The Mark Twain House, designed by Edward Tuckerman Potter, was completed in 1874. The Clemens family lived in the home from 1874 until 1891, but Twain did not sell the house until 1903. The house is now owned and maintained by the The Mark Twain House, 351 Farmington Avenue.

"The modified Gothic design was sufficiently unconventional to attract criticism from a host of sidewalk superintendents. The Hartford Times said the house rising on Farmington Avenue was clearly 'one of the oddest looking buildings in the State ever designed for a dwelling, if not in the whole country.' The main entrance faced the back property of the houses on the east; the servant and kitchen wing faced Farmington Avenue. People in the library could look out over a wooded bank and the little river that flowed at its foot. A veranda extended from the back of the house into the trees, and turrets, balconies, porches, and miscellaneous lookouts all commanded attractive views. The interior of the house represented the richest taste of the time. Persian rugs softened the marble floor of the entrance hall, from which an enormous open staircase of dark oak leads upward three flights. The bedrooms were museums of carved furniture brought from Venice and other European cities."