Stormfield

Stormfield was the mansion built in Redding, Connecticut for author Samuel Clemens, best known as Mark Twain, who lived there from 1908 until his death in 1910.

[4] Construction began in 1907; the project was nearly abandoned later that year due to cost and Twain's misgivings about Redding's relative isolation, but the younger Howells convinced him that he would suffer a financial loss on work already underway.

[5] The house was completed in June 1908,[1] built on elevated land known at the time as Birch Spray Hill on the west bank of the Saugatuck River.

[7] Howells designed the interior ground floor to include a central dining room, opening onto garden terraces and a fountain.

He helped set off fireworks to commemorate Twain's arrival, describing a scene in which "sticks from the rockets fell in the pastures and sent the cattle and horses tearing around the fields.

"[13] In his leisure time at Stormfield, Twain enjoyed playing billiards and the card game hearts, reading, writing, smoking, and strolling the grounds.

[1] As a host, he was "dignified, courteous, and prodigal in his hospitality," Beard wrote, "possessing all of the admirable characteristics of the best type of the old-fashioned Southern gentleman.

[1] Twain had given a farmhouse on property that he called the Lobster Pot to his secretary, household manager and social companion Isabel Lyon as a Christmas present in 1907.

[1] Clara Clemens Gabrilowitsch gave birth at Stormfield to daughter Nina on August 19, 1910 who was Twain's last descendant;[21] she died in 1966.

Over the years, the Town of Redding spent some $575,000 to acquire more than 160 acres of the original Stormfield property, which today is maintained as a preserve including 4 miles of hiking trails open to the public.