In 1873 Harriet Beecher Stowe purchased the painted brick "cottage" on Forest Street. Modest by the standards of the Nook Farm neighborhood, the house contains 17 rooms and halls. The gardens surrounding the house reflect Stowe's fondness for and knowledge of the plantings of the Victorian era. She resided here with her husband, Calvin Stowe, a retired professor and Biblical scholar, and their adult twin daughters, Eliza and Harriet. Stowe lived in the house until her death in 1896.

Best known for writing Uncle Toms Cabin, the novel that gained her international fame, Stowe wrote more than thirty other books. She wrote other novels, biographies, poetry, hymns, essays, an children's stories. During the last half of the 19th century, Stowe was the most widely read American author in Europe and Asia. Her works have been translated into more that sixty languages.

The first floor of the house includes a front parlor, which was a setting reserved for receiving distinguished guests or hosting formal events, and a rear parlor, which was a living room for reading, playing games, taking tea, and several other family activities. The furnishings in these rooms, as well as throughout the house are a blend of several centuries. We find the 18th century heirlooms alongside Empire and Victorian pieces. Artworks adorn the house. Paintings, such as the copy of Madonna of the Goldfinch by Raphael, and statuary, such as the Venus de Milo reproduction, are souvenirs of Stowe's travels in Europe. Other oils and watercolors painted by Stowe herself attest to her artistic talent.

Dominated by a three-arm gasolier, the formal dining room holds Stowe's table and a set of period chairs. A Victorian sideboard with its realistic carvings of birds and fruits exhibits a decorative assortment of tableware. The pinewood kitchen with bins, shelves, window casings, ad doors grained to look like chestnut, is based upon the efficient model recommended by Harriet and her educator sister, Catharine Beecher, in The American Woman's home (1869).

On the second floor are the family bedrooms and a bathing room. Next to Stowe's bedroom is a sitting room, with "cottage-style" furniture decorated by her. Many objects in these rooms were acquired during the family's travels, from the reproductions of classical ruins, which are typical tourist purchases of the era, to the hand painted scenes of Maine, Florida and Scotland by Stowe. A Ward's case, or terrarium, in Stowe's bedroom is filled with native ferns and mosses.