K_\C`kZ_]`\c[:flekpjZ\e\18ggc\jXe[g\Xij XkDXiYc\MXcc\p=Xid2k_\gi`jk`e\nXk\ij f]CXb\NXiXdXl^2jZlcgkfiDXibD\ee`e% EFKKFF=8I=IFD?FD< ?fnZXeXgcXZ\aljkknf_flij]ifdDXe_XkkXe#gXZb\[n`k_gfn\iYifb\ij#jkXpjfj\i\e\6Jk\cc\e\MfcXe[\j [`jZfm\ijk_\j\Zi\kjf]k_\j`dgc\c`]\`eC`kZ_Ô\c[:flekp#:fee\Zk`Zlk%G?FKF>I8G?J9P8E;I<8=8QQ8I@ C`kZ_]`\c[:flekpËjjdXcc$kfneZ_Xid`j XZZ\ek\[Yp`kjj_fgj#j\cc`e^XiZ_`k\ZkliXc Xek`hl\jXe[`ek\ieXk`feXc]`e[j#Xe[`kj n\cc$j\kXe[j\Xk\[ [`ee\ikXYc\j% 112 Fe\f]k_i\\DXiZ\c9i\l\i_flj\j`eC`kZ_]`\c[ Zfdd`jj`fe\[YpIl]ljXe[C\jc`\Jk`ccdXe2 9i\l\iXcjf[\j`^e\[C`kZ_]`\c[?`^_JZ_ffc% e are going there to hide.” cupies the northwest corner of Connecticut. The landscape is sto- The e-mail response— rybook New England, with rolling hills, endless woodlands, green from a New York art world fields, and streams. It’s just about two and a half hours by car from heavyweight about his de ci- Manhattan, almost three from Boston. The most recent U.S. census sion to buy a home in Litch- marks the area as the least densely populated in Connecticut. But field County, Connecticut— those are just numbers. The Litchfield list of names tells a different was de cidedly curt. And yet a story. They’re not movie stars (for the most part) or party girls, but theme emerged. Samantha Gregory, vice president of global com- the county is undeniably packed with what used to be known as munications for Tory Burch and an infinitely more forthcom- men and women of substance: Diane von Furstenberg is in New ing Litchfield County habitué, Milford, Philip Roth in War- nde scribes a typical weekend at ren, Graydon Carter in Rox- her home in the town of New bury, Jasper Johns in Sharon, Preston: “We [her husband is Henry Kissinger, Anne Bass, Weeds executive producer Ro- Agnes Gund, and Oscar de la berto Benabib] leave Manhat- Renta in Kent, Danny Meyer tan at about 5:30 p.m. on Fri- and Joan Rivers in Washing- day. We stop at G. W. Tavern in ton, Meryl Streep in Salisbury. Washington Depot, where the So just how did this owners always save us a booth. 920-square-mile stretch of Saturday we get breakfast at Con necticut with such a Marty’s coffee shop. Then we’ll high-powered citizenship and walk around Lake Waramaug, close proximity to Manhattan stop by the Pantry for take- become the red-hot center of out, go back home and read the simple life? by the fire. Every Saturday at This is a place where 7:30 we go to Oliva restaurant George Malkemus, the pres- and I order the Gorgonzola– ident of Manolo Blahnik, and–caramelized onion pizza. breeds prizewinning cattle at Sunday morning we are back his Arethusa Farm in Litch- at Marty’s, then maybe the field. New York investor Hickory Stick Bookshop, or Terry Fitzgerald and his wife, the Smithy market for organic Libby, raise all-natural Black vegetables and a pie, then home Angus beef at their Greyledge again. My favorite part? If we Farm in Bridgewater. People don’t want to talk to anyone JXdXek_X>i\^fipXe[IfY\ikf get their coffee at Marty’s in at any of these places, we don’t 9\eXY`YXk_fd\`eE\nGi\jkfe% Washington Depot or Nine have to. Don’t have to socialize J`kk`e^j\[`kfi1N\e[p>ff[dXe% Main in New Preston. The at all, in fact, and it’s absolutely 96-year-old Goshen Fair— okay. Everyone here is on the garden tractor pull at 10 a.m.! same page.” Writer Celia McGee has been weekending in Gos- Rabbit judging at 12! Woodcutting demonstration at 5!—is a hen for nearly 25 years and describes the Litchfield scene as one mainstay of the summer calendar. And the hot list to be on is that would “probably horrify the professional social climbers, Marble Valley Farm’s weekly e-mail update of what’s in season name-droppers, and partygoers in the Hamptons.” (“the organic blueberries are here!”), recipes included. “Discretion,” advises decorator and architect Robert Couturier from his home in Kent, “is very important here.” Interior designer he secret behind Litchfield County’s bucolic preservation Alexandra Champalimaud (who has a historic home in the town is equal parts natural selection and concerted effort. Lo- of Litchfield and a lake house in Kent) puts it this way: “Any- cals point to George Black’s book The Trout Pool Paradox: È=I@<E;JN?FM@J@K#ÉJ8PJ thing—or anyone—that is too loud won’t last long in Litchfield.” K The American Lives of Three Rivers as a solid illustration of ;8E@J?8G@IF#ÈCFFB8IFLE;8E;8JB# The county of Litchfield includes 26 towns (places like Wash- the phenomenon. Black tracks the fates of two tributaries of the ington, Kent, New Preston, Warren, and West Cornwall) and oc- Housatonic River. The Shepaug, which flows south through the ÊN?8K;FPFL8CC;FLG?<I<6ËÈ 114 Litchfield towns of Washington and Roxbury, remained pristine— no longer create large installations or make the noise required to “the Platonic ideal of a trout stream”—while the Naugatuck, blast through eight tons of stone while working in the greater which flows through the industrial town of Waterbury, became metropolitan area. “Now I have a big house, a barn studio, and all a “chemical sewer.” Black credits Litchfield’s salvation in part to the tree insulation I need,” says Mennin, who still keeps a work- the influence of men like 19th-century iron baron Alexander Ly- space in Chelsea Market and teaches once a week at the New man Holley, a Salisbury resident who worked to halt the spread of York Academy of Art. “There’s such a nice transition between industry in his hometown and one of a long line of Housatonic life and work here. My pieces sit out back next to my daughter’s Valley conservationists, and to the flood of 1955, caused by hurri- dollhouse and my son’s Ping-Pong table.” canes Connie and Diane. Eliot Wadsworth, owner of White Flower Mennin and Shapiro are part of Litchfield’s growing “expat” Farm and cofounder of the Litchfield Hills Greenprint project, community, a group of young bankers, writers, artists, and architects which has created an online map that highlights local areas ripe who left New York or who grew up weekending in Litchfield for conservation, explains, “The theory is that the flood wiped out County before deciding they wanted to be there full-time. “It’s not whatever railroad lines we had in the county, which was bad for just about antiquing on the weekend anymore; people live real lives business but great for the natural scenery. We escaped industrializa- here,” says Shapiro. She and her husband, screenwriter Michael Mar- tion. The landscape here got sort of frozen in amber after that.” The en, looked in Sag Harbor, Long Island, but couldn’t see it as any- absence of a railroad created a splendid isolation that continues. thing besides a summer town; Westchester seemed too suburban. Getting to Litchfield County via public transportation is not easy: “The only person I knew here was sculptor Michael Steiner,” says The closest train stations are about 30 minutes away in Waterbury, Sha piro, “but once we decided on the house, it seemed like the whole Connecticut, or Brewster, New York. As Kent weekender An thony community was calling to let me know where to buy the good Champalimaud (son of Alexandra) explains, “It makes the area in- bread. My realtor, Carolyn Klemm, gave me a party that first sum- K_\dXep]XZ\jf]C`kZ_]`\c[:flekp#ZcfZbn`j\ ]ifdkfgc\]k18iZ_`k\Zk?Xifc[K`kkdXee2G`cXk\j accessible to those who are easily inconvenienced.” mer to introduce me to people. Where else would that happen?” `ejkilZkfiM`Zkfi`XJZ_ldXZ_\i2K\iip It also seems to make for a kind of creative Eden. Pilobolus Former magazine photo editor Kathryn McCarver Root visited Xe[C`YYp=`kq^\iXc[Ëj>i\pc\[^\=Xid`e Dance Theater works out of a space in Washington Depot, and her in-laws in Litchfield County for years. She and her family now 9i`[^\nXk\i2k\ok`c\[\j`^e\iAf_eIfYj_Xn% ÈK?<(0,,?LII@:8E<JN@G<;FLK K?<I8@CIF8;#8E;K?<C8E;J:8G<JFIK F=>FK=IFQ<E@E8D9<I8=K<IK?8K%É the Yale University School of Art holds its summer program on live in Roxbury, and she runs a photography gallery in Washing- the same Norfolk estate where the university hosts its Chamber ton Depot called KMR Arts. And Belgian-born architect Harold Music Festival. In the early eighties a New York furrier named Tittmann, who went to Kent School, moved into a self-designed Jacques Kaplan bought a house in Kent, decided it could be the house on 20 acres in Morris three years ago, after nearly ten years in art capital of Connecticut, and opened the Paris New York Kent NoLIta. Real estate broker Peter Klemm (son of Carolyn) says that Gallery. It closed in 2006 and Kaplan, a beloved figure, died last until recently, “you got no sense of young people here. Our buyer year, but the Kent Art Association is still going strong. The novel- profile then was, to be honest, blue hairs or older weekenders. Now ist Dani Shapiro moved to Litchfield County full-time six years the average age is around fortysomething.