About Stowe Center for Literary Activism

The Stowe Center for Literary Activism opened to the public in 1968 as one of the earliest historic house museums focused on women’s history and African American history. For the ensuing 50 years, the Stowe Center has stayed on the leading edge of historic house interpretation, debuting an immersive social justice tour in 2017. The goal now is to bring the Stowe Center into the 21st century by focusing on relevance, civic engagement, and social justice through activism in concert with our many communities.

Using history, literature, and current events to prompt discussion, the Stowe Center nurtures brave spaces in which open dialogue is possible. They present programs that include history tours, reading groups, salon-style discussions, lectures, and their mobile history experience Stowe on the Go. The Stowe Center’s objective is to make space for dynamic conversation that has the potential for transformative thought, and hope that all people leave at least saying "I will think about what you just said."

The Stowe Center’s 2.5-acre urban campus includes numerous historic gardens, specimen trees, and lawns with abundant places for visitors to sit and enjoy this park-like setting. Stowe was an enthusiastic gardener, creating and tending flower and vegetable gardens at all her homes and publishing numerous gardening articles and poems.

Inspired by her writing, the Stowe Center gardens feature many of the plants she loved and wrote about in her books and letters. The design is also inspired by period photographs and her own artwork. Garden beds are planted informally, with a vibrant mix of ornamental and edible plants, shrubs, and flowering trees in a variety of colors. Among Stowe’s favorites were sweet peas, peonies, foxglove, bee balm, nasturtium, daylilies, marigolds, petunias, asters, and goldenrod. In all her garden designs, Stowe strived for mass plantings in bright colors so there is always something in bloom from April through September, beginning with spring bulbs and followed by a succession of seasonal blooms.

The gardens also include Connecticut's largest Star Magnolia; grafts from The Stowe Dogwood, a pink variety believed to be from Stowe's time; several grafts from the former State champion Paw Paw tree;100-year old American and Copper Beech, Oak, and Tulip trees; and The Garden Club of America award-winning heritage roses. 

For more information, visit https://www.stowecenter.org/