Dickinson Homestead
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Dickinson Homestead, located at 280 Main Street, Amherst, Massachusetts, was the home of poet Emily Dickinson, and currently is the site of a museum dedicated to her. The home is shown by guided tour, and special events include tours of the adjacent gardens that Emily loved, parties that feature Emily's cakes (including her famous gingerbread), readings, and other events throughout the year.
Next door to Emily's homestead is the home of her brother Austin and his family. This Italianate house, also open to the public, contains many of the Dickinson family's possessions and furniture. As all of Emily's original possessions and family furniture are now owned by Harvard, and reside in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the house is now furnished with period antiques, not her own things, although the second floor displays a haunting re-creation of one of her elaborately woven white house dresses, specially woven in England after a dress that Emily had long ago left at the home of a relative.
A major renovation in 2004 restored the exterior of the house to the way it had looked during the poet's lifetime.
