Woolson House Site

Sullivan Street

Empty Lot

Private-Not open to the public.

On this site stood a 2-story wood-frame house--the birthplace of Constance Fenimore Woolson. Built in 1834, this house was demolished in 1930 to make way for the 900+ seat Magnet Theater, which burned down in 1973. The lot has been empty since the theater burned.

Constance Fenimore Woolson was born here March 5, 1840 and within a few years the family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where Woolson grew up. Constance began writing at an early age and was educated in public and private schools, developing her writing. Her poems and stories of the Midwest, and later the South, were published in the leading magazines of the day.

In 1879 Woolson moved to Europe for the remainder of her life. In 1880 she had her first meeting with the American writer Henry James. She traveled around Europe and the Mediterranean writing and publishing her stories and developed a close, personal relationship with Henry James. Woolson moved to Venice in 1893 and the following January, while ill, fell from her apartment to her death. At her death Woolson was considered one of the top writers, out-selling and out-earning her friend Henry James.

Continue on Sullivan Street to the next building.