The Mark Twain House Reviews

Great piece of American history. Expect to spend at least 2 hours here

The tour was informative and light hearted. Staff was friendly and accommodating.

I really was very impressed about the kind of house where Mark Twain lived !!!
I can describe everything from that house but I prefer to invite people over and commitment to get a special tour to know this old fashion and beautiful house construction !!!

a fantastic tour, with friendly tour guides. A little on the pricey side, and it will be better when they decide to let people take pictures inside.

This was so interesting to visit! There is so much to see here concerning the life of "Mark Twain". The museum, bookstore and house were all here. The house is unbelievable for the time period. Many other areas of interest near here. This is a guided tour worth taking.

Loved the tour had a great time. Was worth the money

We loved the gorgeous architecture. The tour guide was informative and answered all of our questions...he was very knowledgeable. We may return to have the character led tour. Great extra movie and museum where you buy tickets.

The museum was interesting. A bit pricey for the house tour.

Nicely kept house... The museum tour was very informative and the movie on Mark Twain's life was informative too... A must visit place in Hartford CT...

The Mark Twain Museum was great. The tour guide was interesting and told us a lot of interesting facts about Twain that I didn't know. It is too bad you can't take pictures inside the house. It was a beautiful house. I am a English major, so this was right up my ally. I enjoyed the tour and would recommend it to anyone who is a Twain fan. Also the huckleberry chocolate bars are great!

A big disappointment, because you are not allowed to take pictures inside, which actually holds my personal impression. The guide with data and stories (of course only in English) overloaded. This is information that I can read on the Internet. Arrogant, books and brochures, all offered in English only.

Excellent tour to learn more about the life of this famous author.

If you're a fan of East Lake style, which I am, this house will make your heart sing!

Really amazing architecture. The tour was the perfect length and really interesting.

I thoroughly enjoyed the show at the beginning of the tour. Visiting the house was great, but I felt disconnected. You can't explore freely, absolutely no touching because items in the house do not belong to the museum, and much of the house was restored/recreated as close as possible using photos because it was sold and items were auctioned after Twain's bankruptcy. This isn't completely different from other museum, but the tour was conducted in a way that made it feel inauthentic.

You pay $25 for a Living History Tour, $18 for a regular tour. I recommend you spend the extra. We loved her tour presentation! The house is well worth seeing. Call ahead to get the GPS for secure parking as it's in an area that looks a little rough.

Awesome! Tour guide very informative while everyone keeping distance. Awesome house. What an incredible job of restoration. Worth the stop.

Our tour guide was charming and very informative. The tour itself was very immersive, given that the interior of the house is almost a perfect recreation of what it would have been in the late 1800's, and especially since we took a tour led by a historical reenactor of Mark Twain's Butler. Cannot recommend more

Could have more but still interesting. I love the programs there.

A fantastic museum and a look at a very different time and way of life. Easy to get to and park. Great museum store. Tour guides are fantastic. A bit pricey but totally worth it and there are different pricing options. Will go again for sure.

Wonderful tour with an enthusiastic, warm, knowledgeable docent. Such excitement in the air with Christmas days away.

Excellent, it's better to take a tour with a player

All I can say is phenomenal!! In scale it does not compare to the Cottages in Rhode Island but in warmth and detail drew me much closer to the Persona of Samuel Clemens then I had imagined. Can't wait to do it again. Also loved the gift shop

A great place to visit to see how Mark Twain lived during his time there. The tour guide we had did a great job explaining many things about the family.

The house is impressive and the tour is fascinating

The Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut, was the home of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) and his family from 1874 to 1891. It was designed by Edward Tuckerman Potter and built in the American High Gothic style. Clemens biographer Justin Kaplan has called it "part steamboat, part medieval fortress and part cuckoo clock."

Clemens wrote many of his best-known works while living there, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, Life on the Mississippi, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Tramp Abroad, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

Poor financial investments prompted the Clemens family to move to Europe in 1891. The Panic of 1893 further threatened their financial stability, and Clemens, his wife Olivia, and their middle daughter, Clara, spent the year 1895-96 traveling so that he could lecture and earn the money to pay off their debts. He recounted the trip in Following the Equator (1897). Their other two daughters, Susy and Jean, had stayed behind during this time, and Susy died at home on August 18, 1896 of spinal meningitis before the family could be reunited. They could not bring themselves to reside in the house after this tragedy and spent most of their remaining years living abroad. They sold the house in 1903.

The building later functioned as a school, an apartment building, and a public library branch. In 1929, it was rescued from possible demolition and put under the care of the newly formed non-profit group Mark Twain Memorial. The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1962. A restoration effort led to its being opened as a house museum in 1974. In 2003, a multimillion-dollar, LEED-certified visitors' center was built that included a museum dedicated to showcasing Twain's life and work.

The house faced serious financial trouble in 2008 due partly to construction cost overruns related to the new visitors' center, but the museum was helped through publicity about their plight, quick reaction from the state of Connecticut, corporations, and other donors, and a benefit performance organized by writers. Since that time, the museum has reported improved financial conditions, though the recovery was marred by the 2010 discovery of a million-dollar embezzlement by the museum's comptroller, who pleaded guilty and served a jail term.

The museum claimed record-setting attendance levels in 2012. It has featured events such as celebrity appearances by Stephen King, Judy Blume, John Grisham, and others; it has also sponsored writing programs and awards. Also in 2012, the Mark Twain House was named one of the Ten Best Historic Homes in the world in The Ten Best of Everything, a National Geographic Books publication.

It felt the household members still live there. Everything is well kept. The tour guide impersonation was excelent.

Loved going though I would be
So bord but had a blast.glad I went

Very interesting tour. I hadn't remembered that Twain was actually from Hartford, and this is where he did a lot of his writing.

Tiffany everywhere!!, amazing room and haunted by other worldly ..

Our tour guide was excellent. Very knowledgeable and was able to answer any questions and not only about this property. Great piece of history.

It's a cool place but the tours are long and monotonous.

A great way to spend a couple of hours in our capital city. I took the Living History tour guided by Lizzie Wills and loved it. The house is incredible and the tour guide was wonderful - she shared a wealth of information and stories about the Clemens family. Yes it's a little pricey, but rightly so due to the amount of upkeep and restoration needed. You can get a pass from your local library to get 1 free admission with a paid admission. Also go early and catch the movie before the tour, it's about 25 minutes long and replays all day. It sets the stage nicely for the tour. All in all, a fun and educational visit. I'm hoping to visit again for the Clue mystery tour.

Very interesting and informative tour. The house has been painstakingly restored and maintained with no detail overlooked. The tour guide was well informed and engaging and didn't overlook the younger visitors, and there was a special activity just for them. The museum exhibits were similarly interesting. Nice way to spend an afternoon.

I had no idea such a beautiful and unique home existed for this writer. Being from California I had driven by his small shack in the old gold country a couple of times. But this is really something special. Loved my visit, and my t-shirt.

Historical venue for the lovers of Mark Twain. I had a nice time here. Very informative.

I wanted to be on this tour and specifically planned to show up. Our tour guide was a bit shy but I still liked the tour and it was very educational.

Beautifully restored with many of the pieces from the Clemens family. Great tour guide.

Cool place, not 100 percent original, and you can't take photos

Very informative. Great place for a family. Tour involves walking and stairs.

Had a great time here, tour guide was very informative and friendly and the house was well decorated and maintained. The tour gave great detail into the life of Mark Twain and his family as well as the history of Hartford at that time. Was a bit on the pricier side but was absolutely worth it for the experience. Definitely worth checking out if you are in the area.

A fascinating journey back to the time of one of America's most iconic writers and personalities. A beautiful example of Victorian architecture with 'high tech' wonders for it day. Awesome!

Great place to take the family. Be sure to do the Living History tour. Was a wonderful experience.

Even without all that the Mark Twain House & Museum does, this would still be a destination. This is the place where one of America's seminal novels was written, and the house would be noteworthy were it only for that. However, the museum goes well above and beyond a simple step back into history. We attended on educator day, and aside from bands that played with minimal intermission, there were excellent crafts activities for children, character actors portraying a wide range of both real (Twain, Livy) and imagined (Tom Sawyer, Becky Thatcher) characters, and a host of other activities (notably, a robotic frog racing contest inspired by "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"). Beyond this, the quality of the tour is fantastic. We toured with Livy, and she made the literature really come alive for everyone in the group. If you have any interest in Twain, this destination should be at the top of your list.

Besides being a bit pricey, this was a wonderful experience that I would recommend.

Beautiful, awesome house. The tour guide was very precise in describing the beautiful objects such as furniture, authentic bathroom fixtures, dining room furniture and most important how the family lived there and loved their home.

Well worth the trip. Tour of the house is informative and paced well. Museum is small but exhaustive.

The Mark Twain house is a must see. This is not your standard old house tour: "Look at this fancy piece of furniture," "Isn't that a lovely and expensive painting," etc. Much like the man himself, the Twain house has a lot of character and each room has something interesting to see, and more often than not a good story to go along with it. The tour guides are knowledgeable and give a wonderful presentation. The adjoining museum is nice as well, giving a good overview of Twain's life, as well as having a rotating special exhibit.

Impressive estate of one of America's most renowned literary minds

beautiful historical place, well restored. Great for tour with friends and family.

Outstanding piece of American history. We had an exceptional guide ( Katelyn) who is very knowledgeable about Samuel Clemens, his family, his writing and the magnificent house. A must see for all.

Experience a piece of the amazing writer's life! The guide was excellent and well informed. Must visit if you are in CT!

very simple. this is a must see and right next door is the HARRIET BEECHER STOWE HOUSE. that 2 of 1. bonus

A step back in time. Great place to visit. Be prepared for stairs and walking.

Made a visit here while my husband was finishing up work before our vacation time in Hartford and I m so glad I did. I stopped in on a Friday and signed up for the first standard tour of the day. I ended up being the only person there and got my own private tour of the place! My tour guide was so sweet and very knowledgeable about the property, Mark Twain, and the era the house was built in general that it was well worth the $20.

We really enjoyed our experience. We went on one of the ghost tours here. Our tour guide was great and offered many interesting facts. He also had a great sense of humor. The house is beautiful and the stories are excellent!

Great tour, took the late night ghost tour. House is fabulous. Tour is a lot of "so and so saw this, or this happened to" Wasn't scary at all to me, but I'm pretty hard to scare. I did feel a couple of really weird spots in the house that affected me. Dizzy, almost medicine head type feeling. Other rooms, nothing at all.

The museum, the house and the tour were all amazing. I'll also note the above average gift shop experience. The only reason for 4 instead of 5 stars is the cost -- $20 for an adult. That's a lot of money for a lot of people. My understanding is the museum almost bankrupted itself when they built their new visitors' center, and now they're struggling to stay in the black.

Loved the Tour! Dan the guide was very knowledgeable! It was definitely awesome