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Quarry farm %281%29 Quarry farm %282%29 Quarry farm %283%29 Quarry farm %284%29
Quarry FarmElmira, New York
The six-acre property known as the Quarry Farm was the summer home of Samuel Clemens and his family between 1870 and 1890. Built in 1869 by his father-in-law, Jervis Langdon, Clemens (also known as Mark Twain) wrote several of his most famous novels from an octagonal study perched atop a former slate quarry on the property. Jervis Langdon died in 1870, but the farm remained in the family until the early 1980s, passing through several generations and serving as a gentleman’s farm, a dairy, a suburban home, and lastly as a businessmen’s retreat. In 1983, Elmira College acquired the property, including six acres, the farmhouse, barn, and small outbuilding, and proceeded to transform the property into an academic center for Mark Twain scholars.

Preservation of the buildings and land were central to this transformation, beginning with the development of an Historic Structure Report for the farmhouse, completed in 2019 by Johnson-Schmidt Architects. In 2021, the college engaged Martha Lyon Landscape Architecture, LLC (MLLA) to prepare a complementary study of the grounds, a Cultural Landscape Report (CLR). MLLA researched and documented the physical changes to the land, from its earliest days of human habitation to the present; established a period of significance; and assessed landscape conditions today. The report culminated in a treatment plan that will help guide the college in its effort to preserve the landscape so that it more closely reflects the period associated with Clemens and his family.

  • profile
    • introduction
    • awards
    • publications
    • partners
    • contact
  • portfolio
    • gather
      • provincetown public library
      • saratoga race course
      • lopes square
      • town green
      • stevens estate at osgood hill
      • northampton state hospital memorial park
      • spencer trask memorial & spirit of life
      • joseph simes house
      • Justice Edward Gourdin Veterans' Memorial Park
      • Asa Parlin House
      • Valentine Whitman House
    • stroll
      • fort allen park
      • elizabeth park
      • stark park
      • roseland park
      • greenwich parks
      • north park
      • smith academy park
      • binney park
      • Miantonomi Park
    • learn
      • emily dickinson museum
      • bellamy-ferriday house
      • oren sanborn house
      • faulkner homestead
      • wellfleet historical society & museum
      • hull family farm & homestead
      • roxbury heritage state park
      • Seward House Museum
      • Quarry Farm
      • Arlington Historic Resource Survey
      • Ten Broeck Mansion
    • remember
      • chapel cemetery
      • sleepy hollow cemetery
      • winthrop street cemetery
      • valley cemetery
      • grace church cemetery
      • wilbraham cemeteries
      • church on the hill burying ground
      • bridge street cemetery
      • charter street cemetery
      • ipswich old north burying ground
      • longmeadow cemetery
      • Proctor's Ledge Memorial
      • Mount Hope Cemetery
      • Jacob Cousins Memorial
      • Waterbury Riverside Cemetery
      • Greenlawn Cemetery
      • Evergreen Cemetery
      • God’s Little Acre
      • Sunderland Riverside Cemetery
      • Sand Banks/Catholic Mount Auburn Cemetery
    • imagine
      • town of holden, MA
      • town of amherst, NH
      • downtown medfield, MA
      • town of amherst, MA
      • city of fall river, MA
      • town of kittery, ME
      • town of milton, MA
      • town of northfield, MA
      • Town of Medfield, MA
      • Town of Derry, NH

martha lyon landscape architecture, llc