From The Twainian Volume 7 Number 6 (1948)
REAL-ESTATE LEAFLET DESCRIBES STORMFIELD
Among the minor items that should be entered on the “want list” of Twain collectors is a four-page leaflet (n.p., n.d.) in which the Twain home at Redding, Connecticut, is offered for sale, The leaflet is 8 ½ inches in depth by 5 ½ inches in width. It is printed on cream-colored Duchess Bond, with small photo of the home lightly pasted, top of first page, with legend, “Mr. Clemens’ Favorite View of his Home,”
In large type beneath photo the following title in green ink appears:
MARK TWAIN’S HOME
“STORMFIELD”
with its 248 acres at Redding, Conn.
FOR SALE
Beneath this title, in small type, black ink, are two extracts quoted from writings (or letters) by W. D. Howells and Albert Bigelow Paine, descriptive of the home.
Pages two and four are blank, but on the third page there appears what is, to my knowledge, the only complete detailed description of “Stormfield” that has ever appeared in print. The description follows:
STORMFIELD consists of 248 acres of finely located land: — hilltop, meadow, pasture and woodland.— large acreage suitable for cultivation. There are two fine brooks, one flowing through a deep gorge; both brooks contain trout, and one of them is famous as a trout breeding place. Beautiful views in every direction. Too much cannot be said of the charm and picturesqueness of this estate.
Stormfield is sixty miles from New York City, and three and one-half miles from Redding station. The road to it is excellent.
The house has eighteen rooms, with five bath-rooms, large loggia, five closets and butler’s pantry. The rooms downstairs are: living room, 20x40; dining room, 18x22; billiard room, 20x20; owner’s office, kitchen, laundry, servants’ dining room, butler’s pantry, telephone closet, billiard-lavatory and toilet, and various closets, etc.; also the large loggia, open in summer closed with windows for sun parlor in winter.
The rooms upstairs are: loggia bed-room, 18x22, with sleeping balcony; six other large bed-rooms for owner and guests, with four bath-rooms; also four servants’ bed-rooms, with bath-room; large attic, many closets, etc.
The heat is supplied by a large Richardson & Boynton steam plant, with hot water generator attached. The house is very warmly built, and the steam plant is never required to work up to anything like its full capacity. The light is supplied by an acetylene lighting plant with 100 lights, and is capable of supplying 200 lights.
The water is supplied from a spring of the purest quality, is never failing, and has a steady flow of 4,000 gallons per day. It is forced to the house from a stone and cement reservoir holding 8,000 gallons, by a No. 8 Rider-Ericcson engine. Two copper tanks of 1,000 gallons each, in the attic, give the direct pressure and supply.
There is a modern model ice-house with a capacity of 100 tons. The combination barn and garage is 20x50 feet, with a loft for hay.
Somewhere, in an issue of The Twainian published in 1940, I mentioned that, when Stormfleld was destroyed by fire in 1923, a friend, then living in Redding, sent me a small 3x5 red tile that he had removed from the floor of “the bathroom” on the second floor of Stormfeld the day following the fire. My friend and I were a bit economical in providing only one bathroom for the occupants of the bedrooms on the second floor. According to the leaflet there were at least seven bedrooms for owner and guests, with five bathrooms, as well as one provided for the servants. But the value of the tile on my desk has not lessened in the least in my eyes because of the uncertainty as to whether it came from the floor of Mark’s bathroom or that of the servants. Stormfield was Twain's final earthly home.