The Perkins
Thomas Clap Perkins (1798-1870) & Mary Beecher Perkins (1805-1900)
Lawyer Thomas Clap Perkins married teacher Mary Beecher in 1827. The couple had four children, and one of their granddaughters was author Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Mary, known as the “quiet” Beecher sister, was not a public activist like her siblings. Her letters, though, reveal a witty, articulate observer of her times.
The Perkins were among the first residents of Nook Farm. They lived in their first home on the south side of Hawthorn Street from 1855 to 1866. This home was across from the home of Mary’s sister Isabella Beecher Hooker. The architect was Octavius Jordon. When the Perkins moved into a house on nearby Woodland Street, Charles Dudley and Susan Warner moved in and lived here from 1866-1884. As the family home of Dr. Thomas and feminist Katharine Houghton Hepburn from 1908 to 1917, it was the childhood home of actor Katharine Hepburn.