Mark Twain's Hartford CT Neighborhood: Nook Farm

Mark Twain lived for 20 years in the neighborhood of Nook Farm in Hartford, Connecticut, 17 of them in his own house, which is now a museum. This video is about Mark Twain's house in the context of Nook Farm and the houses of his neighbors, who included Harriet Beecher Stowe, John and Isabella Beecher Hooker, the young William Gillette, Charles Dudley Warner and his brother George H. Warner, and many others. Katharine Hepburn later grew up in a house in Nook Farm.
#marktwain #hartford #hartfordct #harrietbeecherstowe #victorianhouse #connecticut #connecticuthomes #museums #katharinehepburn #gilette
Some of the images used in this video are from the collections of the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History:
John & Isabella Beecher Hooker
Accession Number 1982.80.367
hdl.handle.net/11134/40002:10961
Charles Dudley Warner
Accession Number 2000.175.15
hdl.handle.net/11134/40002:19063
Charles Dudley Warner’s Home
Accession Number 2017.86.41
emuseum.chs.org/emuseum/object...
Charles Dudley Warner’s Home
Accession Number 2017.86.40
emuseum.chs.org/emuseum/object...
133 Hawthorne Street, Hartford
Accession Number 1995.36.1745
emuseum.chs.org/emuseum/object...

[@lisamay4376]

Went to Twain’s house on a field trip in what I think was elementary school. I thought it was amazing!

[@DannyPimienta]

Went to Hartford Public, c/o 93’. I walked through that area a lot, surprisingly I’ve never been inside the Twain house 😮

[@boathousejoed1126]

I can't get enough of these,fascinating!

[@veronicaroach3667]

I lived in Hartford, for some years, back in the late 1970's & Windsor for a few years also and often enjoyed driving past the Mark Twain House & that Hartford area, but this history was never really so well known by most ordinary folks altho I'm quite sure the old families of Hartford know all about these stories. I always enjoyed living in CT, but now in NJ for many years - far north where it is pretty countryside & we have a few mountains! While I may never venture back to CT I do still have fond memories of that area of the world as 'home'! I fondly remember Fox's department store too, which was closed some time just after we left there! Very sad! Thank you for this very interesting historical video!

[@historywithdansterner263]

Thanks for watching!

[@marycjernigan]

Another banger, Dan. My husband loves your videos so much. He always brings them up when friends or family discuss CT history :)

[@historywithdansterner263]

Thank him for spreading the word about my videos!

[@jackjames3190]

Fascinating ❤ I found your channel whilst looking at mark twains old red house. It’s so interesting to me that in modern times the Nook Farm area has suffered in an almost identical way to my home town of Sidcup in south London uk Sidcup was a well to do town of large beautiful Victorian and Edwardian houses with beautiful well kept gardens that survived in tact until 1965 when Sidcup became part of the bexley London county council which had very lax planning laws and so began a period of time where street by street these beautiful homes were torn down and boring plain apartment blocks put in their place. But just like book farm There are still beautiful survivors - houses that were converted into flats and more flats built next to them in what once were ornamental gardens. Melancholy and interesting in so many levels - I always assumed this only happened in the uk as the USA has so much space - now I see it’s happened there as well sadly. I’m uk today though planning is much stricter and the few large houses that remain are now protected.

[@historywithdansterner263]

Thanks! I hope you have the opportunity to visit the Mark Twain House some day. Parts of the US have lots of space, but the northeast, including greater Hartford, is very densely populated. I know the UK has laws to protect the green belts around cities and towns. Hartford suffered a great deal from destructive redevelopment in the 1960s and 70s, but a preservation movement grew out of that and now there are various grants and tax credits that developers can use to preserve older buildings and adapt them to new uses. Some other towns around Hartford have large historic districts with many old buildings, but Hartford suffered more being a local business center.

[@tjroicub6079]

Thanks Dan, another mesmerizing video. I share all your videos with my 94 year old Mom, a Connecticut native, who now resides in Florida. She thoroughly enjoys each one, watches on her iPad and has become a subscriber. We’re looking forward to more.

[@historywithdansterner263]

Thank you so much!

[@ezinafauda4394]

i really love an appreciate your videos.

[@historywithdansterner263]

Thank you very much!

[@junkandthangs]

I’ll check this out later on

[@bigdaddysantos]

HPHS '73. During the construction of the highway, and burying of the river, the end of Hawthorne street near the river was heavily wooded, entered with a dirt road which what I now realize was the remnants of Hawthorne street. Growing up, it was that patch of woods which I (mistakenly) imagined was why the street was named "Forest". On the east side of Forest Street were homes that were the HQs of the Boy and Girl Scouts for many years...possibly the Smith House? or the home just north of it....We owned a 6 family east of the Hawthorne/Forest intersection...I vaguely remember a small fountain or water feature on the (buried) river side of HPHS, next to the building, that may have been related to the properties that existed before....the whole area west of Nook Farm to the river was quite overgrown, but (especially near the Twain home) there were remnants of steps leading down to the river flood plain betraying how it may have been manicured pathways at one time.... That all said, from an historic preservation point of view, this neighborhood is an exhibit of the dual crime that took place in Hartford in the mid 20th century. The destruction of the old Hopkins Street high school and the destruction of all these beautiful buildings to make way for the new Hartford Public high school. I guess it was just the price of progress. Thanks for preserving the memories of this historic neighborhood. Well done, Dan!

[@historywithdansterner263]

Thanks!

[@MaryMurray-cz8no]

Frsncis Gillette was born in Wintonbury. Wintonbury was changed to Bloomfield by Mr Gillette. His home still stands near Cigna. He is a fascinating person.

[@warrenguy76]

I used to live at 30 Forest Street from 2001-2009 and parked my car in that lot where John and Isabella sat. I also remember a run down small two car garage on the other side of Hawthorn Street. Maybe that was part of the Warner/Hepburn house.

[@historywithdansterner263]

It might have been!

[@jflo7674]

Loved this area. The old houses are still so beautiful. You mentioned Lucius Robinson. Is that the lawyer who founded Robinson and Cole or someone else? I work at Robinson and Cole, and that's why I'm curious. 😊

[@historywithdansterner263]

Yes, I believe so!

[@jflo7674]

@@historywithdansterner263 Cool! 😎 😊

[@gregdolecki8530]

What a shame that most of these grand homes are gone. That's "progress".