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NOTE: This was originally scheduled for April 6 but had to be moved back one week to April 13th due to the OVCC Fine Arts Seminar being planned for April 6. Our apologies for any inconvenience.

A private tour of the Harriet Beecher Stowe house is planned for April 13 from 3-4 pm. A tour guide will provide stories about the house and the famous anti-slavery author. She came from the Beecher family, a famous religious family, and is best known for her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), which depicts the harsh conditions for enslaved African Americans. The book reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and Great Britain, energizing anti-slavery forces in the American North, while provoking widespread anger in the South. Stowe wrote 30 books, including novels, three travel memoirs, and collections of articles and letters. She was influential for both her writings and her public stances and debates on social issues of the day.

In 1832, at the age of 21, Harriet Beecher moved to Cincinnati, Ohio to join her father, who had become the president of Lane Theological Seminary. There, she also joined the Semi-Colon Club, a literary salon and social club whose members included the Beecher sisters, Caroline Lee Hentz, Salmon P. Chase (future governor of the state and Secretary of Treasury under President Lincoln), Emily Blackwell and others.

It was in the literary club that she met Calvin Ellis Stowe, a widower who was a professor at the seminary. The two married on January 6, 1836.[6] He was an ardent critic of slavery, and the Stowes supported the Underground Railroad, temporarily housing several fugitive slaves in their home.

There are no restrictions on taking photos, however, it was noted that most of the artifacts from the Stowe family were taken with them when they moved from Cincinnati. After touring the house we will walk 2 blocks to the German Cemetery to explore the names on the graves and take a few more images.

Parking – there is room for 10 cars at the house (lot east side of house off Foraker Ave.), beyond that there is street parking on Foraker on the south side of the house.

Entrance Fee – $4 if less 9 persons or less attend, $3 if 10 or more persons attend.

What to Photograph – shots of the house, interior, neighboring structures, German Cemetery

Directions – off I-75 South take the Martin Luther King exit and head east, turn south onto Gilbert Ave. and east on Foraker Ave.