HARTFORD — The Mark Twain House has joined the ranks of the original Star Spangled Banner, the Washington Monument, and the Statue of Liberty.

All four American icons have received matching grants from the US Department of the Interior’s “Save America’s Treasures” program. The Mark Twain house has received a $2 million matching grant from the program.

The flag that inspired the national anthem and the two distinctive national monuments were among the first grant recipients of the new program, established by President Clinton in 1999. The Mark Twain House, a National Historic Landmark since 1963, will receive its grant this year, the program’s second in existence. The federal funds are designated for the preservation of nationally significant intellectual and cultural artifacts, and historic structures and sites.

“The Mark Twain House is one of the crown jewels of great residences, an architectural gem,” said Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.). “It’s right up there with the White House, Monticello and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater.”

The Mark Twain House plans to use the grant to preserve the home where Twain wrote his most celebrated works. Specific projects include restoring the kitchen wing and carriage house, and the Artist’s Friends Room, where some of the country’s prominent literary figures stayed while visiting Twain. After the restoration, these areas will be opened to the public for the first time.

Several other rooms, already on view to the public, will also be extensively restored as part of the project. Among them is Twain’s billiards room, where the author did most of his writing while in Hartford. In addition, The Twain House plans to restore the historic landscape and gravel drives on its five-acre site.

The federal funds will also be used to ensure the future of the museum’s core collections. A portion of the grant money will be used to build state-of-the-art collections facilities. There are more than 50,000 artifacts in the Twain House collection, including furnishings and decorative arts, historic photographs, the author’s manuscripts and personal papers, family letters and Twain’s library.

“We need to celebrate this house and the great works of literature that came out of it,” said Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.). “Every day someone is reading Twain, somewhere around the world, because his message is universal.”

A Home With A History

Samuel Clemens — better known by his pen name, Mark Twain — and his wife Olivia (“Livy”) moved to Hartford in 1871 to be near his publisher. Elisha Bliss’ American Publishing Company was located in Hartford.

Two years later the couple commissioned the architect Edward Tuckerman Potter to design a home for a site they had purchased on the western edge of Connecticut’s capital. The thriving literary community the Clemenses moved into at this time — the site of The Mark Twain House, at 351 Farmington Avenue in present-day Hartford — was known as Nook Farm.

 The house was largely completed by October of 1874. The cost apparently exceeded the Clemens’ budget, however, and several rooms remained unfinished when the couple and their two young daughters moved in.

In 1881, following the success of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and several lecture tours, Louis Comfort Tiffany’s design firm, Associated Artists, was commissioned by the Clemenses to enlarge the servants’ wing and completely redecorate the home. Today The Mark Twain House features the only surviving Tiffany domestic design that is open to the public. The house owns a collection of Tiffany-created objects, and contains many pieces of Clemens family furniture, including an intricately-carved Venetian bed and an ornate mantel from a Scottish castle.

Twain lived and worked in the house during his most productive period as a writer. In an extraordinarily creative cycle from 1874 to 1891, he wrote his most celebrated works. In addition to Tom Sawyer, he also completed The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Life on the Mississippi, The Prince and The Pauper and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

Twain owned the property for 30 years, from 1873 to 1903. The family moved out of the Hartford house, relocating to Europe, in 1891. Twain sold the house eight years later, having never returned to Hartford.

The house had been used as a private school and an apartment building before The Friends of Hartford purchased the property in 1929 to prevent the home’s demolition. The house served as the Mark Twain Branch of Hartford Public Library for years before total restoration began in the 1950s. The house opened for public tours and visits in the 1960s.

Four original pieces of furniture have returned to The Mark Twain House for the first time in almost a century. Samuel and Livy Clemens selected the furnishings specifically for their Hartford home. The furnishings will be on display in their original setting through October.

The pieces include an ornate Venetian table for the library, a Mayflower chest in the dining room, and two original pieces that have been returned to the Clemenses’ master bedroom: Livy’s dressing table and an Empire sofa.

The sofa is a significant example of Colonial Revival design and shows the quality of home furnishings available in Connecticut’s capital in the late 19th Century. The history of each of the four pieces is being explained to visitors to The Mark Twain House this year.

The important artifacts are on loan from the Mark Twain Birthplace State Historic Site, a facility in Florida, Mo., operated by the Division of State Parks, Missouri Department of Natural Resources. The filming of Ken Burns’ PBS documentary on Twain precipitated the homecoming. This is the first time the Mark Twain Birthplace State Historic Site has loaned pieces to another museum.

The Mark Twain House is now one of Connecticut’s most-visited cultural attractions. Last year, visitors from more than 60 countries toured the 19-room mansion. In addition the museum offers an array of educational opportunities including special interest tours and exhibits as well as creative writing and other outreach programs in area schools.

The House is open for guided tours throughout the year. Call 860/247-0998, extension 26, for general visitors’ info.

For information concerning upcoming programs — which include “Darling Livy: A Valentine Family Program” on February 12, “Many Happy Returns! A Birthday Celebrations Family Program” on March 18, “April Fool! Tall Tales Family Program” on April 1, and “The Women of The House: Mother’s Day Family Program” on May 13 — contact Rachel Rogers, 860/247-0998, extension 23.