Home at various times to such authors as Ray Stannard Baker and Mary Heaton Vorse, the house at 219 Amity Street in Amherst is most associated with Eugene Field, a journalist and writer, best known for his children’s poetry and humorous essays. Field was born in St. Louis (where his birthplace house is now a museum), but after the death of his mother in 1856 he was raised by a cousin, Mary Field French, in the house on Amity Street in Amherst. The house was built in 1839 for by Robert Cutler for French’s father, Thomas Jones.