Monte Cristo Cottage

Monte Cristo Cottage (Eugene O'Neill Summer House)
Location 325 Pequot Avenue, New London, Connecticut
Coordinates 41°19′55″N 72°5′46.5″W / 41.33194°N 72.096250°W / 41.33194; -72.096250Coordinates: 41°19′55″N 72°5′46.5″W / 41.33194°N 72.096250°W / 41.33194; -72.096250
Built 1888
Architect Unknown
Architectural style Stick/eastlake, Queen Anne
NRHP Reference # 71001010
Significant dates
Added to NRHP July 17, 1971[1]
Designated NHL July 17, 1971[2]
2008

Monte Cristo Cottage, also known as Eugene O'Neill Summer House, was the summer home of acclaimed Irish-American actor James O'Neill, and of his family, notably his son (with his wife Ella O'Neill), the acclaimed Nobel prize-winning American playwright, Eugene O'Neill. A National Historic Landmark, it is located at 325 Pequot Avenue in New London, Connecticut.

History

In June 1884, the O'Neill family came to New London, Connecticut. James purchased two plots of land on Pequot Avenue for his wife Ella's 27th birthday.[3] The property included a cottage built in the 1840s, which O'Neill expanded. It is now a two-story house, three bays wide, with a porch that wraps across the front and around to the north side. A tower with pyramidal roof stands just beyond the porch on the north side. The house was the principal family residence during Eugene O'Neill's childhood.[4] As a child Eugene would spend much of the year traveling with his actor father as the latter toured from city to city, but the family would return to this cottage each summer. The cottage was named for the play in which his father starred (in touring productions) for many years. O'Neill probably wrote his first two plays here and it is the setting of his plays Ah, Wilderness! and Long Day's Journey into Night.[4] Long Day's Journey into Night particularly reflects members of his own family in the home: characters are unfulfilled, resentful, often emotionally harmful toward one another.[5]

Recent history

The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1971 for its association with O'Neill.[2][4]

Sign at the cottage

The house is owned and operated by the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center as a historic house museum, furnished to appear as it might have for the setting of Long Day's Journey into Night. The house also features exhibits about O'Neill's life and works, as well as artifacts and memorabilia.

See also

References

  1. ↑ National Park Service (2007-01-23). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 "Monte Cristo Cottage (Eugene O'Neill Summer House)". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved 2007-10-05.
  3. ↑ Black, Stephen A. Eugene O'Neill: Beyond Mourning and Tragedy. Yale University Press, 1999: 28. 0-300-07676-2
  4. 1 2 3 Edmund Preston (March 22, 1971). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Monte Cristo House / Eugene O'Neill House" (pdf). National Park Service.. Accompanying 1 photo, exterior, from 1971. (443 KB)
  5. ↑ Diggins, John Patrick. Eugene O'Neill's America: Desire Under Democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007: 30–31. ISBN 978-0-226-14880-9


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