Hartford's Mark Twain House Breaks Ground On $15-Million Education And Visitors Center

Hartford, CT: The Mark Twain House today broke ground on its $15-million Education and Visitors Center, a 35,000-square-foot structure designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects that is slated to open in 2003.

Participating in the ceremony were U.S. Representative John Larson, Connecticut Governor and Mrs. John Rowland, Hartford Mayor Eddie A. Perez, architect Robert A.M. Stern, and James R. Claffee, president of The Mark Twain House board of trustees.

The Education and Visitors Center will house two exhibition galleries, a lecture hall and program facilities, classrooms, a café, and an orientation film by the eminent documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. In addition, the building will provide secure, climate-controlled storage space for the museum's varied collections of books, manuscripts, photographs, Victorian-era and Twain-related artifacts, and objects by Louis Comfort Tiffany and will allow easier access to those collections for staff, scholars, and students.

The galleries will permit the museum for the first time to mount changing, significant exhibitions related to Twain and his legacy, including presentations of fine and decorative arts.

The classrooms and lecture hall will allow the museum to expand its education and outreach programs, providing opportunities to learn about Twain and his legacy to broader local and national audiences. The museum also plans to expand greatly its teacher-training institutes and national symposia, which in recent years have addressed issues of race and bigotry, book-banning and censorship, and the roles of satire and humor in American culture.

The new Center will be equipped with state-of-the-art distance-learning and videoconferencing capabilities that will establish the museum as a learning laboratory and teaching resource for the nation.

The facility is expected to substantially increase visitation to the museum, which currently is visited by about 70,000 people annually. (Attendance has already almost doubled in recent months since the airing of Ken Burns's Twain biography on PBS this January.) Those visitors will be able to take advantage of amenities ranging from updated ticketing and admissions procedures to a greatly expanded museum store and a cafe.

The Center is designed by Robert A.M. Stern, founder of Robert A.M. Stern Architects (RAMSA), Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, and the designer of such buildings as the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts and the Roger Tory Peterson Institute in Jamestown, New York. He has recently completed major commissions for Harvard and Princeton universities. Stern's firm was selected through a year-long, nationwide search that led to a final field of six architects vying for the job.

Stern said, "I included The Mark Twain House in the dream house segment of Pride of Place, my 1986 PBS television series, because it's one of the greatest biographical houses in America. It's a privilege to return to Hartford and work as architect for the Education and Visitors Center, which will enable the museum to better serve new generations of admirers of Twain and his house."

The Education and Visitors Center is the third major capital project The Mark Twain House has embarked upon in recent years: the exteriors of the Twain House and the Carriage House were fully stabilized and re-restored in 1998/99, and a four-acre parcel of land recently transferred to the museum from the City of Hartford was developed to increase the historic green space and triple the museum's parking. Both projects were completed on time and on budget. An interior restoration currently underway is scheduled to be completed soon after the Center opens.

The project has been in development since 1997, when a grant from the State of Connecticut triggered the "quiet phase" of the museum's $30-million capital and endowment campaign. The museum has raised $19 million of that campaign goal. (See attached fact sheet for details.) The land on which the building will stand was deeded over by the City of Hartford in 1997. Major funders include the State of Connecticut, the United States Federal Government, The Hartford, Aetna, and Melinda and Paul Sullivan.

"The new facility will help the museum greatly expand its efforts to foster fuller understanding and appreciation of one of America's most remarkable and enduring legacies," said John Boyer, executive director of The Mark Twain House. "It will give visitors an inspiring look at Mark Twain's legendary gifts, allow them to enjoy the rich collections of the museum, and also provide a variety of educational opportunities."

James R. Claffee, president of the museum's board of trustees, said, "We are most grateful for the wide variety of support we've received to date and the excitement that has been conveyed by all the audiences eager to work more closely with us, especially Connecticut's teachers and students."

"The Twain House represents America's proud literary heritage and the remarkable contributions that Samuel Clemens made to American literature," said U.S. Representative John Larson. "I am proud to be here today to help break ground for the new Education and Visitors Center at The Mark Twain House as we continue to cultivate and build upon Hartford's rich heritage."

Connecticut Governor John Rowland said, "The Mark Twain House is a significant part of Connecticut's historical and cultural heritage. The new Education and Visitors Center will undoubtedly boost tourism in our state and will expose new visitors to the rich legacy and life of one of America's greatest writers."

"Mark Twain's legacy has played a crucial role in Hartford's rich history and its designation as the rising star of New England," said Hartford Mayor Eddie A. Perez. "The new Education and Visitors Center will enhance that designation by providing even greater access to one of Hartford's heroes."

The Mark Twain House is the restored, nineteen-room Victorian mansion, decorated by Louis Comfort Tiffany, that was built in 1874 for the author and his family. During his 17-year residence there, Twain wrote his best-known works, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Now an internationally acclaimed museum, its mission is to increase appreciation of Mark Twain's legacy as one of the nation's major cultural figures and to demonstrate the continuing relevance of his work, his life, and his times. The building was named a National Historic Landmark in 1963 and received a "Save America's Treasures" grant from the federal government in 1999/2000.