Museum works to save 'Becky Thatcher House'

ST. LOUIS -- The Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum in Hannibal, Mo., hoped throngs of summer tourists would spread the word about its urgent efforts to save the Becky Thatcher House. It's the childhood residence of the real-life girl who lived near young Samuel Clemens and inspired one of his beloved characters when he later wrote as Twain.

But even though downtown Hannibal has remained bone dry, enough visitors shied away from the Mississippi River town due to flooding concerns that summer attendance at Clemens' boyhood home is down about 30 percent. That has hampered efforts to raise money to restore the little wood-frame house Twain enthusiasts want to protect.

They're asking everyone from schoolchildren to fans of Twain's writings around the world to help them bring in $250,000 by this fall, if possible. It's just part of the tab.

"We really want to get the word out that you, too, can help. Help us 'Save the Becky,"' said Cindy Lovell, a board member of the Mark Twain Home Foundation.

"If we don't step in now to save it, there won't be anything to save," she said.

Built in the 19th century, the house was the home of Laura Hawkins, Twain's muse for his famed character Becky in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer."

"She was famous in town; people knew her as Becky Thatcher," said Regina Faden, executive director of the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum.

The museum bought the property from private owners in 2001. And it has worked on a plan for years for new exhibits. But first the two-story residence needs immediate help because of sagging rafters, foundation and floor problems and termite damage that wasn't repaired.

Over the years, the building contained everything from a restaurant to a book shop.

On Aug. 9, the Mark Twain museum will host a benefit public auction of antiques and collectibles that were displayed in the house for more than 50 years.

While there were period antiques in the house, the museum notes they have no direct tie to the Hawkins family or Twain and there is no need for period furnishings in upcoming exhibits.

Faden said new exhibits at the Becky Thatcher House will focus on how childhood experiences in the 19th century varied by race, social class and gender.

Faden said the museum is made up of eight Hannibal properties, and there are plans to restore three of the sites, hopefully by 2010.

They are the J.M. Clemens Justice of the Peace office where Clemens' dad once worked; Grant's Drugstore, where the Clemens family lived for a time, and the Becky Thatcher House.

Faden said all three restoration projects will cost about $2.5 million, and noted government funds, grants and donations have been contributed, with about $750,000 already brought in toward those projects.

Another $250,000 would allow structural, stabilizing work on the Becky Thatcher House to begin this fall. From there, the new exhibit work would cost about $350,000 and could be done next spring. She noted that the museum is not having trouble with its operating costs, but rather is working to raise capital funds.

"We know there are so many people out there who love Mark Twain, love his work," she said. Preserving properties where he lived or that influenced his writings helps to tell Twain's stories, she said.

"They're a way to tell the story of an artist who is still talking to us today."

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On the Net:

Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum: http://www.marktwainmuseum.org/