Dr. John Bagg Griggs was a general practitioner in Farmington, from 1897 to 1899 living with his wife, Mary Ellen Bolter, at 41 Main Street, where their son, Dr. John Bolter Griggs, was born. After next living at 101 Main Street, they moved to Stamford in 1903. After his first wife died in 1905, Dr. Griggs married again and moved with his wife, Valina D. Griggs, to Hartford in 1907. Dr. Griggs practiced as an internist until 1917 and was involved in the first X-ray laboratory in the city, established at Hartford Hospital in 1910 under the leadership of Dr. Arthur Heublein. Completed in 1918, the Griggs residence at 1380 Asylum Avenue in Hartford was designed by architect Edward Thomas Hapgood.
By 1996 the house had been owned by the State of Connecticut for nearly fifty years. Once used as offices but then left vacant and considered to be “surplus property,” the house was bought at auction by Peter and Diane Valin, who lovingly restored the much deteriorated house to once again become a grand West End residence.
The late Cornelius B. Erwin, of the Russell & Erwin Mfg. Co., left a large sum in the hands of the committee of the Congregational Church, of which he was a member, for the purpose of having a building put up which should be an actual home for such beneficiaries as the committee should approve, saying in his will: — “it being my object in establishing said Home to aid the really worthy and deserving poor, and not to encourage those who neither are, nor desire to be self-supporting.” The architects have endeavored to carry out as closely as possible the desires of Mr. Erwin, and, instead of planning a large high structure having the appearance of an asylum, a low, rambling cluster of cottages has been arranged for, all under one roof, yet each little portion retaining its individuality.
The Domestic English style of architecture was selected as being the one best adapted for giving the desired picturesqueness and homelikeness so attractive to destitute and homeless women. [. . . .] It will be seen that the key-note of the whole design is the furnishiug of independent homes for worthy and indigent women. It is well-known that many poor but respectable people have a strong prejudice, even horror of anything which is suggestive of surveillance or a binding down to rules in an institution.
The building which now serves as Simsbury’s third Town Hall was built in 1907 as Simsbury High School. The building’s design, by Edward Hapgood of Hartford, is believed to follow that of Homerton College, Cambridge University. When the high school, moved to a new building in the 1960s, the old building became Horace Belden Elementary School. It was renovated in 1993-1994 to become Simsbury Town Hall.
Millstreams is a mansion in Farmington, built in 1917 for the playwright Winchell Smith. Born in West Hartford and a graduate of Hartford Public High School, Smith was also an actor and director. He got his start in the theater company of his uncle, William Gillette, but became most known for his plays, many of which were written in collaboration with others, including Lightnin’ (1918), written with Frank Bacon, which ran for 1,291 performances. He also persuaded D.W. Griffith to film scenes from the film Way Down East, written and produced by Smith and starring Lilian Gish, in Farmington. Smith’s property in Farmington once included the old grist mill, which appears in the film, and the Gridley and Case Cottages, now owned by the Farmington Historical Society. Smith was fascinated by the Tunxis Indians and in his younger days had enjoyed camping near the Farmington River. His house was later built on Indian Neck, along a bend of the Farmington River, where it joins the Pequabuck River. Initial designs for the house were prepared by Edward T. Hapgood and completed by Cortland F. Luce after the architect’s death. At first, Smith called his estate “Lambs Gate,” because he had purchased and erected at his home the gates which had stood for many years at the entrance of the Lambs Club in New York City. Because another home in Farmington had recently been named “Old Gate,” Smith changed the name of his home to “Millstream Manor.” Smith, who died in 1933, is buried, near his home, in Riverside Cemetery. The house, surrounded by almost five acres of grounds and gardens, has recently been for sale.