The showman PT Barnum was stopped from doing so when Charles Dickens and other British men formed what is now the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and bought the house to keep it in place as a national treasure.
Barnum visited Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England, in 1844 while he was touring Europe with his show, seen by 400,000 people a year, 'Coventry Telegraph' reported.
"Barnum and Shakespeare had a lot in common. They were both entertainers and astute businessmen," said Dr Paul Edmondson, head of research of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
"One of those was Charles Dickens. They bought it in 1847 at public auction for 3,000 pounds as they knew they had to preserve this extraordinary building," he said.
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"Americans appreciate the immortal Bard of Avon as keenly as do their brethren in the Mother Country (a Mother of whom we are all justly proud) and I greatly desired to honour the New World by erecting this invaluable relic in its commercial metropolis," Barnum wrote in his memoirs.
"A price was agreed but then some English gentlemen got wind of the transaction and bought the house," Barnum wrote.