|
Arrowhead (Herman Melville House)
|
|
|
Arrowhead
|
|
| Location: | 780 Holmes Road, Pittsfield, Massachusetts |
|---|---|
| Area: | 14.189 acres (57,420 m2)[1] |
| Built: | 1785 |
| Architect: | Bush,Capt. David |
| Architectural style: | No Style Listed |
| Governing body: | Private |
| NRHP Reference#: | 66000126 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP: | October 15, 1966[2] |
| Designated NHL: | December 29, 1962[3] |
Arrowhead (1780), also known as Herman Melville House, was the home of American author Herman Melville during his most productive years from 1850-1863. In this house in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Melville wrote some of his major work: the novels Moby-Dick, Pierre (dedicated to nearby Mount Greylock), The Confidence-Man, and Israel Potter; a collection of short stories entitled The Piazza Tales including "Benito Cereno" and "Bartleby the Scrivener; all the other magazine stories, such as "I and My Chimney" and "The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids"; and some of his poetry. It is a U.S. National Historic Landmark and is open as a museum.
Contents |
Melville made his first visit to Pittsfield in 1832 to visit his Uncle Thomas. There he fell in love with his uncle's farm, particularly the view from the farm house window of Mount Greylock, highest point in Massachusetts. His annual visits continued until 1850, when Melville decided to move his family to Pittsfield permanently.
In the summer of 1850, Melville and his wife Lizzie as well as their son Malcolm came to Pittsfield for a vacation of indefinite length.[4] Later that summer, Melville was invited to picnic on Monument Mountain south of Pittsfield with two other literary notables and Berkshire residents, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Melville and Hawthorne struck up an instant friendship, and Melville decided to follow Hawthorne's lead. By September, he had the deed to a lot of 160 acres (0.65 km2) below Mount Greylock. He called his new home Arrowhead because of the arrowheads that were dug up around the property during planting season.[5] New York publisher Evert Augustus Duyckinck wrote that its "grounds would satisfy an English nobleman—for the noble maples and elms and various seclusions and outlooks".[5]
It was at Arrowhead where Melville wrote his novel Moby-Dick; though the work was not recognized during the author's lifetime, it has since become known as one of the greatest American literary masterpieces.[6] Melville incorporated homely features of Arrowhead into several stories. The piazza, after which The Piazza Tales were named, was added to the north side of Arrowhead shortly after Melville purchased the property:
Now, for a house, so situated in such a country, to have no piazza for the convenience of those who might desire to feast upon the view, and take their time and ease about it, seemed as much of an omission as if a picture-gallery should have no bench; for what but picture-galleries are the marble halls of these same limestone hills?--galleries hung, month after month anew, with pictures ever fading into pictures ever fresh.
"I and My Chimney", published in Putnam's Monthly Magazine (1856), contains a home-owner's description of the grand old farm house:
It need hardly be said, that the walls of my house are entirely free from fire-places. These all congregate in the middle--in the one grand central chimney, upon all four sides of which are hearths--two tiers of hearths--so that when, in the various chambers, my family and guests are warming themselves of a cold winter’s night, just before retiring, then, though at the time they may not be thinking so, all their faces mutually look towards each other, yea, all their feet point to one centre; and when they go to sleep in their beds, they all sleep round one warm chimney.
Melville lived, farmed, and wrote at Arrowhead for 13 years, receiving visitors including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., and Catharine Maria Sedgwick.[7] During that time, however, he was not making a living from his writing. With the need for gainful pay, Melville finally returned to New York City where he found work as a customs inspector at the New York Customs House, a job he held for over 20 years, working six days a week with only two weeks of vacation a year.
Melville sold Arrowhead to his brother Allan, who used it first as a summer home and then moved there permanently. Melville continued to visit Arrowhead through the 1880s. The Melville family owned the house until 1927.
It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1962.[1][3]
In 1975, the Berkshire County Historical Society purchased the house and began its restoration.
The house is now a non-profit historic house museum operated by the Berkshire County Historical Society, which uses a portion of the house as their office.[6] The remainder is open to the public for guided tours for part of the year. It is located at 780 Holmes Road in Pittsfield.
Arrowhead was also included in an episode of Law and Order: Criminal Intent. This was one of the only times a Pittsfield landmark has ever been included on national television.
|
||||||||||||||||||||