a historic home and National Historic Landmark at 63 Federal Street in Brunswick, Maine, notable as a short-term home of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Calvin Ellis Stowe and where Harriet wrote her 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin . Earlier, it had been the home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as a student. It is today owned by Bowdoin College. A space within the house, called Harriet's Writing Room, is open to the public.

Contents

History

The home was built 1806-1807 and was originally known as the Titcomb House. [3] Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his brother Stephen Longfellow temporarily rented rooms here while students at nearby Bowdoin College before moving into what is now the campus's Maine Hall by the fall of 1823. [4]

When Calvin Ellis Stowe was hired as a professor by Bowdoin College in 1850, he and his family rented this home. His wife Harriet Beecher Stowe was sent ahead to prepare the housekeeping while he completed teaching the fall 1850 semester at Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati. [5] Mrs. Stowe, six months pregnant at the time, set out in April 1850 with the couple's three oldest children and her aunt Esther. [5] The family arrived in Brunswick on Wednesday, May 22, amid a storm. The house had already been partially prepared for them by Phebe Upham, the wife of Professor Thomas Cogswell Upham. As Mrs. Stowe wrote to her husband, Calvin Ellis Stowe a week later, "Mrs. Upham has done everything for me, giving up time and strength and taking charge of my affairs in a way without which we could not have got along at all in a strange place and in my present helpless condition." [6] She missed her husband, however, and wrote to him in November, "I am lonesome nights in this rattletrap house where every wind shakes out as many noises as there are ghosts in Hades—screeching snapping cracking groaning." [7]

Meanwhile, her husband in Ohio was ill. As Mrs. Stowe reported to her sister, he claimed he was sick "& all but dead" and worried what would happen to his wife if she were left a widow. "I read the letter and poke it into the stove, and proceed", she wrote. [8] Their son Charley Stowe, the last of their children, was born in this house on July 8, 1850. [6] The birth came while she was writing but, as she recalled in a letter, she was "obliged to give previous attention to some other affairs—about noon the household were thrown into commotion by the arrival of a young stranger in these parts—said to be a great beauty—to have excellent lungs & to look just like his pa, three very important items in his collection." [9]

Once settled in, Mrs. Stowe wrote for several magazines, including the New-York Evangelist and the National Era in Washington, D.C. [10] Rent for the home, then owned by the Titcomb family, was $125, higher than expected, and Mrs. Stowe wrote to offset that expense. [11] It was here also that Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote her serialized novel Uncle Tom's Cabin . [12] The idea first came to her in a vision while sitting in pew 23 in nearby First Parish Church, where she saw the Uncle Tom character wounded from a beating he endured from his enslaver. [13] She is said to have read early drafts of the book's chapters to friends, including the college's future president Joshua Chamberlain and his soon-to-be wife Fanny Adams. [14]

While living here, the Stowes supported the Underground Railroad. John Andrew Jackson, a fugitive slave who stayed with the family, wrote of hiding with them as he made his way to Canada in his narrative titled "The Experience of a Slave in South Carolina" (London: Passmore & Albaster, 1862). [15] The Stowes stayed only two years in the home, but Mrs. Stowe later remarked those two years were the healthiest and happiest of her life. [5]

Later history

Stowe House in 2013 BrunswickME HarrietBeecherStoweHouse.jpg
Stowe House in 2013

At some point, the home was altered and became a restaurant and hotel, with the front desk and a gift shop on the first floor with private rooms on the second floor. [16] The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. [1] It was designated a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom site in 2016. It was purchased by Bowdoin College in 2001 for $1.3 million (~$1.93 million in 2021). [17] It is currently still owned by Bowdoin College, which opened a public space, Harriet's Writing Room [18] in May 2016. Much of the exterior is original to the Stowes' time there. [16]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Wadsworth Longfellow</span> American poet and educator (1807–1882)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator. His original works include the poems "Paul Revere's Ride", "The Song of Hiawatha", and "Evangeline". He was the first American to completely translate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy and was one of the fireside poets from New England.

<i>Uncle Toms Cabin</i> 1852 novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U.S., and is said to have "helped lay the groundwork for the [American] Civil War".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harriet Beecher Stowe</span> American abolitionist and author (1811–1896)

Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe was an American author and abolitionist. She came from the religious Beecher family and became best known for her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), which depicts the harsh conditions experienced by enslaved African Americans. The book reached an audience of millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and in Great Britain, energizing anti-slavery forces in the American North, while provoking widespread anger in the South. Stowe wrote 30 books, including novels, three travel memoirs, and collections of articles and letters. She was influential both for her writings as well as for her public stances and debates on social issues of the day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bowdoin College</span> Private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine

Bowdoin College is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 35 majors and 40 minors, as well as several joint engineering programs with Columbia, Caltech, Dartmouth College, and the University of Maine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brunswick, Maine</span> Town in Maine, United States

Brunswick is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 21,756 at the 2020 United States Census. Part of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area, Brunswick is home to Bowdoin College, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, the Peary–MacMillan Arctic Museum, and the Maine State Music Theatre. It was formerly home to the U.S. Naval Air Station Brunswick, which was permanently closed on May 31, 2011, and has since been partially released to redevelopment as "Brunswick Landing".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catharine Beecher</span> United States educator (1800–1878)

Catharine Esther Beecher was an American educator known for her forthright opinions on female education as well as her vehement support of the many benefits of the incorporation of kindergarten into children's education. She published the advice manual The American Woman's Home with her sister Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1869. Some sources spell her first name as "Catherine".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford</span> American poet

Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford was an American writer of novels, poems and detective stories. One of the United States's most widely-published authors, her career spanned more than six decades and included many literary genres, such as short stories, poems, novels, literary criticism, biographies, and memoirs. She also wrote articles on household decorative art and travel as well as children's literature.

Lake Hiawatha is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Parsippany-Troy Hills in Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The area is served as United States Postal Service as ZIP Code 07034. As of the 2010 United States census, the population for ZIP Code Tabulation Area 07034 was 9,360.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Beecher</span> United States clergyman and writer

Charles Beecher was an American minister, composer of religious hymns and a prolific author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harriet Beecher Stowe House (Cincinnati, Ohio)</span> Historic house in Ohio, United States

The Harriet Beecher Stowe House is a historic home in Cincinnati, Ohio which was once the residence of influential antislavery author Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of the 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Cogswell Upham</span> American poet and philosopher (1799–1872)

Thomas Upham was an American philosopher, psychologist, pacifist, poet, author, and educator. He was an important figure in the holiness movement. He became influential within psychology literature and served as the Bowdoin College professor of mental and moral philosophy from 1825-1868. His most popular work, Mental Philosophy received 57 editions over a 73-year period. Additionally, he produced a volume of 16 other books and the first treatise on abnormal psychology, as well as several other works on religious themes and figures. Specific teachings included a conception of mental faculties - one of these restoring the will to psychology be developing a tripartite division of mental phenomena into intellectual, sentient, and voluntary. The intellect subsumed sensation and perception, attention, habit, association, and memory as well as reasoning. Sensibilities included natural emotions and desires, such as appetites, propensities, and affections, and also moral emotions, such as a feeling of obligation. Finally, the last division was the will, which allowed for volition as a basic component of human nature. This positing of a will free to choose between desires and obligations reflected the author's own spiritual journey from a Calvinistic background to the Wesleyan holiness perspective. However, perhaps his most critical contribution to the field of psychology was Upham's concept of Positive psychology which asserts that there are fundamental, transcendent laws, and living in harmony with them is the key to mental and spiritual health. This concept laid the foundation for a healthy kind of religiosity, and a spiritually-based positive psychology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harriet Beecher Stowe House (Hartford, Connecticut)</span> Historic house in Connecticut, United States

The Harriet Beecher Stowe House is a historic house museum and National Historic Landmark at 73 Forest Street in Hartford, Connecticut that was once the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of the 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. Stowe lived in this house for the last 23 years of her life. It was her family's second home in Hartford. The 5,000 sq ft cottage-style house is located adjacent to the Mark Twain House and is open to the public. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and declared a National Historic Landmark in 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Whitney</span> American sculptor

Anne Whitney was an American sculptor and poet. She made full-length and bust sculptures of prominent political and historical figures, and her works are in major museums in the United States. She received prestigious commissions for monuments. Two statues of Samuel Adams were made by Whitney and are located in Washington, D.C.'s National Statuary Hall Collection and in front of Faneuil Hall in Boston. She also created two monuments to Leif Erikson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hartford Female Seminary</span> Female seminary in Hartford, Connecticut

Hartford Female Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut was established in 1823, by Catharine Beecher, making it one of the first major educational institutions for women in the United States. By 1826 it had enrolled nearly 100 students. It implemented then-radical programs such as physical education courses for women. Beecher sought the aid of Mary Lyon in the development of the seminary. The Hartford Female Seminary closed towards the later half of the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calvin Ellis Stowe</span> American Biblical scholar (1802–1886)

Calvin Ellis Stowe was an American Biblical scholar who helped spread public education in the United States. Over his career, he was a professor of languages and Biblical and sacred literature at Andover Theological Seminary, Dartmouth College, Lane Theological Seminary, and Bowdoin College. He was the husband and literary agent of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of the best-seller Uncle Tom's Cabin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Parish Church (Brunswick, Maine)</span> Historic church in Maine, United States

The First Parish Church is an Open and Affirming congregation of the United Church of Christ. The church meetinghouse sits at 207 Maine Street in Brunswick, Maine. Built in 1845 to a design by Richard Upjohn, it is a unique example of Gothic Revival architecture done in wood, as the church was built with vertical board-and-batten paneling. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969. The congregation dates to 1717. The Senior Pastor is Rev. John Allen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal Street Historic District</span> Historic district in Maine, United States

The Federal Street Historic District of Brunswick, Maine encompasses a part of the town whose development was influenced by its 18th-century success as a shipping center, and by the presence of Bowdoin College, whose historic central campus is part of the district. In addition to the campus, the district includes a series of relatively high-style Federal and later-period houses along Federal Street and Maine Street, which join the campus to downtown Brunswick. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary E. Webb</span> American actress and dramatic reader

Mary Espartero Webb was an American actress and orator known for her dramatic readings of poetry and literature. She toured the northern United States and performed in Europe as a protégée of Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Joan Doran Hedrick is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and biographer of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Jack London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phebe Ann Jacobs</span> American Congregationalist, laundress, and free woman

Phebe Ann Jacobs was an American Congregationalist, laundress, and free woman. Best known for her posthumous biography Narrative of Phebe Ann Jacobs, Jacobs was born into slavery on the Beverwyck plantation in Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. "Stowe, Harriet Beecher, House". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on October 5, 2012. Retrieved June 25, 2008.
  3. Shipman, William D. (1985). The Early Architecture of Bowdoin College and Brunswick, Maine. Brunswick, ME: J.H. French. p. 34.
  4. Calhoun, Charles C. Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life. Boston: Beacon Press, 2004: 33. ISBN   0-8070-7026-2
  5. 1 2 3 Hedrick, Joan D. Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994: 193. ISBN   0-19-506639-1
  6. 1 2 McFarland, Philip. Loves of Harriet Beecher Stowe. New York: Grove Press, 2007: 60. ISBN   978-0-8021-4390-7
  7. Hedrick, Joan D. Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994: 199. ISBN   0-19-506639-1
  8. Hedrick, Joan D. Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994: 195. ISBN   0-19-506639-1
  9. Hedrick, Joan D. Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994: 196. ISBN   0-19-506639-1
  10. McFarland, Philip. Loves of Harriet Beecher Stowe. New York: Grove Press, 2007: 63. ISBN   978-0-8021-4390-7
  11. Hedrick, Joan D. Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994: 194. ISBN   0-19-506639-1
  12. NPS NHL info
  13. Buchanan, Paul D. American Women's Rights Movement: A Chronology of Events and Opportunities, 1800–2008. Boston: Branden Books, 2009: 51. ISBN   0-8283-2160-4
  14. Smith, Diane Monroe. Fanny and Joshua: The Enigmatic Lives of Frances Caroline Adams and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. Gettysburg, PA: Thomas Publications, 1999: 19. ISBN   978-1577470465.
  15. Ashton, Susanna. "The Genuine Article: Harriet Beecher Stowe and John Andrew Jackson". Commonplace: A Journal of Early American Life. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  16. 1 2 Curtis, Nancy C. Black Heritage Sites: An African American Odyssey and Finder's Guide. American Library Association, 1996: 288. ISBN   0838906435
  17. Miller, Mary Helen and James D. Baumberger. "Stowe House renovation pending", The Bowdoin Orient, Vol. 135, No. 24 (May 5, 2006).
  18. "Harriet's Writing Room - Harriet Beecher Stowe House". www.bowdoin.edu. Retrieved September 17, 2017.