Harriet Beecher Stowe House

Visit the Cincinnati home where Harriet Beecher Stowe, later author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," lived from 1832 to 1836

Harriet Beecher Stowe House

2950 Gilbert Avenue, Cincinnati, OH, USA
The site is open February through November, Thursday - Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday, noon to 4p.m.

In December and January visitation is by appointment only. Please call 513-751-0651 for details or fill out an appointment request form on the Harriet Beecher Stowe House website https://stowehousecincy.org/visit-the-house.html .

School and tour groups welcome. Groups of 10 or more need to schedule in advance and will receive $1.00 off each admission.


Handicapped Accessibility:
The Ohio History Connection strives to meet ADA requirements. However, historic structures and outdoor areas provide challenges that make it difficult to provide complete access to all visitors. Please call the site with specific questions and concerns.


The ground floor of the house is handicapped accessible. Staff is available to talk to vision impaired visitors.
Adult - $6.00 Seniors/Student - $5.00 Child (6-17) - $3.00 OHC members/Friends HBSH - $0.00

Please Note:  The Harriet Beecher Stowe House is curently undergoing renovation. The site is open and tours continue but there may be some areas of the house that will not be accessible.  We apologize for the inconvenience but are excited to share with our guests the finished results of the renovation. If you have questions, please call ahead before visiting the Harriet Beecher Stowe House.

Visit

Tour the Cincinnati home where Harriet Beecher Stowe lived during her formative years that later led her to write the best-selling novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Learn about the author, the Beecher and Stowe families, the Underground Railroad and the women’s rights movements of the 1830s–1860s. Average visit time: Allow 1+ hours

Because the Beecher family assisted freedom seekers while living here, the house is also a recognized site on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. While in the Cincinnati area, learn more about slavery and the Underground Railroad by visiting the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center; the Ohio History Connection’s John Rankin House in Ripley; and the John Parker House in Ripley.

History

This house was home to Harriet Beecher before her marriage to Calvin Stowe in 1836, and to her father, Rev. Lyman Beecher, and his large family, a prolific group of religious leaders, educators, writers and antislavery and women’s rights advocates. The Beecher family includes Harriet’s sister, Catherine Beecher, an early educator and writer who helped found numerous high schools and colleges for women; brother Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, a leader of the women’s suffrage movement and considered by some to be the most eloquent minister of his time; Gen. James Beecher, a Civil War general who commanded the first African American troops in the Union Army recruited from the South; and sister, Isabella Beecher Hooker, a women’s rights advocate.

The Beechers lived in Cincinnati for nearly 20 years, from 1832 to the early 1850s, before returning east. Shortly after leaving Cincinnati (and basing her writing on her experiences in Cincinnati), in 1851–1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the best-selling book of its time, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a fictionalized account of the pain slavery imposed on its victims and of the difficult struggles of slaves to escape and travel via the Underground Railroad to freedom in the northern states or Canada. Published just after the fugitive slave laws were enacted by Congress in 1850, the book made Harriet Beecher Stowe a household name. Uncle Tom’s Cabin has been published in over 75 languages and is still an important text used in schools all over the world.

The Harriet Beecher Stowe House is managed locally by the Friends of the Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Inc.

The site is also an American Writers Museum affiliate.

  • Audiences: K-5th Grade Students, 6-8th Grade Students, 9-12th Grade Students, Higher Education Students, Educators, Families, Government, Specialists, Tourists, Community Groups, History Enthusiasts & Sports Fans
  • Historical Topics: African American History & The Arts
  • Regions: Southwest Ohio