Nook Farm and Woodland Street District | |
 The Mark Twain House | |
| Location | Woodland, Gillett, and Forest Sts., and Farmington Ave., Hartford, Connecticut |
|---|---|
| Area | 41 acres (17 ha) |
| Architect | Brocklesby, William C.; Multiple |
| Architectural style | Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals, Gothic, Queen Anne |
| MPS | Asylum Hill MRA |
| NRHP reference No. | 79002674 [1] |
| Added to NRHP | November 29, 1979 |
Nook Farm is a historical neighborhood in the Asylum Hill section on the western edge of Hartford, Connecticut, USA.
In the early 1800s, the area was dominated by the Imlay farm, which occupied most of the land from present-day Imlay Street west to the north branch of the Park River, and from Farmington Avenue south to the Park River. John Hooker and his brother-in-law Francis Gillette purchased the pasture and woodland from William Imlay in 1853 for the purpose of developing the real estate. They built their own homes and sold parcels of land to relatives and friends to do likewise. As a result, an art colony took hold that included Hooker and his wife Isabella Beecher Hooker, the Gillettes, Charles Dudley Warner, Joseph Roswell Hawley, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, the Rev. Nathaniel Judson Burton and his wife Rachel Pine Chase Burton, as well as other journalists, feminists, spiritualists, painters, writers, reformers and activists. The area became known as Nook Farm, taking its name from the bend‚ or "nook‚" in the Park River‚ which bordered the area on the west and south. [2] [3] [4]
Nook Farm "developed into a tight-knit community through a web of family and business connections. It was an oasis apart from the bustling city and a place that bubbled over with ideas about politics and reform during a time of great tumult in the nation." [2] Mark Twain described the openness of the neighborhood, "Among the colonists of our neighborhood the doors always stood open in pleasant weather." [5]
The homes were designed by leading architects of the day, including Edward Tuckerman Potter, Francis Hatch Kimball and Richard Upjohn. [6] Although many of them were demolished over the years, including eleven to make room for the Hartford Public High School, [7] some still survive. Currently, the Mark Twain House, the Harriet Beecher Stowe House, and the Katherine Day House are museums open to the public. [8] [9] [10] The John and Isabella Hooker House is now an apartment building, [11] as is the House at 36 Forest Street, built later in 1895. [12]
A large portion of the Nook Farm area was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. [1] The district is anchored at the center by the complex of museum properties that make up the Twain and Stowe houses. It extends south along Forest Street north along Woodland and Gillett Streets roughly to Niles Street. In addition to the surviving mansion houses, there are several architecturally stylish early 20th-century apartment blocks. [13]
Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 census. Hartford is the most populous city in the Capitol Planning Region and the core city of the Greater Hartford metropolitan area.
William Hooker Gillette was an American actor-manager, playwright, and stage-manager in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best remembered for portraying Sherlock Holmes on stage and in a 1916 silent film.
Isabella Beecher Hooker was a leader, lecturer and social activist in the American suffragist movement.
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.
The History of Hartford, Connecticut has occupied a central place in Connecticut's history from the state's origins to the present, as well as the greater history of the United States of America.
Olivia Langdon Clemens was the wife of the American author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known under his pen name Mark Twain.
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.
The neighborhoods of Hartford, Connecticut in the United States are varied and historic.
The Park River is a tributary of the Connecticut River in Hartford, Connecticut. It was officially named the Park River in 1892 after Bushnell Park, through which it flowed in downtown Hartford. A local newspaper had advocated for that name rather than the “’Hog River’” name which was then in use. Between 1940 and the 1980s, the 2.3-mile (3.7 km) river was buried by the Army Corps of Engineers to prevent the spring floods regularly caused by increased surface runoff from urban development.
Originating in New England, one particular Beecher family in the 19th century was a political family notable for issues of religion, civil rights, and social reform. Notable members of the family include clergy, educators, authors and artists. Many of the family were Yale-educated and advocated for abolitionism, temperance, and women's rights. Some of the family provided material or ideological support to the Union in the American Civil War. The family is of English descent.
Mark Twain: The Musical is a stage musical biography of Mark Twain that had a ten-year summertime run in Elmira, NY and Hartford, CT (1987–1995) and was telecast on a number of public television stations. An original cast CD was released by Premier Recordings in 1988, and LML Music in 2009 issued a newly mastered and complete version of the score. Video and DVD versions of the show are currently in release.
The Katharine Seymour Day House is a historic house at 77 Forest Street in the historic Nook Farm district of Hartford, Connecticut. Built in 1884 for a local businessman seeking to compete stylistically with the adjacent Mark Twain House, it is a good local example of Queen Anne architecture. It now serves as the administrative center and library for the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.
The house at 36 Forest Street, sometimes called the Burton House in Hartford, Connecticut, United States, is a wooden Shingle Style structure built in the late 19th century and largely intact today. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut, was the home of Samuel Langhorne Clemens and his family from 1874 to 1891. It was designed by Edward Tuckerman Potter and built in the American High Gothic style. Clemens biographer Justin Kaplan has called it "part steamboat, part medieval fortress and part cuckoo clock."
Katharine Seymour Day was an American preservationist from Hartford, Connecticut. She worked as a member of the Hartford City Planning Commission to preserve historic homes in Connecticut and helped establish the Children’s Museum of Hartford and the home of Mark Twain as a memorial. She served as president of the Mark Twain Library and Memorial Commission. She was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame in 1994. The Katharine Seymour Day House has been preserved as part of the Harriet Beecher Stowe House Museum.
John Hooker (1816-1901) was an American lawyer, judge, and abolitionist as well as a reformer for women's rights. He married Isabella Beecher Hooker in 1841 and lived in Farmington and Hartford, Connecticut.
The John and Isabella Hooker House is a historic house at 140 Hawthorn Street in Hartford, Connecticut. Built in the 1850s and twice enlarged, it is a distinctive and large example of Italianate country villa architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The Imlay and Laurel Streets District is a residential historic district on portions of Imlay, Laurel, Hawthorn and Sigourney Streets in Hartford, Connecticut. The area is a densely built residential neighborhood developed between about 1870 and 1895, with predominantly brick Italianate and Queen Anne construction. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association (CWSA) was founded on October 28, 1869, by Isabella Beecher Hooker and Frances Ellen Burr at Connecticut's first suffrage convention. Its main goal was to persuade the Connecticut General Assembly to ratify the 19th amendment, giving women in Connecticut the right to vote. Throughout its 52 years of existence, the CWSA helped to pass local legislation and participated in the national fight for women's suffrage. It cooperated with the National Women's Suffrage Association through national protests and demonstrations. As well as advocating for women's suffrage, this association was active in promoting labor regulations, debating social issues, and fighting political corruption.
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