James Merrill House Receives Honor Of National Historic Landmark

STONINGTON, CT – The James Merrill House has been designated a National Historic Landmark by the Secretary of the Interior in recognition of the property’s national significance in the history of the United States. The house is located at 107 Water Street in Stonington Borough, according to a release.

Author and poet, James Merrill, purchased the Water Street property in the 1950’s and converted the upper floors to a residence while the street level remained commercial. (To sign up for Stonington/Mystic breaking news alerts and more, click here.)

It was in this location that he created many of the poems that earned him the Pulitzer Prize in 1977, an election as Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1978, and an appointment as the first Poet Laureate of the state of Connecticut in 1986.

“National Landmark Historic Status places the Merrill House in significance with the Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer House as far as our local history is concerned," Stonington First Selectman Rob Simmons said in a release, "and I hope Jimmy would be flattered by this honor.”

Simmons knew Merrill while spending summers in Stonington in his youth.

While Merrill owned properties in New York City, Key West, Florida and Greece, it was his Stonington home that was most important in his life. After Merrill’s death in 1995, the Stonington Village Improvement Association converted the house into a place for writers to live and work for up to five months surrounded by many of Merrill’s original furnishings and books.

“The Merrill House Committee and the Village Improvement Association were delighted that the Department of Interior cited us as a living museum," Merrill House Committee Member Geoffrey Little said in a release, "in which poets and writers live in the apartment with the furniture, books and the art just the way James left it.”

Under the Historic Sites Act of 1935, the Secretary of the Interior enrolled the James Merrill House in Stonington Connecticut as a national Historic Landmark. This enrollment is considered “a designation that reflects the recognition of this property as an irreplaceable part of our nation’s heritage.”

The public will be invited on June 4 to a celebration of the designation of the Merrill House as a national historical landmark. The event will include poetry readings and invited speakers.

Details on the celebration will be soon released. For additional information, call the Merrill House at 860-535-4112.

Image via Shutterstock.