After Whittier
Former mayor of Haverhill and boyhood friend of Whittier, James Carleton, bought the farm and donated it to the Haverhill Whittier Club. It was officially opened in 1893, a year after the poet’s death. Today, it functions as a hands-on museum dedicated to the poet’s memory; visitors are allowed to sit in chairs actually used by the family, and the guest register sits on the desk built in 1786 for the poet's great grandfather.
The family burial plot is also located on the grounds of the Homestead. Whittier himself, however, is buried in Amesbury.
Read more about this topic: John Greenleaf Whittier Homestead
Famous quotes containing the word whittier:
“Yet here at least an earnest sense
Of human right and weal is shown;
A hate of tyranny intense,
And hearty in its vehemence,
As if my brother’s pain and sorrow were my own.
O Freedom! if to me belong
Nor mighty Milton’s gift divine,
Nor Marvell’s wit and graceful song.
Still with a love as deep and strong
As theirs, I lay, like them, my best gifts on thy shrine!”
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)
“And the song she was singing ever since
In my ear sounds on:—
“Stay at home, pretty bees, fly not hence!
Mistress Mary is dead and gone!””
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)