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Amherst, a small city in western Massachusetts, is home to a long list of influential writers who frolicked on its tree-lined streets, strolled through town parks, or studied at the University of Massachusetts Amherst lecture in the classroom.Playwright Anne Baker; Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert Frost; Noah Webster, author American English Dictionary; and other luminaries dating back to the 18th century grew up there.
Now, after five years of preservation work, the former home of Amherst’s most famous resident, Emily Dickinson, has been restored. Evergreens is an Italianate style house designed by William Fenno Pratt in 1856 for Emily’s brother Austin Dickinson. The newly restored home is not far from the Homestead, the old Georgian mansion at 280 Main Street where Emily Dickinson lived with her siblings and their father, U.S. Congressman Edward Dickinson. Dickinson grew up here. Museum officials worked with New York office Mesick Cohen Wilson Backer Architects (MCWB) to develop a site master plan and write a historic structure report for Evergreen. The restoration architects also developed green strategies for the antique home to reduce energy consumption.
Curators say both Homestead and Evergreen played important roles in the Dickinson family dynamic. Both buildings had an incredible impact on Emily’s poetry. They note that these residences are crucial to understanding Dickinson’s work as the 19th-century artist becomes increasingly popular with today’s generation.
Austin Dickinson and his wife, Susan, lived at the Evergreen Hotel and frequently hosted family and friends there, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frederic Frederick Law Olmsted, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Wendell Philips. Austin and Susan lived at the Evergreen Hotel until their deaths in 1895 and 1913 respectively.
Meanwhile, Emily Dickinson spent most of her life in seclusion. After briefly attending Mount Holyoke Seminary (the predecessor to Mount Holyoke College), she edited texts and wrote poetry, but she did not attract much attention compared to what would come later. She only published ten poems in various local media throughout her life. Before Emily died, she made her sister Lavinia promise that she would burn her works like Franz Kafka – a vow that thankfully was broken.
After Emily’s death in 1874, Lavinia Dickinson discovered her sister’s nearly 1,800 unpublished poems, which had been hidden from public view. Her niece Mary Landis Hampson soon became very interested in Emily’s poetry. Mary eventually edited several collections of Emily’s writings and wrote biographies about her in the 1920s and 1930s. She lived in the Evergreen Hotel until her death in 1943 and preserved it without making any changes.
Mary Landis Hampson worked with Amherst editor Mabel Loomis Todd to promote Dickinson’s essays. The two helped get Emily Dickinson into literary journals and lecture halls around the world. There are now public schools in cities across America, and a park in Paris is named after her. Her words are emblazoned on painted brick walls in Amsterdam.
Mary Landis Hampson’s heirs, Alfred Little Hampson and Mary Landis Hampson II, worked over the next decades to preserve the building as a cultural haven . As a result of their efforts, Homestead and Evergreens host poetry festivals featuring renowned artists and conduct workshops for aspiring writers of all ages.
Peter Hamm of the Wells Historic Preservation Society in Massachusetts has worked on a restoration project over the past decade to restore a future-proof space in the home, Emily Dickinson’s childhood bedroom . Building on this stewardship, since 2019, museum staff have been permanently documenting the ephemera on display at Homestead and Evergreens—its original household furniture, household items, and decorations. They also work closely with MCWB to achieve sustainability goals.
In the years to come, both Evergreen and Homestead will continue the institution’s mission of preserving Emily Dickinson’s memory through cultural programming. “Reintroducing evergreens to our interpretive program is a long-awaited step,” said Brooke Steinhauser, senior director of programs. “The condition of the house is uniquely evocative of life there. We can share these stories more fully with visitors, not only the poet’s everyday inspiration derived from these family relationships, but also the extraordinary way her poetry reached the world after her death. way, and the motivations of the extraordinary people who recognized her genius and dedicated their lives to it. Share it.”
The Emily Dickinson Museum officially reopens on March 1, 2024.
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