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Built in 1828, this square frame house served as the home to Ralph Waldo Emerson and his second wife, Lydia Jackson, from 1835 to his death in 1882. Today, the house still contains many of Emerson’s personal effects and the home’s original furnishings. Guided tours are offered from mid-April to mid-October.
Built in 1844, Rowan Oak was the home to William Faulkner and his family for over forty years. The house and its grounds are open to visitors for guided tours, but tour groups are encouraged to make arrangements ahead of time.
The Emily Dickinson Museum comprises two historic houses in the center of Amherst, Massachusetts, associated with the poet Emily Dickinson and members of her family during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Homestead was the birthplace and home of the poet Emily Dickinson. The Evergreens, next door, was home to her brother Austin, his wife Susan, and their three children. The Museum is open March through December for guided tours, public programs, and other special events.
Built in 1783, the Arrowhead was the home of Herman Melville for thirteen years. The works Melville wrote at Arrowhead included Moby-Dick, Pierre, The Confidence-Man, Israel Potter, The Piazza Tales, and such short stories as “I and My Chimney,” “Benito Cereno,” “Bartleby the Scrivener,” and “The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids. The restored farmhouse is open for daily tours.
The Walt Whitman Birthplace was built in 1819 by Walter Whitman, father to the poet Walt Whitman. Today the Birthplace house and Interpretive Center offer guided tours, a museum shop and bookstore, picnic facilities, auto-hiking tours of West Hills, concerts, lectures, poetry readings, poetry contests, and a Poet-in-Residence program.
Known as “Dixieland” in Look Homeward, Angel, the historic Old Kentucky Home boarding house in Asheville was home to Thomas Wolfe for ten years. Though the house suffered extensive damage in a fire in 1998, it was renovated and reopened to the public in 2004. Today, a modern visitor center is located at 52 North Market Street, directly behind the historic Old Kentucky Home boarding house. The facility houses an exhibit hall featuring personal effects from the Wolfe family home, Wolfe’s New York City apartment, and his father’s stonecutting shop.
Built and designed by Edith Wharton in 1902, The Mount is both a historic site and a center for culture inspired by the passions of the American novelist. The property includes three acres of formal gardens designed by Wharton, who was also an authority on European landscape design, surrounded by extensive woodlands. Programming at The Mount reflects Wharton’s core interests in the literary arts, interior design and decoration, garden and landscape design, and the art of living. Annual exhibits explore themes from Wharton’s life and work.
Henry David Thoreau lived at Walden Pond from July 1845 to September 1847. Today, Walden Pond has been designated a National Historic Landmark and is considered the birthplace of the conservation movement. Park Interpreters provide tours and ongoing educational programs. Visitors can visit a replica of Thoreau’s one-room cabin and are welcome to swim, picnic, hike, use canoes and rowboats, fish, cross-country ski, and snowshoe at the pond.
The Mark Twain House & Museum, a National Historic Landmark in Hartford, Connecticut, was the home of Samuel Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain) and his family from 1874 to 1891. It is also where Twain lived when he wrote his most important works, including The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and The Pauper and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Daily tours, special events and educational programs are available.
Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House (circa 1690) is most noted for being home to the Alcott family. The house is also where Louisa May Alcott wrote and set her novel, Little Women, in 1868. Today, the house is open year-round and guided tours are available.
