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More than half a million Americans do not have access to safe accommodation. People experience homelessness for various reasons, including an inability to afford rent, an unexpected financial expense or illness, or loss of income. Many other people cannot maintain a home due to mental illness or substance use addiction.

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The Mark Twain House and Museum

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, famously known as Mark Twain, is one of America’s most iconic 19th-century novelists. Because of his long-standing popularity, readers and admirers of his works have made trips to sites in the country that influenced his writing. Samuel Clemens grew up in Hannibal, a small town in the northern region of Missouri, just beside the Mississippi River. According to the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum, the writer was born close to Florida, Missouri, although he resided in Hannibal with his family until he turned 17. The author’s formative years in the Midwest are chronicled in the museum’s several buildings, which are open to the public. Additionally, a nearby museum holds several important documents and artifacts relevant to Mark Twain’s career. Samuel Clemens married Olivia “Livy” Clemens in 1870, and a year later, he and his wife relocated to Hartford, Connecticut. Until the couple was ready to build their own house, they leased residences in New England. They hired a New York Architect to create their Hartford Home in 1873, according to The Mark Twain House & Museum. The Mark Twain House & Museum was completed in 1874. It was intended to be a home for the author and his family, but financial difficulties and the loss of their children forced them to abandon it and move to Europe. The Neo-Gothic home was completed in 1873 when Clemens was at the height of his literary fame and fortune. The exterior of the large estate home was intricately detailed, with a gabled roof and picketed red spokes across the broad porch. The house's interior had quarters for his wife and all of their children and various luxurious spaces. The interior was created with Clemens’ help and featured an unusual interior arrangement. The home was also said to be made to seem like a riverboat, though this is not very obvious. Clemens wrote several of his most famous works while residing in the home, including the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. His years in Connecticut were among his happiest, although they were unfortunately short-lived. Clemens and his family moved to Europe in 1891 after losing a large sum of money in a bad printing press investment. When their fortunes changed again, and they could return, Livy Clemens refused to return to Connecticut because the memory of their lost daughter was too much for her. As a result of this, the mansion was sold. The mansion is now a national landmark, and it has been restored by The Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, Connecticut. The house has been restored to the grand state it was in when the Clemens family lived there. During the restorations, a museum was constructed, allowing visitors to learn about the author and walk in his footsteps. House tours show visitors most of the rooms in the house. The library is arguably the most noteworthy part of the house. Clemens is supposed to have shared stories and read poems for his friends and family in the library. The Billiard Room, which functioned as the author’s office and a study, is also open to the public. Many of the well-known works of Mark Twain were written in this room.