Amherst Writers’ Walk
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118 Sunset Avenue
Ray Stannard Baker House
Ray Stannard Baker is known for his work as a muckraking journalist, a PulitzerPrize winning biographer of Woodrow Wilson, and as the author of books about rural
life written under the penname David Grayson. Baker came to Amherst in 1910 and
lived here for the rest of his life, in a home designed in the Arts and Crafts style .
Amherst Writers’ Walk
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43 Sunset Avenue
Robert Frost House
Built in 1875 for the Massachusetts Agricultural College President Henry Hill
Goodell, this traditional Stick Style house was the residence of one of America’s best
know poets, Robert Frost, in the years between 1932 and 1938. Robert Frost came to
lecture English and Composition at Amherst College and wrote many of his poems,
which are characterized by New England idioms and settings, here in Amherst.
Amherst Writers’ Walk
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219 Amity St.
Mary Heaton Vorse House
Mary Heaton Vorse was an author, radical journalist, militant liberal and labor
activist, who spent her childhood summers in Amherst. News of the poor working
conditions behind the 1912 Lawrence textile strike struck Vorse so profoundly; she
resolved to travel to Lawrence to cover the story herself. Thereafter, Vorse actively
participated, helped to organize and documented the labor movement.
Amherst Writers’ Walk
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219 Amity St.
Eugene Field House
In the late 1800s, Eugene Field was known as America's "Children's Poet." His most
famous lullaby is "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod,” which was turned into a Disney
animated short film in the 1930s. Field spent his childhood in Amherst, where he
wrote his first poem at age nine about a dog named Fido. Field made a living as a
journalist working for the Chicago Morning News. The UMass dormitory, Field Hall,
is named after Eugene Field.
Amherst Writers’ Walk
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48 Main St.
Noah Webster House
In 1812 Noah Webster, famous educator, lexicographer and co-founder of Amherst
College, purchased a half-built house on 48 Main Street and lived here until 1822.
Later it was converted into a Hotel and conducted by Russell Cooley until 1932.
Unfortunately the house on Main Street was destroyed by a fire in 1838. Today the
Lincoln Building is located where Webster’s House once stood.
Amherst Writers’ Walk
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The Lord Jeffery Inn
30 Boltwood Ave.
Shirley Graham Du Bois
Shirley Graham Du Bois' commercial success as a writer came from a series of
historical biographies for African American children. She directed the African
American division of the Chicago unit of the Federal Theatre Project in 1936, and
she was employed as the field secretary of the New York branch of the NAACP
from 1942-1944. She married W. E. B. Du Bois in 1951 and donated his papers to
UMass in 1973 and taught creative writing there in 1975.
Amherst Writers’ Walk
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55 Kellog St.
Norton Juster House
Norton Juster is an architect and writer of nonfiction as well as children’s books, his
most famous being The Phantom Tollbooth written in 1961. Juster was a Fulbright
scholar, and did his graduate work at the University of Liverpool. He began teaching
architecture at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1970 and became an
Emeritus Professor of Design in 1992.
Amherst Writers’ Walk
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90 Spring St.
Mabel Loomis Todd House
Mabel Loomis Todd was an editor, lecturer and author, who moved to Amherst in 1881.
As a family friend of the Dickinson family, Todd was the first editor and author of
Emily Dickinson’s literary work, publishing the first three volumes of Dickinson’s
poetry and a volume of Dickinson’s personal letters. Todd was also instrumental in
creating the Amherst Historical Society.
Amherst Writers’ Walk
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97 Spring St.
Howard and Lilian Garis House
Howard and his wife Lilian (McNamara) Garis authored many beloved children’s
book series, including The Bobbsey Twins, Lilian’s Dorothy Dale, and Howard’s iconic
Uncle Wiggily stories. The Garises came to Amherst in 1951 and resided with their
son’s family in a Craftsman/Colonial Revival style home called “The Dell”. The
couple remained in Amherst until their deaths, in 1962 and 1954 , respectively.
Amherst Writers’ Walk
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850 Belchertown Rd.
Charles A. Eastman House
As a child, Dr. Eastman lived in Canada, having fled there after the Sioux Indian
Uprising of 1862. Eastman earned his BA from Darthmouth College in 1887 and his
MD from Boston University in 1890. Eastman was involved in the development of the
Boy Scots and YMCA. Eastman’s first publications were magazine articles about his
childhood. He went on to write three books about Sioux life, and he was a staunch
lobbyist and activist for Native American civil rights.
Amherst Writers’ Walk
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170 Market Hill Rd.
Robert Francis House
In the summer of 1940 poet and essayist Robert Francis bought 1/2 acre of land
on Market Hill Road on which he built this house and called it “Fort Juniper“ in
honor of the infallibility of the common pasture juniper. Today the Robert Francis
Trust offers the house as residence to poets and writers seeking the quiet for their
work.
Amherst Writers’ Walk
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249 South Pleasant St.
Helen Hunt Jackson House
Helen Hunt Jackson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts and grew up in a Greek
Revival style home in town. Although she authored stories and books belonging to
several genres, Helen’s literary legacy is most defined by her writings that
champion social justice for Native Americans, most notably 1881’s A Century of
Dishonor and 1884’s Ramona.