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.
154 Main Street, Farmington
- Maj. Gen. Solomon Cowles House
- Wilmarth & Annie Lewis House
- Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis
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Home and library of the Lewises; after their deaths it became a part of the Yale University Library system.
- Description of Significance/Historical Narrative
- The Cowles House, now Lewis Walpole Library, is a contributing resource to the Farmington Main Street Historic District. In the twentieth century, from the 1930s through the 1970s, it was home to Annie Burr Auchincloss Lewis (1902-1959) and Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis (1895-1979), who collected materials by and about Horace Walpole (1717-1797), British writer, antiquarian and politician. Wilmarth S. Lewis, born in Alameda, California, attended the Thatcher School and graduated from Yale University in 1918. Lewis acquired books, manuscripts, and prints as well as graphic and decorative arts in a quest to gather information about Horace Walpole, his house at Strawberry Hill in Twickenham, his interests, and his friends and contemporaries. Lewis spent nearly half a century editing Walpole’s correspondence. Fully indexed and annotated, The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence is 48 volumes and a remarkable accomplishment. In 1928 Lewis married Annie Burr Auchincloss, who was born in Newport, R.I., and a 1920 graduate of Miss Porter’s School in Farmington. As an essential participant in the work of the collection, Mrs. Lewis served as the first curator of prints and was also active in support of historic preservation, perhaps most notably as Vice-Regent for Connecticut for the Mount Vernon Ladies Association. Aside from a few years spent in Washington during World War II, where Mrs. Lewis worked at the Red Cross and Mr. Lewis worked at the Office of Strategic Services, they lived at 154 Main Street in Farmington until their deaths. The house and collections were bequeathed to Yale University, which has maintained the library since 1980.
- Date of Construction
- 1784, additions 1920s, 2000s
- Historic Designation(s)
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- Local Historic District
- National Register District
- Historic Resource Inventoryfile_download