118 Sunset Avenue Ray Stannard Baker House

1. 118 Sunset Avenue Ray Stannard Baker House Ray Stannard Baker is known for his work as a muckraking journalist, a Pulitzer-Prize 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.