monte cristo cottage
Boyhood Home of Playwright Eugene O'Neill
Dates & Hours of Operation
Monte Cristo Cottage is currently closed.
Address
325 Pequot Avenue
New London, CT 06320
Admission Pricing
Adults: $10
Students/O'Neill Members: $5
Situated in New London, Connecticut, the Monte Cristo Cottage is the boyhood summer home of Eugene O'Neill, America's only Nobel Prize-winning playwright. The 1840s cottage is named in honor of Eugene O’Neill’s father, the actor James O’Neill, and his most popular role as Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte Cristo.
Registered as a National Historic Landmark in 1971, the Cottage is the setting for two of O’Neill’s most notable works, Long Day's Journey Into Night and Ah, Wilderness!. Currently the Cottage operates as a museum featuring a permanent exhibition on the life and works of Eugene O’Neill and an extensive collection of artifacts and memorabilia.
Curators emeritus Sally Pavetti and Lois McDonald began coordinating the restoration and furnishing of the Cottage in 1972, based on research and careful reading of O'Neill's works, and it first opened to the public in 1982. The Cottage was expanded in the spring of 2005, and now reflects the setting of Eugene O'Neill's autobiographical masterpiece Long Day's Journey Into Night as described by the dramatist in his set directions and depicted in his sketch for the play. Very few other literary landmarks are as evocative of a writer and his inner world.
For information, advanced tour reservations, or to volunteer at the Cottage, contact theaterlives@theoneill.org.
additional resources
A comprehensive guide to the life and works of Eugene O’Neill, including a search engine, audio archive, and guide to upcoming O’Neill productions.
A visitor's experience at the National Historic Landmark.
A two-part series on all the ways O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night continues to haunt America and the role that the Monte Cristo Cottage plays in understanding it.
A behind-the-scene's look at Long Day's Journey Into Night staged in the house that inspired it.
"The Genius of O'Neill": An Essay by Tony Kushner
He wrote his best play last, but it’s a mistake to think of the rest of the playwright’s thorny, ambitious, stammeringly poetic work as simply a warmup for Long Day’s Journey Into Night.
A look at the life of Eugene O'Neill called Eugene O’Neill: A Glory of Ghosts through PBS' American Masters series.
Exploring his 'dark current of plays,' this article reviews the work of Eugene O’Neill.
The Louis Sheaffer-Eugene O'Neill Collection
The Sheaffer-O'Neill collection, located at Connecticut College in New London, CT, is an archive of the life and works of Eugene O'Neill formed by author Louis Sheaffer.
The Monte Cristo Cottage is an Author Home Affiliate of the American Writers Museum
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