With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
Winchell Smith
Theatre/Dance/Film, Drama
1871 – 1933
Early 20th-century playwright, best known for his most successful productions, Brewster’s Millions (1906) and Lightnin’ (1918).
- Biography/Description of Work
Smith was a Hartford native and the nephew of William Gillette, the actor, playwright, and stage manager famous for his stage portrayal of Sherlock Holmes, in whose company Smith began his acting career. After achieving both critical acclaim and financial success during the 1910s, Smith went into semi-retirement in 1920. He took up residence in Farmington, where he had built a mansion, Millstream, in 1917, and pursued the peculiar hobby of grain milling. Inspired by the then popular whole foods movement, Smith purchased an early 18th-century flour mill located along the Farmington River and began milling whole grain wheat, rye, and buckwheat that was sold to Hartford bakeries. Smith also convinced filmmaker D.W. Griffith to shoot ‘Way Down East ‘(1920), starring Lillian Gish, at the site of the mill. In 1923, he created a company to expand upon his milling operations and built a concrete flour mill and grain elevator on Farmington Avenue not far from his home. He hoped that the business might support future construction of theatres and a role as film producer, but it folded in 1931.
- Sources view
- Wikipedia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchell_Smith Connecticut Trust Historic Mills of Conntecticut. Record # 2930. Hartford Courant. http://articles.courant.com/2005-05-01/business/0505010248_1_housing-market-sets-area-record-mansion
- Associated Resource(s)