On 7/11/1999, the New York Times (
visit link) reported the following story:
"The View From/Hartford; A $22 Million Restoration for Mark Twain House
By STEPHEN L. PURDYJULY 11, 1999
LIKE the slow evolution of a novel, the Mark Twain House has become a work in progress. The 19-room mansion where Samuel Clemens wrote ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' is undergoing a $22 million renovation that is expected to return the house to its original condition.
A big part of the renovation was completed in May. The work on the house, which was designed in 1874 by Edward Tuckerman Potter and Alfred H. Thorp, included restoring exterior wood and tile, the patterns of orange and dark blue-grey on the terra cotta brick, and rebuilding the purple slate roofs.
The biggest challenge, according to contractors Thomas J. Kronenberger & Sons of Middletown, was the chimneys. With narrowing bases precariously held by corbeling (aesthetic buttresses that projected from inside), they studied the original designs, then applied mortars much stronger than the originals, along with other reinforcements.
''It's detective work,'' said the curator, Marianne J. Curling, of the detailed process of finding originals and reproductions of all materials, from furniture to textiles and window treatments. ''It's really fun, you have that 'Eureka!' moment,'' she said, laughing, ''and then you can reproduce.''
' moment,'' she said, laughing, ''and then you can reproduce.''
The project is expected to be completed at the same time a documentary on the author by Ken Burns, who created the documentary ''The Civil War'' in 1990, airs on public television in autumn 2001.
With key research in 1995-96 by the Historic American Buildings Survey and the Society for Preservation of New England Antiquities, plus written documents on Twain and digitally enhanced photographs, contractors and volunteers began the exterior upgrades one year ago.
The drawing room, one of the three interior spaces restored over the last four years, features carefully reproduced salmon-pink wall stenciling and original chairs and settees whose tufted upholstery had been covered by another layer. Ms. Curling explained how digitized photographs helped workers on details for the portieres, the curtains hung over archways, being completed by Elaine Gladstone, a volunteer who has embroidered and beaded them for 18 months.
Such minute examination also helped Ms. Curling reclaim the unusual yellow and pink tones in the master bedroom's woodwork, as well as the grey of the porches and soffits outside, long covered by red.
Among the many survey facts were details on Mrs. Clemens's work with the interior designers, Louis Comfort Tiffany and Associated Artists. ''When they hired them, they didn't realize they were hiring the greatest purveyors of the Aesthetic movement,'' Ms. Curling said.
Tour guides point out that, while the house is Victorian, its daily activity involved a contemporary social parallel -- the professional working at home. With Twain's original study next to his daughters' bedrooms, their activity distracted him and he began his permanent habit of walking to the third floor and working in the billiards room.
Early Twain revivalists chartered The Mark Twain House as a nonprofit organization in 1929. ''Not because the house was a great Victorian home,'' explained Executive Director John Boyer. ''It was the birthplace of Tom and Huck.''
For roughly the next 30 years, the house hosted a library branch, a one-room museum, and apartments. Interest in its restoration emerged in the 60's, and that interest increased as the home approached its 100th anniversary in 1974.
Ms. Curling suggested that the home's ups and downs were partly in the Clemens spirit of the house as always ''a work in progress'' anyway. And it's a pragmatic philosophy she uses for its maintenance and progression now.
While displaying a loaned Victorian-style sideboard, in its original but not yet restored dining room spot, she said she hopes the piece will one day be in the museum's permanent collection.
She said the restoration will include chestnut paneling in the kitchen, the dining room's displays of mixed sets of flatware and china, and the carriage house, now used for meetings, will again house carriage and sleigh.
Mr. Boyer said a computerized resource center will be built in the basement for ''kids to learn 19th century stenciling so they actually understand it when they visit the house,'' he said, ''and have meaningful interaction with Twain ideas and characters on the Web.''
The premier addition will be a 28,000-square-foot education and visitors' center attached to and blending with the carriage house. With galleries, a theater and meeting space for symposiums and lectures, school and storytelling programs, the center will hold the museum's library, including early Twain editions and rare manuscripts.
''It will get things on site that we can't do at the moment,'' said David Bush, a spokesman for the Twain house.
It's this center and the museum's role in strengthening Hartford, plus its place in the upcoming documentary, that key donors mention when describing why they gave to the capital campaign to renovate the house. Melinda Sullivan, a Hartford-area philanthropist who, with her husband, Dr. Paul Sullivan, donated $1.5 million, said, ''You hold your head up a little higher when, asked where Hartford is, you reply, ''Did you know that Mark Twain wrote quite a few of his significant works here, had a home designed and built here?' ''
While Mrs. Sullivan hopes their donation will spur other people to give, the list of corporate and charitable donors includes the Maximilian E. & Marion O. Hoffman Foundation, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, The National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities and The Hartford Financial Services Group.
Administrators of the renovation fund refused to say how much had been contributed.
With four acres next to museum property donated by the city of Hartford, the state Department of Economic and Community Development gave $3 million for parking, exteriors and the visitors' center.
Governor John Rowland even helped raise funds. His wife, Patricia, also a board member of the museum, said, ''We've supported Mark Twain House in a variety of ways because we want Connecticut residents to discover, and rediscover, the magnificence in their own backyard.''
Mr. Boyer said that although the house's appeal lies in a growing interest in Victorian design and structure, it's based most on the author's wit and clarity.
''He's been called the American Shakespeare, because his works operate simultaneously on so many different levels,'' he said. ''He reaches so many different audiences at the same time.''"