Having already designed a house in Litchfield for Rufus Stillman in 1950, Marcel Breuer designed a second in 1965, this time working in collaboration with Herbert Beckhard. Breuer also designed factory buildings for Stillman’s company. Unlike that of its predecessor, the entry facade of Stillman House II presents the main view of the house, allowing me to take a more dramatic picture.
Next to Stillman House I, at the end of Beecher Lane in Litchfield, is another mid-century modern home called the Huvelle House. It was built in 1953 and designed by John Johansen on land land that had been split off from the neighboring Stillman property. Dr. C.H. Huvelle and his wife were the architect’s clients and a condition of Stillman’s land offer to them was that they build modern. Mrs. Huvelle continued to reside in the house until her death earlier this year.
In 1949, Rufus and Leslie Stillman became acquainted with the work of modern architect Marcel Breuer when they saw his “demonstration house” on display in the courtyard of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The couple hired him to design a modern house for their property at the end of Beecher Lane in Litchfield. The resulting structure, built in 1950 and today known as Stillman House I, brought mid-century modern style to a town town primarily associated with the Colonial Revival. The swimming pool Breuer designed for the house features a mural painted by the architect’s friend, the artist Alexander Calder. The Stillmans later lived in two other houses designed by Breuer, but eventually bought back and again lived in the original Stillman House. The above picture shows the house from the Beecher Lane side, which is not its most dramatic angle. For a more through look at the house, the Smithsonian Archives of American Art have a series of exterior and interior photographs of the house, taken when it was newly built.
The Celanese House, on Oenoeke Ridge Road in New Canaan, was commissioned by the the Celanese Corporation, a chemical manufacturer, as a showplace for their products. Built in 1959, the house was designed by Edward Durell Stone (corporation executives would only consider Stone or Frank Lloyd Wright for the commission). The house, screened by its distinctive latticework, is lit by twelve prominent pyramidal skylights. The building received national press attention when it was completed. After Celanease’s 1959 promotional campaign ended, this model house was sold as a private residence. In 1960, the house was purchased by Frederick Wilcox, an inventor. He died in 1996 and his wife, Velma Willcox, continued in residence until her death in 2005. Between 2006 and 2007, new owner Bruce Capra undertook an extensive restoration of the house, which was then put on the market.
The origins of the Hartford Seminary go back to the opening of the Theological Institute of Connecticut in 1834 in East Windsor Hill. Some houses in that neighborhood, where professors at the institute once lived, have survived, but the original seminary buildings have not. In 1865, the Institute moved to Hartford and in 1885 changed its name to the Hartford Theological Seminary. After occupying several old houses on Prospect Street, in the 1880s the Sminary moved to a campus on Broad Street, across from Hartford High School. In the 1920s, the Seminary moved to a new Gothic campus (now the UCONN Law School). In 1972, the Seminary changed from being a traditional residential divinity school and became an interdenominational theological center. It was decided to sell the old campus and construct a single building, designed by Richard Meier, a post-modern architect known for his use of the color white. The new structure was built between 1978 and 1981 and in the latter year the institution’s name was changed to Hartford Seminary. (more…)
The Irwin House is a mid-century Modern house, designed by Victor Christ-Janer and constructed by builder Robert Roles as a speculative house in 1953. Located on Wahackme Road in New Canaan, the house is named for its first owner, William A. Irwin, Jr., who purchased it in 1954. A fire in 1972 caused substantial damage to the house, but it was rebuilt following the original plans. Alterations were made in the 1980s to the house’s porches and balcony.
In 1959, Landis Gores designed a pool house (referred to as a cabana) in New Canaan for Jane Irwin, daughter of IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, and her husband, John Nichol Irwin II, a lawyer and ambassador to France. Completed in 1960, the Irwin Pool House is a Modernist structure with a symmetrical cruciform-shaped plan. In 2005, the Irwin family sold their estate, including the Pool House, to the town for use as a park. The pool was removed and the Pool House, now known as the Gores Pavillion, is being restored. It will be used as a center for the arts, to be called The Gores Pavilion for the Arts at Irwin Park.
