The Not So Celebrated Mark Twain House of Hartford County
For my readers outside of the Nutmeg state (which is, ironically, all of them 
), this story will not be of much interest (are any of them? ‘) ). The house/museum of overrated dead author Mark Twain is in dire financial straits. According to whatever local news I watched tonight, attendance for the guided tour has never been better (more on that later), but costs are rising much faster.
Five years ago, the Mark Twain house added an addition costing $5 million, which was supposed to house all kinds of interactive Twain related exhibits and special events. Utilities costs have tripled, however, since the addition opened. The electric bill alone is over $3 million. Staff cuts have left just 17 full time employees out of 48. Connecticut governor M. Jodi Rell found $50,000 to help keep the organization going.
Several things on this one:
1) Is the Mark Twain house some kind of state run charity? Why is it getting government money (i.e. MY TAX DOLLARS) to keep it afloat when the market is speaking loud and clear that it is neither needed or wanted?
2) Attendance has never been better? News flash. This is due to natural population increases. Nothing more. The Mark Twain house’s bread and butter is fifth grade field trips. Population increases. There are more fifth graders now than ever before, so there’s more fifth grade field trips. That pretty much explains the shattering of your box office records.
3) Let’s be honest. Unless I’m mistaken, this is not the house that Twain was born in, or died in. This is just a house that he lived in while he wrote some of his famous books. The only reason why this “attraction” gets any attention at all is because it’s in Hartford, the lamest city on earth. How lame? We STILL miss our Whalers! I’ve been to the Mark Twain house. On a fifth grade field trip. It’s not exciting. It’s a house. Of a dead guy. Who wrote books.
Bob Dylan once said that if you want to get to know him, listen to his songs. Want to get to know Mark Twain? Pick up a used dog-eared paperback copy of ‘Tom Sawyer’ or ‘Huckleberry Finn’ for $3. Knock yourself out.
June 4th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
I dunno, as I have gotten older, I have kind of developed an affinity for history, but I can’t say that I don’t agree with you. Should I become famous, I wonder if they will open one of my houses in the name of tourism. Unlikely. Yeah, Hartford is kind of lame duck town, but what can you expect? All the sports teams are now squarely headquartered in Massachusetts and all thet’s left for Connecticut is Mystic Pizza, a highly forgettable movie of the late 80’s-early 90’s. Sometimes, you live in a state that has nothing to lend the world of culture, and I don’t think the current governer sees that. I rarely hear any buzz outside of Connecticut pertaining to anything going on in Connecticut. It’s too bad. I miss the area, but that’s the one thing I wouldn’t have known how to prepare myself for should I have ever moved back up there - what in the world is there to do? I think unless you own a boat, you’re out of luck. I miss the greenery and the lack of traffic in CT and hoped that one day, I might return as a resident. Highly doubtful, but hoped nonetheless. Twain was good reading in the fifth grade, but unusable for much in this current phase of my life. I wonder why they bothered to add anything to the house, as adding only takes away from the intrinsic value the house had in the first place, which as you pointed out, wasn’t much. Oh well, maybe they’ll come up with something that contains a little more intellectual curiousity ot some other appeal, but I won’t hold my breath.