Experience the Stowe Center!
Contact Visitor Center staff at yyoung@stowecenter.org to book virtual and on-site programs for both children and adults, or to answer any questions. We look forward to seeing you!
Virtual School Programs
The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center has a 40-minute virtual program available to students in grades 3-12. The program is comprised of a house guide who introduces Harriet Beecher Stowe, then shares the screen to show, explain, and help students to experience four rooms in Stowe’s home. This 20-minute video is presented in sections, with time for questions and discussions. The program concludes with more discussion as time allows. Virtual visits can be customized to meet the classroom teacher/curriculum needs.
Size: Minimum of 10 people; maximum of 50 people.
Payment: Major credit cards, check, or cash are accepted. School PO and invoice processing is allowed.
$75 for one 40-minute session
$125 for two 40-minute sessions
The Stowe Center has also uploaded 3 unique lesson plans for teachers in collaboration with CT Humanities. These classroom exercises and activities, available at TeachItCT.org, can be used in conjunction with a visit before or after an on-site visit or virtual visit. These three new online Public School curriculum lesson plans were developed by Stowe Center Director of Programs and Visitor Experience, Amy Hufnagel, with support from Director of Collections and Research, Beth Burgess.
- Words Change the World: Teaching About Racial Injustice Through the Work of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Ta-Nehisi Coates (To what extent can fiction and non-fiction both help us learn, change, and adapt our understanding of an historic or contemporary moment?)
- Learning by Looking: Reading a Post-Civil War Photograph (This is a deep looking exercise using one photograph from the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center collection.)
- Cruel and Unusual: An Interdisciplinary Study of Incarceration Across Two Centuries (Uses Albert Woodfox’s Solitary, the virtual reality experience in the Stowe Center multi-media gallery, and Newgate Prison records from the Stowe Archive to create a series of inquiries for students around solitary confinement and the 8th amendment, and the idea that “words can change the world.”)
Visit Both The Stowe Center and The Mark Twain House & Museum
Harriet Beecher Stowe and author Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) were 19th century next door neighbors! Students can visit both National Historic Landmark homes in one field trip. $22 per student includes tours of both homes plus one of the two programs below:
Nook Farm Neighbors (Grades K-6)
Students learn about the power of storytelling to create community through an interactive investigation of historic objects and documents. They explore the questions: What can we learn about the individuals who lived in Nook Farm through the museums’ collections? What stories might our own objects and documents tell about us and our communities?
Contact Visitor Center staff at yyoung@stowecenter.org for booking information.
School Group Guidelines & Policies
Groups must fill out the reservation inquiry in order to start the booking process.
Click here for the form.
This form is not a reservation, it is an inquiry. If you have questions that you would like to discuss before you complete the request form, please set up a phone appointment time by emailing tickets@stowecenter.org
Transportation Reimbursement
The Stowe Center has field trip transportation reimbursement funds available. To submit a request, please contact Amy Hufnagel at ahufnagel@stowecenter.org or (860) 522-9258, ext. 317.
Adult Groups
For groups of 14 people or more. If you are a smaller group please book your visit through our online ticketing platform. The most efficient first step for reserving a group at the Stowe Center is to complete the inquiry form, and then our staff will be in touch within 3 business days. The reservation inquiry starts the booking process. This form is not a reservation, it is an inquiry.
Click here for the form.
If your group is smaller than 14, we encourage you to book your visit on any regular open day and book back to back tours which leave every 30 minutes. Tickets are released in 6-week advance increments (click here to reserve). If you are trying to reserve tickets further in advance, please reach out to our Visitor Services team at tickets@stowecenter.org and they can help you with your planning.
Group tour reservations must be made 30 days in advance of proposed visit date. Keep in mind in COVID pandemic we are limited to 14 people plus the guide at any time in the house.
Stowe House tours are available year-round by advance reservation.
Size: Minimum of 14 people. (Maximum of 56 people.)
Payment: Major credit cards, check, or cash are accepted.
$20 for Adults $15 for Seniors
To inquire about availability, email yyoung@stowecenter.org, or call 860.522.9258 ext. 317.
Expand Your Stowe Experience
Adult groups (56ppl or less) may also choose to include refreshments as part of their tour package. Choose between tea and cookies in the Stowe Center Gardens, or wine and cheese on the porch of the Katharine Seymour Day House, a historic home in the Nook Farm community not typically open to the public.
Tea/Lemonade and Cookies: Add $15 per person
Wine and Cheese: Add $25 per person
In addition, groups may reserve the interior space of the Day House. For this hospitality option, add an additional $400.
On-Site School Groups (3-12; not college level)
Discover Harriet Beecher Stowe, an icon of U.S. and international literature, culture, and social activism. Stowe’s bestselling anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin changed people’s views on slavery and contributed to the eventual eruption of the Civil War.
Help your students connect history to their own lives and today’s headlines. Tour Stowe’s Hartford home, a National Historic Landmark, and participate in extended learning programs where ideas turn into inspiration and positive change.
All school programs support Common Core Learning Standards and the Connecticut Social Studies Framework.
Guided tours and programs are open to K-12 students. Available year round by advance reservation; reservations must be made 30 days in advance of proposed visit date. A ratio of 1 adult: 10 youth is required.
School groups are for 14 or more. (If you are a smaller group, please book your visit through our online ticketing platform. Keep in mind in COVID pandemic we are limited to 14 people plus the guide at any time in the house.)
Stowe House tours available year-round by advance reservation
Size: Minimum of 14 people. (Maximum per day is 44.)
Payment
Major credit cards, check, or cash are accepted. PO and school invoicing processes are allowed.
Student Group Guided House Tour: $10 per student
Student Group Guided House Tour + Program: $11 per student
Complimentary admission for all teachers.
Chaperones receive discounted admission of $10 per .
In the event that the Stowe Center or your school is closed due to inclement weather, we will make every effort to re-schedule your group.
If you will arrive more than 15 minutes early or late, please notify us at 860.522.9258 x317.
We can accommodate vans and individual cars in our parking lot at 77 Forest Street. Buses can drop off students at the curb in front of the Stowe House and then park on Forest Street.
Tours require one chaperone for every 10 students Teachers/Chaperones are responsible for the group at all times.
Accessibility
Because the Stowe Center is comprised of 19th century landscape and buildings, some ADA adjustments require advance arrangements for the best experience for your group. Please indicate if we can provide accommodations and services in advance by calling 860.522.9258 x317, or send an email to tickets@stowecenter.org
The first floor of the Visitor Center (which includes the ticketing desk and museum store) is wheelchair accessible, but restrooms are only accessible via stairs to a lower level.
The first floor of the Stowe House is accessible to non-electric wheelchairs. A portable ramp allows visitors to bypass the porch steps to access the building. The house tour itself includes one flight of stairs, and so the second story of the home is not accessible to wheelchair users. For folks unable to use stairs, we offer an alternative tour that provides digital images and information about the upper floor, provided by a staff member.
The Stowe Center is undertaking a major renovation to our grounds and Visitor Center that will vastly improve the accessibility of our campus.
General Information
Large backpacks, gum, food, and beverages are not permitted in the Stowe House. We provide bins to store bags and lunches. Your group is welcome to picnic on the grounds.
Allow time for shopping in the Stowe Museum Store for Stowe-inspired books, toys, jewelry and souvenirs.
