Harriet Beecher Stowe Center Receives $750,000 Grant-in-Aid from State of Connecticut Bond Commission

Support for Facilities Improvements and ADA Compliance
At Site of the National Historic Landmark
Harriet Beecher Stowe House

Hartford, CT, July 31, 2018 – The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center will receive a $750,000 grant-in-aid from the State of Connecticut to support continuing improvements for facilities and grounds at the site of the National Historic Landmark Harriet Beecher Stowe House. On Wednesday, July 25^ththe State Bond Commission approved the request, placed on its agenda by Governor Dannel P. Malloy.

State funding will support facilities upgrades including an ADA-compliant Visitor Center entrance and restroom. Planned improvements will build on the $3 million Stowe House Preservation Project for climate systems upgrades, fire suppression installation, and interior renovation completed in 2017.

“We thank Governor Malloy and members of the State Bond Commission for supporting Stowe Center site improvements and accessibility,” said Briann Greenfield, Stowe Center Executive Director. “We appreciate that the Governor and his administration recognize the value of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s story to educate and inspire visitors from Connecticut, the nation, and around the globe.”

Founded in 1941 and opened to the public in 1968, the Stowe Center comprises a 2.5 acre site with three buildings on the National Register of Historic Places: the National Historic Landmark Harriet Beecher Stowe House (1871), home to the writer and her family from 1873 until her death in 1896; the Katharine Seymour Day House (1884), with the Library Archives, program space and administrative offices; and the Day House Carriage House (1873), which serves as a Visitor Center with museum store, admissions, exhibit and program space.

Recognized by the National Endowment for the Humanities as “critical to American history and culture”, the Stowe Center attracts local, regional, national and international visitors and consistently ranks in surveys as a top draw for tourists to Greater Hartford.

“The Stowe House is one of our state’s cultural treasures,” said Governor Malloy. “I’m pleased the Stowe Center will be able to leverage the state’s investment to educate and inspire visitors for generations to come.”

The historic home of writer Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of the influential and best-selling novel of the 19^thcentury, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, opened in 1968. The attraction was one of the earliest Victorian house museums in the country and one of the earliest focused on women’s history and African-American history.

The Stowe House is a valuable resource for educators, hosting thousands of school children from Connecticut and the region throughout the year. The Center is one of 800 museums nationwide accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2018 Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History.

The Stowe Center, at 77 Forest Street in Hartford, is a distinctive cultural institution and international tourist destination in Hartford’s Asylum Hill neighborhood. The Center is open year round for a variety of tour experiences and programs linking history to contemporary issues.The Center preserves and interprets Stowe’s Hartford home and the Center’s historic collections, promotes vibrant discussion of her life and work, and inspires commitment to social justice and positive change.

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School Group Interest Form

School Group Interest Form 2024

Thank you so much for your interest in a group tour at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center! Please help us schedule your visit by answering the questions below.

School name:

Please suggest three dates and times when your group would like to visit. (Note: the Stowe Center is closed on Sunday and Tuesday.)

Contact Teacher Name:

Contact Teacher Email:(Required)

Contact Teacher Phone Number:(Required)

Number of students expected to attend:(Required)

Please enter a number from 8 to 40.

Please identify the grade level(s) of attending students:(Required)

Likely number of chaperones (including other teachers):

The Stowe Center requires one adult per every 10 students.

Are there special student, teacher, or chaperone accommodations that can help us serve you best?

Do you plan to have lunch on site?

Yes, please.

No, thank you.

Are you interested in scheduling a joint visit with our neighbor, The Mark Twain House and Museum?

Yes, please

No, thank you.

If yes, have you already contacted The Mark Twain House?

Yes

Isabella Beecher Hooker

Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker (1822-1907)
An ardent member of the woman’s suffrage movement, Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker joined in the cause along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Isabella was the first child of Lyman Beecher and his second wife, Harriet Porter Beecher.

Isabella began her education at Catharine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary and lived with her sister Mary Perkins. In 1841 she married John Hooker, a descendant of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Hartford. John Hooker was a lawyer and an abolitionist.

In the early 1860s Isabella got involved in the woman’s suffrage movement. Isabella joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony as a member of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in 1869. She was a founding member of the Connecticut Woman’s Suffrage Association. Isabella’s ideas of equality were influenced by John Stuart Mills’ On Liberty and the Subjection of Women.

In 1871, Isabella organized the annual convention of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in Washington D.C. and presented her argument before the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate. Her husband, John Hooker, believed in his wife and supported her activities. He helped Isabella draft a bill to the Connecticut Legislature giving married women the same property rights as their husbands. The bill passed in 1877. Isabella annually submitted a bill granting women the right to vote, but it did not pass in her lifetime.