Hard Times at Twain House

The Hartford Advocate's Adam Bulger writes about the challenges to keep The Mark Twain House open to the public:

There's a lot of loose gossip about the dire state of the Mark Twain House. But although it continues to face a difficult financial situation, its death may be greatly — well, I think you can guess where I'm going with this.

In 2006, things looked dark for the Mark Twain House. The Hartford cultural institution opened an $18 million, state-of-the-art visitor's center in 2003, but its financing was not completely in place. By 2006, paying down the money loaned by Webster Bank seemed increasingly difficult. Then director Debra Petke fretted to the Hartford Courant that the museum was running out of cash, and had been "paralyzed as an institution."

The state stepped in, providing $3.5 million in bond money to help pay down the $11 million remaining on the debt from the construction. The Mark Twain House trimmed staff, leaving a marketing position vacant, and scaled back on revolving exhibitions.

The following year, Petke left the museum for a job at the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts in Old Lyme. Former deputy director Jeffrey Nichols became the third person to act as executive director of the museum in five years — John Boyers, who helmed the institution for 16 years, left in 2003.

The organization sold its former administrative offices at 66 Flower St. and currently have a second building on the market. The Mark Twain House has continued to trim staff, while maintaining an impressive program of events, including a lecture series with an upcoming appearance by political satirist Andy Borowitz.

In recent conversation, Nichols said the museum was facing challenges, but he emphasized that the challenges are the same ones all arts and cultural non-profits are facing in the current economic climate.

"Like many other non-profits, it's been a challenging period for us. With the new buildings project in particular, it increased our expenses, and has been a challenge for the museum to manage," Nichols said. "With any new project, those are the kind of things that one would expect to have happen."