William Cullen Bryant Homestead

The William Cullen Bryant Homestead 155 acres (0.63 km2) is the boyhood home and later summer residence of William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878), one of America's foremost poets and newspaper editors. It is located at 205 Bryant Road in Cummington, Massachusetts, currently operated by the non-profit Trustees of Reservations, and open to the public on weekends in summer and early fall. An admission fee is charged.

The Homestead was originally built in 1785. It was purchased by Bryant's grandfather, Ebenezer Snell, in 1789. The Homestead is set on a hillside above the Westfield River valley with views of the Hampshire Hills. Bryant bought back the family home in 1865 and renovated it extensively after it had been out of the family for about 30 years. The house is filled with Bryant's furnishings and mementoes. The site includes a stand of old-growth forest, a grove of 150-foot (46 m) pine trees, and nearly 200-year-old sugar maple trees.

The Homestead was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962.

Famous quotes containing the words cullen, bryant and/or homestead:

    Thus change the forms of being. Thus arise
    Races of living things, glorious in strength,
    And perish, as the quickening breath of God
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    —William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878)

    Fair scenes shall greet thee where thou goest—fair,
    But different—
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    The free, independent spirit who commits himself to no dogma and will not decide in favor of any party has no homestead on earth.
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