Nook Farm Neighborhood Walking Tour

From left to right: Katharine Seymour Day House, Harriet Beecher Stowe House, the Stowe Visitor Center, the Mark Twain Carriage House and Visitor Center, and the Mark Twain House.

Seeing is Revealing: Then and Now

Nook Farm Neighborhood Walking Tour

Seeing Is Revealing introduces visitors to Harriet Beecher Stowe and her neighbors situated in Nook Farm, the place they called home, in the late 19^th century. While walking around the block, visitors will see preservation history and architecture alongside a vibrant, busy, and ever-changing city. The tour content expands the timeline of Harriet’s era into today. Visitors will be invited to consider: What drives preservation decisions? How did this neighborhood evolve? What histories are told and what histories are hidden? Seeing Is Revealing discusses social disparities that impact the contemporary Asylum Hill neighborhood.

The tour begins at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, moves through the grounds where the Stowe and Mark Twain historic homes are located, and then travels out to Hartford’s broader Asylum Hill neighborhood. The walk is just under a mile, and there are places to sit enroute.

The SELF-GUIDED downloadable audio tour is available for purchase during business hours at the Visitors Center (Fridays and Saturdays). Available in English and Spanish with text, audio, video, and images. Scan the QR code for unlimited listening for 30 days – share with a friend, listen again and again, or learn in pieces! Read the full details HERE.

Nook Farm an 1885 impression by Margaret L. Stevenson. Edith Salisbury c. 1970

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

Adult Group Interest Form

Group Tour Interest Form 2022

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.

Group Name:

Name of Primary Contact:(Required)

Contact Email:(Required)

Contact Phone Number:(Required)

What date would you like to visit? (The Stowe Center typically books group tours for Thursday through Sunday visits.)

Expected number of visitors:(Required)

Please enter a number from 20 to 42.

Please indicate the number of adults, seniors, and children expected in your group:

Are there special accommodations that can help us serve you best?

Are you interested in 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.