The painting of the Little Free Library and Pantry is nearly complete, done by Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts student and Asylum Hill neighbor, Isys B! Check it out in the next few weeks to make a donation of your own!
Currently, the Pantry has been stocked by staff and the neighbors, and shortly we will receive on-going, year-round support from The Hartford for shelf-stable food donations for the pantry.
We excitedly received two grants from the Maximilian E. and Marion O. Hoffman Foundation for site improvements and the Historic Restoration Fund grant for the restoration and ADA accessibility of the 1871 Visitor Center, historically Harriet Beecher Stowe’s carriage house.
OCTOBER 2023
In New England, garden season comes to an end in October, and work to “put the gardens to bed”. The Stowe Center was fortunate to have numerous volunteers to help us close up the gardens, led by our amazing crew of Garden Volunteers, the staff 20+ people from the Hartford sponsored by United Way Day of Caring.
KNOX joined us once again and planted two new trees, a Yellow Wood and an Elm tree – thanks to the Love Your Block grant.
The Little Free Library and Pantry looks incredible. A huge shoutout to Chris, our Facilities and Security Manager, for building the house and installing it in front of the Katharine Seymour Day House.
KNOX planting a Yellow Wood tree beside Harriet Beecher Stowe’s houseVolunteers from The Hartford, United Way Day of GivingFirst Day of the Pantry! Oct 2023
SEPTEMBER 2023
The work continues on the new gardens! Supported by the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving Love Your Block grant, we have added phlox, black-eyed Susans, Joe Pye weed, spirea, milkweed, and more to attract bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. Around the Sensory Garden, we added a new ceramic bird bath and a deep tone wind chime, hung in the Magnolia, that sounds lovely and will relax your mind.
Planting the Pollinator Garden with KNOXKNOX apprenticesA new bird bath for the Sensory GardenChris and Ileia hang the new wind chime above the Sensory Garden
AUGUST 2023
The work is underway!
After receiving the Love Your Block grant thanks to Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and the City of Hartford, the Stowe Center joined with KNOX to begin the work on Harriet’s Backyard. KNOX apprentices and Stowe Center Staff & Garden Volunteers made great work: the veggie beds are already starting to produce, the Sensory Garden is blooming, and the Pollinator Garden has been expanded and ready for planting. The heritage rose bushes have been relocated to widen the driveway for busses and mobility supporting vehicles later this Fall.
In our buildings, we began by removing asbestos containing materials from the Katharine S. Day House and Visitor Center basements, and around eighteen exterior windows.
Pollinator Garden – Ready for plantingLove Your Block project lawn sign in front of two raised veggie bedsSensory Garden, August 2023
School Group Interest Form
School Group Interest Form 2023
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Adult Group Interest Form
Group Tour Interest Form 2022
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Isabella Beecher Hooker
IsabellaHolmes Beecher Hooker (1822-1907) An ardent member of the woman’s suffrage movement, Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker joined in the cause along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.
Isabella was the first child of Lyman Beecher and his second wife, Harriet Porter Beecher.
Isabella began her education at Catharine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary and lived with her sister Mary Perkins. In 1841 she married John Hooker, a descendant of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Hartford. John Hooker was a lawyer and an abolitionist.
In the early 1860s Isabella got involved in the woman’s suffrage movement. Isabella joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony as a member of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in 1869. She was a founding member of the Connecticut Woman’s Suffrage Association. Isabella’s ideas of equality were influenced by John Stuart Mills’ On Liberty and the Subjection of Women.
In 1871, Isabella organized the annual convention of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in Washington D.C. and presented her argument before the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate. Her husband, John Hooker, believed in his wife and supported her activities. He helped Isabella draft a bill to the Connecticut Legislature giving married women the same property rights as their husbands. The bill passed in 1877. Isabella annually submitted a bill granting women the right to vote, but it did not pass in her lifetime.
December 2, 2019
Due to inclement weather, the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center is closed today, Monday, December 2.
