Bob Child, The Associated Press The Mark Twain House in Hartford, Conn., was home to Samuel Clemens from 1874 until 1891. Here he wrote most of his best-known works, including "Huckleberry Finn."

By Bob Hoover, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

HARTFORD, Conn. -- "I have been bullragged all day by the builder, by his foreman, by the architect ... by the idiot who is putting down the carpets, by the scoundrel who is setting up the billiard table (and has left the balls in New York) ...."

		The Mark Twain House and Museum Where: 351 Farmington Ave., Hartford, Conn. Hours: 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays, noon-5:30 p.m. Sunday; closed Tuesdays from January-April. Admission: $13; $11 seniors; $8 children 6-16; free, children under 6. Information: 1-860-247-0998; www.mark-twainhouse.org. The Harriet Beecher Stowe House Where: 77 Forest St., Hartford, Conn. Hours: 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays; noon-4:30 p.m. Sundays. Admission: $8; $7 seniors; $4 children 5-12; free, children under 5. Information: 1-860-522-9258; www.harri-etbeecherstowe.org.

From this 1874 letter by Samuel Clemens to his in-laws in Buffalo, N.Y., it would appear that the troubles of building his well-appointed, 19-room home here was cramping his style.

The reverse would be true. Known to the country as Mark Twain, Clemens would spend his most productive years as a writer in the singular house on a hill in Nook Farm, then a posh Hartford neighborhood.

There, he wrote his major works -- "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," "The Prince and the Pauper," "Life on the Mississippi," and his masterpiece, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

And, there, he and his wife, Livy, brought up their three lively daughters, Susy, Clara and Jean, in a world of love, luxury and the fun and games that Clemens enjoyed.

Noted these days as the headquarters town for insurance companies, Hartford retains some of the leafy, pleasant neighborhoods of its 19th-century glory, when it was one of the nation's most prosperous towns. It was also home to another influential American novelist -- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

In a nifty bit of providence, both writers lived within hailing distance of each other, making it easy to experience both their worlds in the same afternoon.

Hartford's congenial nature attracted Samuel and Olivia Clemens in 1874, as the 39-year-old writer calling himself Mark Twain was on the brink of becoming America's best-known writer.

Stowe and her family had moved there a year earlier to the suburb of Nook's Farm on the city's east side.

The Clemenses built a three-story home whimsically designed by local architect Edward Tucker Potter. It was an eclectic mixture of gables, turrets and rustic woodwork, cleverly disguising its expansive interior that held rooms for a large staff of servants as well.

The Clemens family spent its happiest years in the remarkable house on Farmington Avenue, but stunning reversals would force them to abandon their storybook castle as the 19th century neared its end.

The place would fall into disrepair and face demolition in the 1920s, but a long and successful restoration effort based in Hartford has brought the house back to life. In 2003, a museum was opened as well.

Both are worth a visit to the Connecticut capital in themselves, but the bonus waiting right next door is the preserved home of Mrs. Stowe, author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin."

The two houses are so close together that it's easy to imagine the two writers, one in decline, the other starting a meteoric rise, chatting about the weather as they headed out to pick up the Hartford Courant in their front yards.

Both houses, open for public tours, present the rare opportunity to share the domestic lives of two of America's most famous writers in the space of a few hours.

It's an opportunity that presented itself out of the blue when we pulled into the parking lot of the Twain House and Museum. We had no idea that two famous writers shared this neighborhood.

Lacking the star power of Twain, Stowe's place just doesn't get the same attention, but it warrants the time for a tour once you're there.

The Stowe house is easy to miss if you enter the parking lot for the Twain complex from the east on Farmington Avenue, because you can't see both houses. Instead, the first thing in view are the stone stairs leading to the understated stone and glass Twain Museum.

It's there where you buy your tour ticket for $12 ($8 for ages 6-12) and meet your guide. Ours was the quintessential taciturn New England gent with an accent reminiscent of Percy Kilbride.

He presented a quick, no-nonsense tour of the house, saving his well-practiced jokes for late in the walk-through, perhaps to give the winded guests a breather.

Still, Percy's nonstop style could not take away from the fascinating, curiously fragile Tiffany design of the home's first floor. The New York designer's firm, Associated Artists, was hired in 1881 to remodel the entrance hall and staircase.

Pause long enough to appreciate the lovingly restored stenciled black and silver wall covering, the lamps and intricate woodwork, then look up the open stairway all the way to the third floor.

The entrance leads to the lavishly appointed drawing room, dining room and library with its plant-filled sky-lit conservatory. Again, resist the insistence of the guide to pull you toward the second floor so you can take in both the richness of the work and the meticulous restoration it received.

The second floor, with its bedrooms, each with indoor-plumbed bathrooms, and the school room for the girls, is much plainer.

The third floor, however, holds what should be considered one of the shrines of American literature -- Twain's billiard room.

In this bastion of the Victorian male, where Twain and his Hartford cronies late at night shot pool, smoked rank cigars and enjoyed their whiskey in cut-glass tumblers free from disapproving females, the writer created his masterpieces by day.

It was here that Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn drew Twain back to his childhood on the Mississippi, the experiences that gave us his greatest fiction.

Take note of the framed check on the wall. I had to prod Percy into explaining its significance. It's the first payment Twain sent to the widow of Ulysses S. Grant following publication of his memoirs, the project arranged by Twain to raise funds for the bankrupt general's family.

There's very little left of the family's furnishings which have long been scattered. Twain's own bankruptcy and Susy's death in the house in 1895 would force them to eventually sell it.

Full-scale restoration began in 1974. While work continues on other parts of the house, the bulk of the project is complete.

The full story of the family's time in Hartford, complete with a version of the faulty type-setting machine that cost Twain his fortune, can be found in the museum along with a cafe and gift shop.

When Mark Twain and his family moved in, their next-door neighbor was better known than he was.

Yet, despite her success as the author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," the most popular anti-slavery novel of its time, she, her clergyman husband and their twin daughters lived in more modest style.

Sixty-three when Twain arrived, she was quietly fading into genteel obscurity after her phenomenal 1852 success, although continuing to write novels and a popular guide to domesticity for married women.

A member of a family rich in ministers, including her famous -- and notorious -- brother, Henry Ward Beecher, Stowe's style was decidedly more conventional than her neighbors'.

The rather plain brick house is notable for its carefully tended garden where the novelist grew herbs and flowers.

Inside, the overstuffed rooms, true to their Victorian period, are unremarkable, save for the kitchen which Stowe designed to provide efficiency and convenience for the overworked 19th-century housewife.

After the Civil War, Stowe wrote articles offering household advice for women and used her kitchen as a laboratory for her ideas.

Her modest home can be viewed for $8, $6 for children 12 and under.

Meeting both Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe in the space of a few hours is a rare opportunity that should not be missed when you visit Connecticut.