There's no question in my mind that this property should come under
the financial umbrella and administrations of the National Park
Service as a National Historic Site.
We have in Ridgefield, Connecticut, just 10 miles from the library in
Redding that Twain founded in 1908 and only 50 miles from his
Hartford home, the home and studio of J. Alden Weir, a major American
painting. That site has been under the protection and guidance of NPS
for a few years now, having been given to the nation by the former
owners, Doris and Sperry Andrews.

The present administration at Hartford might be reluctant to give up
the property and its management to the Federal government but it
seems a certain way to protect and preserve it for posterity. There
is, of course, no question that Twain's important to American life
and literature qualifies a major site in his history to become a
national treasure.

Bob Morton,
Vice-President, Board of Trustees, The Mark Twain Library
Association, Redding, CT