Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum

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Description

For the price of one admission, a ramble through Mark Twain's boyhood town gets you into four historic buildings and three museums. Start at the Interpretive Center (415 N Main St) for an introduction to the writer's early life in Hannibal. Then head to Hill Street and the small, white clapboard house where the Clemens family lived in the 1840s. The boyhood home has been restored to look much as it did during the Clemens' time. The adjacent Mark Twain Museum features biographical multimedia presentations and memorabilia. More memorabilia honoring Hannibal's favorite son, including a collection of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn illustrations done by Norman Rockwell, are located in the Museum Gallery that occupies the former Sonnenberg's Department Store at the corner of Main and Center streets. Also included in the price of admission is access to the Clemens Law Office -- where John Marshall Clemens, patriarch of the clan, served as justice of the peace -- and Grant's Drug Store (the Pilaster House) where the Clemens family lived in 1846-47. Across the street from Twain's boyhood home, at 211 Hill Street, you'll find the one-time home of Laura Hawkins, Samuel Clemens boyhood sweetheart and model for fetching Becky Thatcher. The bookshop on the first floor carries an impressive selection of Twain's works, and the upper floor features a restored parlor and bedroom, open for viewing. The museum and historic sites are open daily except Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. Admission is $8 for adults, $6.50 for seniors (ages 60+), and $4 for children ages 6-12. (And sorry, no, you won't get a discount by offering to whitewash the fence.)