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.
61 Russian Village Road, Southbury
- Alatas Print Shop & Grebenstchikoff Cottage
- Private Residence
- George Grebenstchikoff
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Grebenstschikoff's cottage and the Alatas Print Shop building were on this property.
- Description of Significance/Historical Narrative
- Russian Village, or Churaevka, as it is known to its inhabitants, was established as a summer retreat for Russian refugees who fled from Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Not simply an ethnic neighborhood transplanted to a country setting, the village was created by two Russian writers, Count Ilya Tolstoy, the son of Count Leo Tolstoy, the famous novelist, and George Grebenstchikoff. Though Tolstoy was the first to discover the area when he was visiting a translator for one of his books, Grebenstchikoff had the vision of a cultural community for Russian writers and artists.
- Date of Construction
- c. 1930
- Historic Designation(s)
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- National Register District