'Trouble Begins' Lecture Explores Twain's Hartford Home
Elmira, NY (10/21/2019) — The fall portion of the 2019-2020 The Trouble Begins Lecture Series, presented by the Center for Mark Twain Studies, continues on Wednesday, October 23 in the Barn at Quarry Farm. The lecture, which begins at 7:00 p.m., is free and open to the public.
The lecture, "'We found we had a little cash left over..': Sam and Livy's Hartford Dream House and Its Architectural Roots," will be presented by Pieter Roos, executive director of the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut. Just as would be the case today, Sam and Livy Clemens embarked on an adventure in building a new house. Like any young couple, having the dream, selecting an architect, and seeing a project through to the finish is always a challenge. Sam and Livy spent a substantial portion of her inheritance on the house, and their love for it was life-long, even after they left it. At the time of its completion, the Hartford Courant remarked that the house was the newest marvel of Hartford, a city replete with large and expensive works of domestic architecture. Their architect, Edward Tuckerman Potter, designed a house that was undoubtedly stylish and thoroughly contemporary, but while it fell within the general early precepts of the Stick Style, it was not in the mainstream, and still stands out today in its individuality. A few year's after the initial completion, the Clemens' engaged Louis Comfort Tiffany and Associated artists to take the interior up to a whole new level. This lecture looks both at the Clemens' personal journey in construction and the architectural roots of a remarkable and iconic building and what made it the singular example of the Stick Style that it became and remains today.
Roos has served in the museum field since 1984, working all over the Northeast. In 1999 he became the founding executive director of the Newport Restoration Foundation, a preservation and museum organization that administers some 82 historic properties. In 2016 he created the groundbreaking "Keeping History Above Water" conference, the first national discussion of the impact of climate change on historic preservation. Since 2017, Pieter has served as the executive director of the Mark Twain House and Museum. During the last two years, programming has doubled, and $2.8 million has been raised to enhance programming and operations and to preserve the campus and the house. Roos has written and lectured extensively, teaching at both Harvard University and Brown University. In 2017 he was the recipient of the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission's Fred Williamson Award for Professional Excellence and the Doris Duke Preservation Award.
About The Trouble Begins Lecture Series
In 1984, the Elmira College Center for Mark Twain Studies initiated a lecture series, The Trouble Begins at Eight lecture series. The title came from the handbill advertising Mark Twain's October 2, 1866 lecture presented at Maguire's Academy of Music in San Francisco. The first lectures were presented in 1985. By invitation, Mark Twain scholars present lectures in the fall and spring of each year, in the Barn at Quarry Farm or at Peterson Chapel in Cowles Hall on Elmira College's campus. All lectures are free and open to the public.
Media Attachments
The fall portion of the 2019-2020 The Trouble Begins Lecture Series, presented by the Center for Mark Twain Studies, continues on Wednesday, October 23 in the Barn at Quarry Farm. The lecture, which begins at 7:00 p.m., is free and open to the public. The lecture looks both at the Clemens’ personal journey in construction and the architectural roots of a the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut.