Visitors to the Haverhill home where Whittier was born in 1807 first enter the enormous back kitchen, 26 feet long and dominated by a giant hearth. With the help of energetic tour guides who offer a master class on Whittier’s life and works, it’s easy to picture the young farm boy huddling around the glowing fire with his family during the childhood blizzard that inspired “Snow-Bound’’ or the disheveled teenager, fresh from working in the fields, listening to the entreaties of famed abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, who had first published Whittier’s verses in a Newburyport newspaper.
Whittier needed little convincing, however. He preferred pens that inked lyrical verses, not those that corraled pigs. The volume of poems by Robert Burns that captivated Whittier as a schoolboy is on display in the birthplace as is the poet’s bassinet, writing desk, and boyhood beaver hat. In fact, most of the items inside the Whittier Birthplace have a direct connection to the poet. “Nine out of 10 pieces of furniture are pieces from when Whittier lived here, so this is a special museum,’’ says curator Gus Reusch.
After viewing the house, visitors can take a self-guided walking tour around the idyllic 69-acre property, including the rippling brook, barn, and other landmarks depicted in Whittier’s stanzas.
In 1836, the poet sold the farm and moved with his mother, sister, and aunt to Amesbury. Today, the large white clapboard Whittier Home, in which the poet lived until his death in 1892, bears little resemblance to the four-room, one-story cottage that he bought for $1,200.
The house grew along with Whittier’s fame and bank account. After the Civil War, it was here that Whittier penned “Snow-Bound,’’ and its commercial success in 1866 literally changed his fortunes. “He went from a poor Quaker to a very rich man,’’ Reusch says.
