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Saturday, October 13, 2012

Haunting the House

 
 
It is said by some that the Mark Twain house is haunted. The docents still speak of an impressive recent day in which a woman was supposedly possessed of one on a daily tour. So perhaps now there is one less! I only know that I myself came away haunted by the spirit of the home of the Samuel Clemens family home in Hartford, Connecticut after my tour yesterday.
 
 Of his Hartford Mansion Samuel Clemens spoke this way:
 

 

To us our house was not unsentient matter--it had a heart & a soul & eyes to see us with, & approvals & solicitudes & deep sympathies; it was of us, & we were in its confidence, & lived in its grace & in the peace of its benediction. We never came home from an absence that its face did not light up & speak out its eloquent welcome--& we could not enter it unmoved.
- Letter to Joseph Twichell, quoted in Mark Twain: A Biography

Visitors are not allowed to photograph inside. None of the photos I have seen do it justice anyway. It's about showing up and feeling its gracious presence. Of brick Victorian Gothic architecture, and decorated by Tiffany and others in the Aesthetic Movement, it is a wonderfully liveable work of art, and a delight to experience a household full of antiques all in context. Visit if you ever can.

I walked around the entire structure to show you all the perspectives of the house beginning at the front and circling around to the right. Enjoy!
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Situated on a hill of the former Nook Farm.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 





 
  
Here is a link to the Museum website for more info. They even have Graveyard Shift Ghost Tours in the month of October if that's your thing.
 
I'm off to tour more of New England in the fall!
Thanks so much for stopping by. . . and have a terrific weekend!
 
Jacqueline
 
 
 

16 comments:

  1. Hello Jacqueline,
    A very informative interesting post.
    I am somehow a little dissapointed with Samuel Clemens home. I find it austere! I am sure that its not like that inside. I really dont know what i expected of Mark Twain's home.!
    I wondered why one cannot go inside. Is it that the family still live there!
    A man's home is always his castle.!
    He wrote that his home was full of heart and soul.
    Home after all is home.
    thanks for the tour
    Enjoy the rest of your trip.
    val

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  2. hauntingly lovely! i've never been there before@. enjoy your NE visits!! isn't it stunning here this time of year??

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  3. You are so lucky to visit there.What a beautiful mansion.I can't imagine the beauty inside!Sounds like you are having a wonderful trip!
    xx
    Anne

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  4. I have never seen photos of this house before but I can see why some might think it has ghosts. It is seems like a dreary house with the brick and patterns and the odd angles. I wonder if the inside is dark woodwork and velvet draperies. Enjoy the rest of your touring.

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  5. Thank for sharing your adventure with me today. I look forward to traveling along on more of New England.

    Smiles,

    Carol

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  6. You are getting around and I love your travels. These are beautiful photos of Mark Twain's home. I hope you share more of New England.

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  7. Just beautiful, love the picture of it on the hill, enjoy your vacation!

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  8. Wow! cross country from Santa Barbera to Connecticut! Summer to fall! You have really been travelling and taking exquisite photos, so thanks for sharing your travels with those of us who haven't been to these beautiful places. Kay

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  9. Fabulous photos of the historic home! Thanks for sharing and enjoy your trip!

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  10. Great phots. I enjoyed this post very much. I love to learn new things about historic buildings.

    Cynthia

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  11. What a beautiful building... I love a good old haunted house! Thank you for introducing us to this beauty. Have a great week!

    Wanda

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  12. Hi Jacqueline, Such a pretty house, I really like the turret. I remember seeing that home and its interiors in one of my Victorian magazines years ago. Mark Twain's boyhood home in right here in my state of Missouri.
    Thanks for sharing! Gina

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  13. What a wonderful house. I used to work as a docent in an historical home and saw and heard ghosts on more than one occasion, :)

    Hugs,
    Laura

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  14. Whoa, if ever a house had ghosts, this one looks like it could. It's quite impressive... but it doesn't look that warm and snuggly to me. I do really like the solarium, and all the different shapes and curves. Thanks for showing us, i love seeing things through your lens...

    Cindy

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  15. jacqueline ~ what a beautiful, grand home. Such lovliness. Haunted? Maybe ~ but I would love to visit just to experience the grandeur of days past.

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  16. Thank you for posting these lovely pictures, Jacqueline. I've never been to his house but would love to go now. (I recently read a small essay about the time he met Helen Keller... it was very moving!) Keble College (Oxford) has that same kind of Gothic Victorian brickwork and some people refer to it as "a dinosaur in a Fair Isle sweater" which always makes me laugh! I hope you enjoyed your travvels here in New England!

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