Bowdoin is just about finished renovating 63 Federal Street, the 19th-century home where author Harriet Beecher Stowe lived during her brief but productive time in Brunswick. From 1850 to 1852, Stowe took care of her family in the home, with help from her sister, Catharine, while her husband taught at the college.

In these two years, in between childcare, housekeeping and even running a small school for local girls, Stowe managed to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin, at the time a wildly popular anti-slavery novel that Abraham Lincoln is said to have credited with helping launch the Civil War.

The Stowe House will be used for office and meeting space, and will also contain a public room dedicated to commemorating Stowe and her legacy. See the Stowe website for more information on the house and Harriet’s Writing Room.

Images from The George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives Image Gallery; the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center; and Pejepscot Historical Society.