BRUNSWICK – The house where Harriet Beecher Stowe lived when she penned “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is changing hands again.

Bowdoin College, where Stowe’s husband was a professor, plans to buy Harriet Beecher Stowe House and Inn. Pending town approval, the college would use the 55 motel rooms on the property for student housing.

The college was unsure what it would do with the main house, which was built in 1807. It has leased the rooms from the current owners but still would need town approval to turn the rooms into permanent dorm space.

A Bowdoin College spokesman declined to reveal the purchase price for the property. George Elwell of Topsham and Jim Koulovatos of Brunswick bid $865,000 for the property during a January 1999 auction.

Town records list the owner of the property as the Harriet Beecher Stowe House Inn LLC. The assessed value of the property is $1,654,000.

Stowe lived at the home for two unhappy years after her family moved to Maine from Cincinnati. Stowe and her husband, Calvin, moved to Maine after one of their seven children died from cholera.

“Uncle Tom’s Cabin” proved to be the most popular of more than 30 books Stowe wrote during her lifetime. The Stowe House was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1963 because of its ties to the book.