-- from Nook Farm, by JosephVan Why
"When the Stowe house came on the market in 1924, Miss Day bought it and decided to settle down in her native Hartford. It seemed natural for Miss Day to return to the famous neighborhood of Nook Farm, which her grandfather, John Hooker Day, had first settled. She had been related to many of Nook Farm's first residents, including Thomas Clap and Many Beecher Perkins, her great-uncle and great-aunt; John and Isabella Beecher Hooker, her maternal grandparents; and Senator Francis and Elizabeth Hooker Gillette and their son, William Gillette, the famous actor-playwright. Furthermore, Miss Day had known Mark Twain and his family, both when the Clemenses lived at Nook Farm and when they resided in New York City. As a young girl, Miss Day had visited her great-aunt Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose home she now chose as her own.
"The year that Miss Day moved to Hartford, 1927, the Mark Twain house was threatened with destruction to make room for a commercial building. Miss Day organized the Friends of Hartford to save the important historical and architectural landmark. By means of donations and a series of benefits, the Friends of Hartford raised $100,000, which made it possible, with a mortgage, to purchase the Mark Twain house in 1929. Ossip Gabrilowitsch, the husband of Mark Twain's daughter Clara and a famous pianist, gave a benefit concert at the recently finished Bushnell Memorial. Winston Churchill was the guest speaker at another benefit in 1932. In 1939 the State Legislature chartered the Mark Twain Library and Memorial Commission, the new name for the guardian of the magnificent house. Miss Day was president of the Memorial for many years and honorary president until her death."
