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THE HOUSE
Preserving a National Landmark
Bequeathed to the SVIA at Merrill’s death in 1995, the building and Merrill’s apartment on the 3rd and 4th floors were designated a National Historic Landmark in 2016. Built in 1901, the building is in the center of the Borough. The streetscape commercial tenants—two of whom have been there 50 years and knew Merrill as their landlord and friend—and the second-floor rental apartments maintain their late Victorian façade and floor plans. The building remains much as Merrill left it and still conjures the poet’s aura.
Built in 1901
The 1901 James Merrill House is a late-Victorian commercial/residential block located on Water Street in Stonington Borough, a picturesque maritime village set on a narrow, 170-acre peninsula in the southeastern corner of Connecticut near the Rhode Island border. The eclectically styled, shingle-clad building
originally contained street-level retail space, second- floor clubrooms and third-floor living quarters.
Merrill's books and objects preserved
Take a brief tour of the house and learn more about the collection at 107 Water and at Washington University in St. Louis.