See the USA in an Airstream!: Hartford, Connecticut Area

We camped near Willington, CT which was about 24 miles from Hartford, CT. The campground was a bit primitive by current camping standards -- no cable, no wifi, no sewer.

On Wednesday we went into Hartford and visited the CT state history museum and then went across the street and toured the Capitol. It's a beautiful structure, and we were in time for a guided tour. Our guide wrote two books on baseball, and had been to the Cities numerous times to watch the Twins play.

Back to Hartford on Thursday to visit the homes of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) and his backyard neighbor, Harriet Beecher Stowe. Our first guided tour was of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Victorian Gothic home. It was her final residence for twenty-three years. She, her husband, and twin daughters shared the home. During the last years her daughters ran the house and cared for Harriet, as she had become forgetful and unable to run the home.

In 1874 Samuel Clemens, a rising celebrity now known as Mark Twain, built a 25 room "Picturesque Gothic mansion that became the talk of the town. It was in this house that he worked on the novels that changed the face of American literature: The Adventures of Tom awyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Prince and the Pauper and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Twain, his wife, and three girls lived here for 17 years before bankruptcy caused him to close up the house and move to Europe for 9 years where the cost of living was cheaper.

On Friday we drove 35 miles to Canterbury to visit the Prudence Crandall house. Prudence was a Quaker woman who had opened an academy for young women. In 1833 she admitted a black girl which resulted in all the white girls being pulled out by their parents. Prudence then traveled the countryside recruiting black girls to attend her academy. The townspeople were very upset with this and attacked the house, breaking windows and jailing Prudence. When released, Prudence and her family moved to New York, then Illinois, and finally to Kansas where she continued her teaching. Eventually she was vindicagd for her efforts and in 1975 was named the Connecticut state heroine.

Saturday we drove back to Hartford (MUCH easier finding parking places on Saturday!) where we visited the Butler-McCook house and gardens. The house was built by Daniel Butler in 1782 and his family would call it home for two centuries. Butlers and McCooks lived in the house until 1971. The house is the only 18th century house left on Hartford's Main Street, and one of only four remaining 18th century buildings in Hartford.

On Sunday we left for Colchester, Vermont.