Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site
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Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site | |
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Location: | San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA |
Nearest city: | Danville, California |
Coordinates: | |
Area: | 13 acres (0.05 km²) |
Established: | October 12, 1976 |
Visitation: | 3,652 (in 2005) |
Governing body: | National Park Service |
The Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site, located in Danville, California, preserves Tao House, the hillside home of America's only Nobel Prize-winning playwright, Eugene O'Neill, where he and his wife lived from 1937 to 1944. At this home, O'Neill wrote his final and most memorable plays: The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey Into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten. The Site occupies 13 acres accessible only by private road, so advance reservations are required to visit: private vehicles are not allowed, and transportation to the park is provided by a twice-daily free shuttle from Danville, Wednesdays to Sundays.
The house was saved from demolition in the early 1970s by the Eugene O’Neill Foundation through several fundraising efforts, including benefit performances of Eugene O’Neill’s play Hughie featuring Jason Robards. Through their efforts, Tao House was declared a National Historic Site in 1976, and passed into the management of the National Park Service in 1980.
The Foundation maintains an archive of Eugene O'Neill-related material at Tao House (including photographs, playbills, manuscripts, posters, and O'Neill's original phonograph record collection) and sponsors events such as productions of O'Neill plays, staged in the adjacent barn.