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After Samuel Clemens' investment in a printing press and subsequent bankruptcy, the Clemenses wandered Europe to raise money through a speaking tour. His daughter back home died, and the family sold the house when they returned since they couldn't bear to live with the reminders of sorrow. For years, then, the house passed through different hands and eventually wound up as apartments. The house is now undergoing what seems like it must be constant restoration. When the preservationists secured it, they stripped away layers and layers of wallpaper and paint, rearranged walls, and studied old accounts and photos. The intricate stenciling and stained glass throughout were designed by Louis Tiffany's firm, who was a celebrated interior designer before he became well known in the glass field. The nursery wallpaper was traced to a company in England that offered to reproduce a batch of the obsolete design. The historians know there were seven toilets in the house because of a plumbing bill, but they've left them out, because there's no indication of what kind they were. If you plan on becoming famous, for heaven's sake, WRITE DOWN YOUR TOILET BRANDS!!!
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