The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center’s offers a variety of tours for visitors of all interests.
Select which tour type, day of the week, and tour length is best suited to your visit; we look forward to seeing you!
Discovering Stowe – 30 minute tour
Saturday 11:30am & 2:30pm
On this condensed tour, guest have the opportunity to view the first floor of the Stowe House, gain historic information about Harriet Beecher Stowe’s life, engage in conversation, and get a sneak peak of our extended house tour offerings.
Adult $15; Senior $10; Child $5; Museums for All $3
Inspiring Stowe – 60 minute tour
Wednesday 2:00pm; Thursday 12:00pm & 2:00pm; Friday 12:30pm, 2:00pm & 4:00pm; Saturday 10:00pm, 1:00pm & 4:00pm
We look forward to inspiring you with the life and work of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), a complex and controversial novel that galvanized the anti-slavery movement. Our tours address the history of enslavement and racism in a conversational format and invite and encourage visitors to make connections between inequities then and now.
Inheriting Freedom – 60 minutes
Saturday, August 17th from 2:30pm – 3:30pm
An intergenerational tour about 19th century abolitionist Frederick Douglass. We explore themes of family, freedom, education, and the power of love and hope to build a more just world.
Seeing is Revealing: Nook Farm Then and Now – Self-Guided Audio Tour
Our new walking tour, Seeing is Revealing: Nook Farm Then and Now, is available as a self-guided audio available for purchase on site at the Visitor Center Museum Shop. Your own device is required as well as a connection to wifi and/or cellular service. The audio tour can be listened to anywhere, includes additional reading suggestions and links, and is good for up to 30 days from purchase. The walking tour, if done in person, explored the Hartford neighborhood, Asylum Hill, once known as Nook Farm.
Expect a conversational, interactive tour where you can participate along with your guide.
Hear about Stowe’s life and the impact of the anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Connect the past to the present as you discuss social issues of the 19th century and today.
See the beautifully preserved Victorian Gothic cottage, now a National Historic Landmark,
where Harriet Beecher Stowe lived for 23 years.
Explore the Nook Farm neighborhood, an 1800s community of intellectuals, political leaders, authors, and scholars who influenced the country’s intellectual and social development.
Leave feeling inspired that you too can create positive change.
Open Today
Our hours are:
| Sunday | Closed |
| Monday | Closed |
| Tuesday | Closed |
| Wednesday | 11:00 - 4:00 (tour at 2:00) |
| Thursday | 11:00 - 4:00 (tour at 12:00 & 2:00) |
| Friday | 12:00 -5:00 (tour at: 12:30, 2:00 & 4:00) |
| Saturday | 10:00 - 5:00 (tour at: 10:00, 11:30, 1:00, 2:30 & 4:00) |
General Admission (17-64): $20
Seniors (65 +): $15
Children (6-16): $10
Stowe Center Member, Hartford Resident, Children under 6: FREE
Nook Farm Neighborhood Self-Guided Audio Tour: $15
Museums for All (with a valid EBT card and Photo ID): $3
Blue Star Museums (active-duty military personnel and their families): FREE
The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center is a proud member of the Museums for All, an initiative of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Through Museums for All, those receiving food assistance (SNAP benefits) can gain reduced admission to the Stowe Center by presenting their EBT card and a photo ID. More than 1,200 museums throughout the United States participate!
The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center is a proud member of the Blue Star Museums, presented by the National Endowment for the Arts and Blue Star Families. Through Labor Day, Monday, September 2, 2024, there will be FREE ADMISSION to currently serving U.S. miliary personnel and their families this Summer.
Directions
From the North (Springfield, MA)Take I-95 South to intersection with I-84. Take I-84 West to Sisson Avenue (Exit 46). Right onto Sisson Avenue. Right onto Farmington Avenue. Right onto Forest Street.
From the South (New Haven, New York City, etc.)Take I-91 North to the junction with I-84. Take I-84 West to Sisson Avenue (Exit 46) then follow directions from the north.
From the East (Boston, etc.)Take I-84 West to Sisson Avenue (Exit 46) then follow the directions from the north.
From the West (New York City via I-84, Danbury, etc.)Take I-84 West to Sisson Avenue (Exit 46) then follow the directions from the north.
SPRING/SUMMER CONSTRUCTION AT THE STOWE CENTER
Our parking lot is currently unavailable to all visitors through August. Please park on Forest Street or at the Mark Twain House & Museum lot at 385 Farmington Ave.
Our Visitor Center & Museum Shop has a new temporary home in the Katharine Seymour Day House – the big red one across from the flagpole.
CURRENT PARKING AVAILABILITY
Street parking is available on the left side of Forest Street from Farmington Avenue (one way street). Additional parking is available at the Mark Twain House lot at 385 Farmington Ave, Hartford.
ARRIVING BY BUS
CT Transit buses 60, 62, 64, and 66 connect The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center with downtown Hartford and West Hartford Center. A transit shelter is located adjacent to the museum at Farmington Avenue and Gillett Street.
Thank you for considering an adult group visit to the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center. We are eager to share an interactive, conversational tour that deeply considers history and today.
A “Group” is defined as 12 people or more. If you are a group fewer than 12 adult visitors, please book your visit through our online ticketing platform.
We require adult groups to reserve four (4) weeks in advance of their visit.
Size: Minimum of 12 adults in the group. (Maximum of 42 people)
Payment is due at time of visit, 10% deposit is required two weeks in advance
General Admission (17-64): $20
Seniors (65 +): $15
Children (6-16): $10
Stowe Center Member, Hartford Resident, Children under 6: FREE
Museums for All (with a valid EBT card and Photo ID): $3
To inquire about availability, email our Senior Education Coordinator, Anita Durkin at ADurkin@StoweCenter.org or call 860-522-9258 ext. 315.
At the Stowe Center, we encourage students to see themselves in history and as change-makers in our own historic moment. Tour Stowe’s Hartford home, a National Historic Landmark, and participate in extended learning programs where ideas turn into inspiration and positive change.
For the 2024-2025 academic year, the Stowe Center is prioritizing educational group tours and programming. From November 2024 through March 2025, school groups will be able to come to the Stowe Center Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoons.
Group Sizes
The Stowe House has a maximum capacity of 14 guests per tour. The size of our tours is important to prioritize the safety and education of students. We will be able to accommodate 42-44 visitors (including chaperones) for a Stowe House tour, and between 52-54 visitors when groups book joint tours with the Mark Twain House. If you would like to book for larger tours over multiple days, please let us know.
Pricing
For educational tours the cost is $10/student, $11/student when you include our additional education programming, and $10/chaperone. Educators are free when they accompany their class on the tour.
For Hartford Schools the tours cost is $3/student, $5/student when you include our additional educational programming, and $5/chaperone. Educators are free when they accompany their class on tour.
If you have any questions about our offerings, want to talk more about your tour, or need any assistance, please call The Stowe Center at (860)522-9258, or email Anita Durkin.
“I will write that thing if I live.” ~Harriet Beecher Stowe, from 1889 biography
Harriet Beecher Stowe put pen to paper to make change. Moved by compassion and righteousness, she thought hard, strategized, and used the voice she knew could have the most impact—the written word in the form of a novel. Stowe crafted a story so compelling it altered how people thought about each other—and helped the abolitionist agenda leap forward.
“If I am to write, I must have a room to myself, which shall be my room.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe letter to Calvin Stowe, 1842
Do you (or someone you admire) have words that need to be written? Do you require a room of your own to focus your thoughts? Would you be inspired by sharing the same creative space that Stowe herself used? If so, this is the experience for you.
Write that thing you need to write in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s beautiful bedroom, inspired by the woman whose words changed the world. Guests may spend up to two hours in the space.
Experience Guidelines:
- Doors to the room will remain open, and staff will be present outside the room.
- Comfortable chair and small table will be provided. Guests may not touch any historic furnishings in the room.
- Pencil and paper or laptop only are permitted in the room. Bags, food, and beverages must be left with staff.
- Photography for non-commercial, personal use is permitted.
- Experience will not be rescheduled or refunded after booking except in the case of an emergency.
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Please contact Info@StoweCenter.org for more information.
Experiences are offered Monday and Tuesday between 9:30 am and 3:00 pm, or another day by special arrangement.
One Hour: $300
Two Hours: $550
