Next door, The
Evergreens, occupied by Dickinson family heirs
until 1988, remained virtually unchanged for a hundred
years. In 1991, The Evergreens passed to a private
testamentary trust, the Martha Dickinson Bianchi Trust
(named in honor of Emily Dickinsons niece),
which began developing the house as a museum.
Collaborations between the Homestead
and The Evergreens began as the Martha Dickinson Bianchi
Trust prepared to open Austin Dickinsons house
to the public in the late 1990s. The success of these
joint efforts suggested that uniting as one museum
would have great advantages for the public as well
as for administration and governance of the sites.
Together the houses tell a more complete story about
the poet, her family, and the world in which she lived.
To that end, The Emily Dickinson Museum was created on July 1, 2003, when ownership of The Evergreens was transferred by the Martha Dickinson Bianchi Trust to Amherst College. The merger of the houses and the three acres on which they stand restored the parts of the property to the estate Dickinson herself had known and furthers the College's long-standing and complex associations with the Dickinson family and its stewardship of Emily Dickinsons poetry and other manuscripts.