page_title: Arrowhead (Herman Melville House)
section_title: Museum
hierarchical_section_title: Arrowhead (Herman Melville House) / Museum
caption_attribution_description: English: Sign at Arrowhead, former home of Herman Melville in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
context_page_description: Arrowhead, also known as the Herman Melville House, is a historic house museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. It was the home of American author Herman Melville during his most productive years, 1850–1863. Here, Melville wrote some of his major work: the novels Moby-Dick, Pierre, The Confidence-Man, and Israel Potter; The Piazza Tales; and magazine stories such as "I and My Chimney".
  The house, located at 780 Holmes Road in Pittsfield, was built in the 1780s as a farmhouse and inn. It was adjacent to a property owned by Melville's uncle Thomas, where Melville had developed an attachment to the area through repeated visits. He purchased the property in 1850 with borrowed money and spent the next twelve years farming and writing there. Financial considerations prompted his family's return to New York City in 1863, and Melville sold the property to his brother.
  The house remained in private hands until 1975, when the Berkshire County Historical Society acquired the house and a portion of the original 160-acre property. The Society restored most of the house to Melville's period and operates it as a house museum; it is open to the public during warmer months.
context_section_description: The Historical Society, after acquiring the property, worked to restore it to the condition it was in Melville's time. Numerous interior alterations were undone, windows that had been changed were restored to their original size and configuration, and the piazza was restored.  The Society also restored the upstairs study in which Melville did his writing to its original state.
  Arrowhead is now a non-profit historic house museum operated by the Berkshire County Historical Society, which uses a portion of the house as office space. The remainder is open to the public for guided tours during the warmer months of the year. It is located at 780 Holmes Road, and is open from Memorial Day to Columbus Day.
caption: Sign at Arrowhead
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