Mark Twain once said his large Connecticut home was “combination Mississippi River steamboat and cuckoo clock.”
That is not exactly how Pieter Roos views the historic Gothic-style home today.
For the new executive director of the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, it is “the primary public steward” of the legendary author and humorist’s legacy and “one of the finest historical house museums in the country.”
Roos, 57, is to take the helm of the landmark property on July 5, after finishing an 18-year stint as executive director of the Newport Restoration Foundation (NRF) in Rhode Island.
The museum has one of the most important things aspiring executive directors look for: “Great subject material,” he said.
“There are not a lot of places that are up to the subject level of Mark Twain,” Roos said. “He was not only a legendary writer, but a legendary character.”
Twain, whose real name was Samuel Clemens, grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, along the Mississippi River. He and his wife, Olivia, in 1871 moved to Hartford, which at the time was one of the wealthiest cities in the nation.
Construction on the home began in August 1873 on land next door to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s house, which is also a museum.
Twain wrote his most popular books over the next 17 years while living in Hartford and retreating to his summer home in Elmira, New York, including The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.
Twain and his family moved to Europe in 1891 and never returned to the Hartford home after their daughter, Susy, died during a visit there in 1896.
Twain died in 1910 at age 74 in Redding, Connecticut.
Roos led the Newport Restoration Foundation, which has restored or preserved 83 buildings in Newport and owns 80 historic buildings. It also owns and runs three museum properties.
He is credited with turning the foundation into a nationally respected organization and creating a national conference on the effects of climate change on historic preservation.
Roos said the Twain museum is doing well after surviving financial problems several years ago and a mold problem.
“I see this place as a nexus for American writers and thoughtful humorists,” he said.
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