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Posted by: chris Jan 8 2008, 08:07 PM

With a friend of mine I have a great discusssionthis afternoon about the House of Marilyn and Arthur in Roxbury
We have pictures about the first house of Arthur in Roxbury (Old Trophet Road) with the pictures taken during the press conference on June 1956 but we can't find any picture of the second house ( 323 Trophet Road) ?
It's incredible to see that this house doesn't appear on Shaw's picture or another where !
Could you help us ?



and we find an another picture ( Roxbury 2) but we don't know what's house it was ?
and do you have a picture of Greene's Home on Weston ( not inside whe have them with the Tv Show Person to Person) but outside ?
Thanks
Chris

Posted by: chris Jan 9 2008, 08:58 PM

I'm just finding this picture on the book Timebends but...
Thanks to help me
Chris

Posted by: Mezzo Aug 18 2008, 04:43 AM

1957, I think.

Posted by: chris Aug 18 2008, 08:36 AM

This is the first one in Roxbury
Thanks
Chris

Posted by: Mezzo Aug 18 2008, 01:07 PM

Chris, I am sorry for my error. The date of the photograph, according to a 15 February 2005 New York Times article, is 1958. In this larger format, construction materials are seen in front of the home.

In Martin Gottfried's biography abour Arthur, he writes, "Early in 1958 they found the Connecticut property they had been looking for, an old farm with a mailing address of 323 Tophet Road, not far from Miller's old place." He goes on, stating that in 1958 Arthur, "...told Architectural Digest, dormer windows were being added and the roof was being raised to allow for an extra guest bedroom. As he [Arthur] wrote to his Irish pal, James Stern,
We've been remodeling the old Ray Leavenworth house which is...within view of the [Alexander and Louisa] Calders. I have a fine little studio [twelve feet by fourteen] apart from the house with a fireplace and an electric heater and windows all around."

I believe that with this documentation, we can safely say that the photo shows Arthur in front of 323 Tophet during the time that it was being remodeled.

This is a link to an aerial satellite view of the property today: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=323+tophet+road,+roxbury,+connecticut&rls=com.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7GWYF&um=1&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=image

Posted by: chris Aug 18 2008, 07:07 PM

I've this book and sorry but for me the picture is from the first home Look at the windows and to the roofIt's not the same than the second houseChrisYou can also read the description of the two houses on Timebends and ...ChrisThe first house with a picture and a date

Posted by: Mezzo Aug 18 2008, 10:09 PM

With all due respect, Chris, I urge you to look at photo #12 in the Arthur Miller gallery at the following link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/flash/photo/entertainment/2005-02-11_miller/index_frames.htm?startat=1&indexFile=entertainment_2005-02-11_miller[code][/code]
This photo shows Arthur Miller and Inge Morath in front of his Roxbury farm in 1975 (323 Tophet Road, which is the second home he owned on Tophet Road and the one purchased by Marilyn in 1958 after Arthur sold the other farm; he took sole possession of this home in their divorce.) I think you will see that the three large sliding doors in the 1975 photo are the same as those in the photo of Arthur in front of the house with construction materials in the yard. The front arched porch in the 1956 photos does not match the 1975 photo, and the 1956 photo shows the home extending to the right beyond the edge of the front porch. The 1975 photo matches the construction photo, with the posts for the porch ending at the edge of the building. I hope this helps.

Posted by: Nettie Aug 20 2008, 02:39 AM

Thank you Mary for that link. I love the Miller photos. Especially of MM and their home. Thanks. I must say, it saddens me so to see that life indeed does go on and Miller sits there all so happy with his new wife right at the home Marilyn bought for them. Kills me.

Posted by: Mezzo Aug 20 2008, 12:43 PM

You're welcome, Nereida. I wish that Marilyn had attained some enduring happiness in the house, and it also saddens me to see Arthur sitting there with Inge, big grins on their faces. It looks like a beautiful home. However, her giving it to Arthur is another example of Marilyn's generosity, and the fact that money and material possessions didn't mean anything to her.

Posted by: Mezzo Aug 20 2008, 08:35 PM

Okay, not to beat a dead horse, but I have found an error in the Roxbury address as it was published in the Gottfried biography of Arthur Miller. While Gottfried specifically states the home's address at 323 Tophet Road, upon doing a little research, I find that the address is 232. Could the first house, owned by Arthur Miller during his marriage to Mary Slattery, be at 323? I don't know. The two Miller farms have been described as being adjacent to one another. Arthur's death certificate and registration with the Democratic party list his address as 232 Tophet Road. Haspiel's 1991 book states that he was invited to Arthur's farm, located at Goldmine and Old Tophet Roads, (Roxbury #1) on June 29, 1956. He also indicates that in early 1957, Marilyn and Arthur bought 'the old Leavenworth farm' on School House Road in Roxbury (Roxbury #2.) Schoolhouse Road intersects with Tophet Road at 232 Tophet.

Posted by: Nettie Aug 26 2008, 02:18 AM

I am really interested in her homes, etc. I keep longing for more pictures of them.

Posted by: chris Aug 26 2008, 06:36 PM

It will be excellent if you can get more details about the 2 houses Maybe with picturesThanks Mezzo for the informationChrisDo you have picture with Arthur's death certificate and of a registration at a Democratic PartyThanksChris

Posted by: Mezzo Aug 26 2008, 08:39 PM

This is the only copy of AM's death certificate that I have seen; it is poor quality and small. It is available on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Arthur-Miller-DEATH-CERTIFICATE-of-Marilyn-Monroe-Hubby_W0QQitemZ150286875711QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20080824?IMSfp=TL0808241039r2551#ebayphotohosting

The following information is taken from http://www.accuracyproject.org/cbe-Miller,Arthur.html:
Arthur Miller was a Pulitzer Prize, multi-Tony and multi-Emmy award-winning American writer/playwright of Death of a Salesman and The Crucible fame. He was also the husband of iconic sex symbol Marilyn Monroe.

Biographical fast facts
Full or original name at birth: Arthur Asher Miller

Date, time and place of birth: October 17, 1915, at 5:12 a.m., at 45 West 110th Street, Apartment 6B, Harlem, New York City, New York, U.S.A.

Date, time, place and cause of death: February 10, 2005, at 9:17 p.m., at 232 Tophet Road, Roxbury, Connecticut, U.S.A. (Heart failure)



The following information is taken from the Amston listing of Professional Writers and Translators at http://www.looboo.com/list/US/CT/Amston/writer:
MILLER ARTHUR 232 TOPHET RD

Here is the information regarding AM's contribution to Democrats for America's Future, which was released by the Internal Revenue Service; it was found at projects.publicintegrity.org/527/handler-download.aspx?act=totcon&cycle=2004&id=208 - 101k - :
9558168 2004 20040401 20040630 Q2 215019 364525610 Democrats for America's Future Arthur Miller 232 Tophet Road Roxbury CT 06783 Information Requested from Contributor Information Requested from Contributor 250 250

If you google "Arthur Miller 232 Tophet Road" you should find the same information.

Posted by: chris Aug 27 2008, 11:36 AM

Many thanks
You are the best
Chris

Posted by: Mezzo Aug 27 2008, 12:29 PM

You're welcome. I'm glad we could figure it out.
I'm looking forward to seeing any pictures that Nettie is able to take in Connecticut. I find it very interesting to see what Marilyn was able to accomplish in her short life; the size of the Miller estate is surprising to me and the renovations to the home were considerable, I think.

I have also found some articles about their summer home rental in Amagansett on DansHamptons.com. Just google "DansHamptons Marilyn Monroe Arthur Miller," and you'll find bits of information about the two summers they spent there in the house on Hamlin Lane. For example, on July 18, 2008, he wrote, "That includes Marilyn Monroe, who spent two years married to and living with playwright Arthur Miller on Hamlin Lane in Amagansett..." I don't know if you're as interested in this, Chris, but I think it's fun to find and read these little gems.

Posted by: chris Aug 28 2008, 06:58 PM

Thanks Mary I'll have a look on internet for Amagansett

Chris

Posted by: Mezzo Aug 28 2008, 08:24 PM

Good luck.

Posted by: Nettie Aug 29 2008, 05:32 AM

I found these interesting to see.

Posted by: chris Sep 12 2008, 04:59 PM

Thanks for all the pictures
I hope that Nettie could get pictures of the Miller's property
For Amagansett I can't find picture of the house except one
Chris

Posted by: Mezzo Sep 13 2008, 06:26 AM

Chris, here's some info I found about the Amagansett rental:
"Soon after returning to the States, Monroe called her husband in a fit of desperation one day: "I want to live quietly in the country, Papa! I just want to be there when you need me. I just can't fight for myself any more," she cried. It was at this moment, according to his memoirs, that Miller realized how fragile his new wife truly was. Madly infatuated with the child-like siren, however, he acknowledged it all with devotion and an almost inflated sense of duty:

"I saw suddenly that I was all she had...We would start a new and real life together. We were two parts of the same-sensuous, life-loving but with a center of tragedy. The best of her was in my eyes, and now I know all her hope was there with me," Miller reminisced.

After her pleas, the pair decided to take "an extended honeymoon" and rented the Amagansett farmhouse from friend Joe Potter. During the ensuing months, Marilyn was almost merry, serene, and very much in love. The couple was unashamedly physical, according to friends, always touching and caressing each other. In a letter, she recalled fond memories of surf-casting and listening to Sinatra records with Miller on gray afternoons, motoring around with Hugo, the Basset Hound, and cooking pasta from scratch, which she dried with a hairdryer. When he "talked theater" with the boys, she curled up and listened quietly.

...A few surviving locals recall the couple during those summers, like a former lifeguard who dug her jeep out of the beach on occasion and the owner of White's Pharmacy who witnessed her frequent trips to the make-up counter, how the star sat in that chair applying products like a girl in dress-up. Another woman recalls knocking on their door at the age of 12 to find an eager Marilyn in her dark sunglasses and a bathrobe. Monroe came outside and chatted gregariously, happily absorbing the attention, until Arthur ordered her inside with a stern voice. "Okay, Papa," she replied with childlike resignation.

...Their Amagansett farmhouse is now three times its original size, and Monroe's bathroom remains exactly as it was when the couple rented it. The clawfoot bathtub and vanity table are just as she left them, although the "icehouse" has been converted into a sauna. (Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger spent their happier domestic days right next door, at a house on the same estate. They too couldn't brave their very public marriage and have since split.) In the dining room there are three framed photographs on the wall-also Sam Shaw originals-that were taken during their Amagansett chapter. In the photographs, Marilyn is playful and sun-kissed, smiling at Arthur here, phone in hand there, and frolicking in the frothy waters of Asparagus Beach.

Despite the acrimonious split, their time together in Amagansett stayed with Miller-the house, a relic of a happy, albeit short-lived, domestic life, appeared as a backdrop in his plays. Right before his death in 2005, he requested his son drive him back to Amagansett and down the oak-lined Hammill Lane, to the site of the weather-worn cottage to which he escaped with Marilyn some 50 years earlier. "Whenever there was a mild moment of despair in my life, all I needed was to get in my car and drive to Amagansett," wrote Miller at the end of his life. "...Drive past the Potter Farm and then home. Then I am new and whole."

But Arthur didn't go inside the house when he returned; he didn't knock on the door. Rumor has it he just perched outside by the old Oaks, staring at the property where the couple found happiness for the last time."

The photo on the left is captioned as, "Far From the Madding Crowd Miller and Monroe outside their rental house at Stony Hill Farm, Amagansett. They were described as unabashedly physical and very much in love during this time. " The second photo is captioned as, "Home Body Shaw captures Marilyn on the phone at their rental cottage on Hammill Lane, Amagansett, in 1957."

-information taken from 8/1/08 http://www.danshamptons.com/content/hamptonstyle/2008/aug_1/03.html

And:
"Living in New York City, the couple rented a simple farmhouse on the Stony Hill Farm then owned by the Potter family for the 1957-58 seasons. The home was about 1,500 sq. ft. at the time, perched on a hill laden with old white oak trees, with a pleasant view of the pastures below. Today, the first home in that pleasant view belongs to Alec Baldwin.

So blissful was that time, that Marilyn called herself MMM for Marilyn Monroe Miller. She was often seen driving her black, 1956 Thunderbird convertible around town with Hugo, the pet Basset Hound she and Arthur kept both in the Hamptons and in the city. No one can say for sure if they also brought their pet parakeet, "Butch," out for the summer, but, most likely, they did. Arthur enjoyed driving his Jaguar, although, after the rain, it was a bit testy to drive on the still unpaved Stony Hill Road. Marilyn prepared for the movie Some Like It Hot while spending the summer in the Hamlin Lane Farmhouse. Sam Shaw took snappy photos of Marilyn, phone in hand, looking every bit the woman she was. In fact, the very small school desk where Marilyn sat in those photos is still in the house, now owned by Joe and Lucy Kazickas, who were kind enough to give me a tour of the farmhouse recently. Now, the farmhouse is more than three times its original 1,500 sq. ft. and the Monroe-Miller bedroom is a guest bedroom. The Monroe-Miller bathtub still remains in the bathroom next to the guest room. The original space that was the farmhouse kitchen is more of a mudroom space, with the original back door still there. At the time, there was a wood-burning stove in the house — the beautiful, wide-planked pine floors are still there. In the corner of the Kazickas' dining room is a framed collection of three Sam Shaw photographs of Marilyn seated in the corner of the very same room. In the photos, her foot is inches away from a pine knot in the floor that is still there today. The icehouse that the simple farmhouse had, has been converted into a deluxe sauna with showers and a seating area with a television. In the back of the home, the magnificent old white oaks still shade the summer sun as they did for Marilyn, Arthur and Hugo. In some Sam Shaw photos, Marilyn poses among the oak trees, which, in all these years, have changed very little from the dignified presence they were 50 years ago." -T.J. Clemente

Posted by: Mezzo Sep 13 2008, 01:27 PM

Back to the Roxbury addresses, on this website you can see videos taken in Roxbury: http://www.itnsource.com/compilations/entertainment/tvandfilm/?lr=S03050701

Clip #22 was taken on February 7, 1956.

Clip #21 is dated June 28, 1956. It also shows a street sign for Old Tophet Road. Marilyn and Arthur hadn't yet bought the second home in Roxbury. The video shows the home with the arched front porch.

Posted by: Nettie Sep 13 2008, 08:57 PM

Oh mary. Thank you Thank you Thank you.

Posted by: Mezzo Sep 13 2008, 09:14 PM

You're welcome.

Posted by: Mezzo Sep 14 2008, 12:56 AM

Ah ha! I've found this in a new thread, and am comparing it to one of chris' first picture posts in this thread:

Arthur Miller home


Do you think the French windows are the same in this photo???


See the following thread for more Roxbury photos, taken at Arthur's home. (Not the one he and Marilyn bought together.)
http://www.everlasting-star.net/boards/index.php?showtopic=14681&hl=

Posted by: Mezzo Jun 26 2009, 09:27 PM

This is an old topic, but it still interests me and I found something more on it in Christopher Bigsby's new biography on Arthur Miller.

The photo showing Arthur smiling and holding a cigarette and a newspaper, his right foot resting on some construction materials or the edge of the porch, in front of the second Roxbury house, is included in the book with the caption,
"The Roxbury house, which Miller bought with Marilyn Monroe and lived in for the rest of his life."

Marilyn's piano is mentioned with regard to her Roxbury home:
"In 1956 it was shipped across the country to the house in Roxbury, Connecticut, that she and her husband had bought and reconstructed in the expectation of a happy married life."

I'll post Bigsby's references to the homes that Miller owned in Roxbury:

"On 29 June, the day Miller had chosen for a press conference which the couple hoped would buy them some limited freedom, they drove, with Morton Miller (who had lived on Goldmine Road in Roxbury since 1950) at the wheel, from the Welton Road house in Roxbury that Miller had bought in the winter of 1947, to Westchester County, New York, to acquire a marriage license."

Following the completion of The Prince and the Showgirl in November 1956 and Marilyn and Arthur's two-week trip to Ocho Rios, Jamaica,
"Miller and his wife now moved between their new apartment on 57th Street, with a room off the vestibule for May Reis, Marilyn's secretary inherited from Elia Kazan, and a summer home in Amagansett, on the southside of Long Island. Miller's old home in Roxbury had been bought by the critic John Aldridge (later it would be sold on to fellow playwright Tom Cole), Miller now looked for a new one, sometimes taking his son Robert with him."

"He [Miller] was asked for a written account of his present attitudes, all of which he reported to his lawyer in a letter dated 10 June 1957, in which he also explained that he had just bought two hundred acres of land with a farm in Roxbury where they were to make a home. He hoped, he said, to raise bloodhounds that could scent a subpoena at a thousand yards and eat the person carrying it."

Following Marilyn's miscarriage at Amagansett on August 1, 1957, Marilyn and Arthur were interviewed in New York for an article in Look magazine.
"Marilyn said: 'His work will always be at the centre of our lives' but that she would 'keep working too', while he described their new Roxbury home as 'the place where we hope to live and die'.

"They now retreated to their new Roxbury home, close to the property he had owned with Mary and where he had written Death of a Salesman. They had looked at a number of places, including some in New York State, before, with the help of Morton Miller, they settled on the Leavenworth homestead in Tophet Road, then a nondescript farmhouse set in 110 acres. They took joint titoe, with Morton as witness, and set about renovating it, even employing Frank Lloyd Wright whom Marilyn had met at the Plaza Hotel where he lived, to produce designs. Marilyn's own plans were grandiose, Miller's altogether more modest and practical. There was, Morton observed, a tension between 'Marilyn's lack of concern for money' and 'Arthur's frugality.'

She wanted a swimming pool, prhaps somewhat redundant given the existence of a natural spring two hundred yards from the house which was later the basis for a pond where Miller was to swim every summer for nearly fifty yeras, but her ideas were based on the Hollywood she had, for a time, left behind. More than four decades later what were to have been the changing rooms for this pool are still visible, though now no more than sheds for garden tools."

"At first, the very business of creating the house in which they were to live brought them together. It was in desrepair and still contained remnants of those who had been there before. Marilyn suggested installing sliding doors for the main room and hunted through nearby stores for cupboards and fittings. Now, each day was punctuated by the sounds of carpenters, plumbers and electricians. But the worm was already in the apple. In an undated poem whose refrain is 'When we began', Miller reflects, in the opening stanza, on the renovation of a house and the beginning of a marriage, speaking of a time when no window would open, the doors were stuck and the floors were bent. Then, as the house was reconstructed around them, they had lain together, happy as mice. Three years later, with the house in perfect order, they lay apart, dreading the return of day, the marriage collapsing. In the final stanza the marriage is over."

"Marilyn relinquished all rights to the Connecticut house. In volume 30 of the Roxbury Land Records is declared: 'KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS: THAT I, MARILYN MONROE MILLER...for divers good causes and considerations...have remised, released and forever quit-claimed...unto the said Arthur Miller...all such right and title...to the lands, premises and property situated in...' This marked the final gesture of a marriage that had begun to founder within weeks of being contracted.

Posted by: Nettie Nov 10 2009, 08:27 AM

I can't sleep, it's 2:30 am. Have we posted this before? Could this be Marilyn and Arthur's Roxbury house, now owned by his daughter? Is that their pond? Are these his 6,000 pines ?

http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/daniel-day-lewis-house/view/?service=1

Doesn't the house next door look like the house Arthur is at in this picture?

I also found an article "My Lunch with Arthur Miller" in which he shows a photo of Arthur's house, What do you think of it ?

http://thebarksdalebuzz.blogspot.com/2007/08/my-lunch-with-arthur-miller.html

Posted by: Mezzo Nov 10 2009, 02:28 PM

Haha, Nettie, that sounds just like what I do when I can't sleep at 2:30 AM, too!

From your globetrotting link, I clicked on Google Earth. The home is highlighted there, and it is captioned the same as on Virtual Globetrotting: "Actor Daniel Day-Lewis and his wife Rebecca Miller owns this house. This was also the final home of playright and essayist, Arthur Miller."

Bing Maps shows the home's location on Tophet Road:
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&cp=41.577669~-73.268497&style=o&lvl=2&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=17148581&encType=1

I think the building with the round room that you have pictured is one of the property's outbuildings. It seems to be very large for a shed, but I wonder if this is the building that Marilyn had constructed for the changing rooms for the pool she wanted? If you look at it from a different angle on the virtual globetrotting site, it seems that it was originally constructed as a long, low building with the round room tacked on and an even larger addition added later.

This picture from the article is interesting:

If you change the view on the globetrotting page, it looks like the photo could have been taken on the west side of the Miller house, with the additional (round-roomed) building located to its left, or north.

Good finds, Nettie!

Posted by: Mezzo Nov 10 2009, 05:39 PM

Here is a link to an article regarding the donation of a portion of Arthur and Marilyn's property to the Roxbury Land Trust:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15593269&BRD=2303&PAG=461&dept_id=478976&rfi=6

There is an innacuracy; the author indicates that Miller wrote "Death of a Salesman" in a studio he constructed on the Monroe/Miller Tophet property, but the play was actually written in a studio Miller himself built on the Welton Road property he owned with his first wife, Mary Slattery (Welton Road reference taken from Christopher Bigsby's biography of Arthur Miller.) The property was sold in 1958, when he and Marilyn purchased the farm on Tophet Road. We know that Marilyn also had a studio constructed at Tophet Road for Arthur's use.

Googling "Welton Road Roxbury Connecticut Arthur Miller" I come up with a home that is being sold at 26 Welton Road; this property is adjacent to 232 Tophet Road:
http://www.realestatebook.com/homes/listing/101-539195297/Roxbury-CT-USA/PRICE-HIGH-sort/10-p/101-539195297--109-5555172--109-5555150--101-539048876--101-539116148--101-539203889--101-538979951--101-539203938--103-1984741--109-5628935-ls/39-t/

The photo that has been posted of Arthur's first home in Roxbury shows a low hill in front of the house; I wonder if this is where Marilyn had the low brick wall that upset her when, later, the trees there died because their roots had been cut for the wall's installation. This home at 26 Welton Road shows a low brick wall in front of it, too. This may be a real stretch, but I wonder if it could be Arthur's first Roxbury property? The structure of the main building seems proportional and the windows are spaced the same as in the photo that Chris posted.

Posted by: Mezzo Nov 10 2009, 08:35 PM

Nope, my mistake. I found the most recent owner of Arthur's first Roxbury home, the playwright Tom Cole. His address at the time of his death in March 2009 was 153 Tophet Road, Roxbury. I presume his wife, Joyce Chopra, still lives in the house. Nevertheless, it is not 26 Welton Road - so, no picture connection! Tom Cole and Arthur were very good friends.

Here is a link to a map showing 153 Tophet Road, Arthur's first house; 232 Tophet Road, Arthur and Marilyn's house; and 26 Welton Road, which is nearby but was never owned by Arthur Miller.
http://maps.yahoo.com/broadband/index.php?ard=1&q1=153%20Tophet%20Rd%2C%20Roxbury%2C%20CT%2006783&mvt=s#mvt=h&lat=41.566935&lon=-73.269405&zoom=15&q1=153%20Tophet%20Rd%2C%20Roxbury%2C%20CT%2006783&q2=26%20welton%20road%20roxbury%20ct&q3=232%20tophet%20road%20roxbury

Posted by: Mezzo Nov 11 2009, 12:03 AM

From the New York Times, February 20, 2005; authors Elizabeth Maker and Bruce Weber:

"NEARLY a half-century ago, on the property in Roxbury he had bought with his wife, Marilyn Monroe, Arthur Miller seeded a pine forest. A stand of some 6,000 trees now rises formidably on the land behind the farmhouse on Tophet Road, which was built in 1769, and where Mr. Miller, who had lived there since 1958, died on Feb. 10.

Mr. Miller, who was 89, had been receiving hospice care at the Manhattan apartment of his sister, Joan Copeland, but knowing the end was near, he requested an ambulance ride back to Roxbury. His last days were spent in the downstairs study of the four-bedroom clapboard house, where he could look through the windows and see the trees he planted on land that now spans 350 acres in Roxbury and Woodbury.

''My father's foremost intent and hope was that he could get back home before he died; that he could drink a last sip of Roxbury water, breathe a last breath of Roxbury air,'' said Robert Miller, a film producer, whose mother was Mr. Miller's college sweetheart and first wife, Mary Grace Slattery. ''He had the biggest smile on his face when he arrived. He was very gracefully trying to let go, and coming home was the completion of it for him. He sort of scripted the last week or so of his life. It came out exactly as he would have written it.''

For those who know Mr. Miller only as readers or theatergoers, it may be hard to reconcile the urban intellect that created such works as ''Death of a Salesman,'' ''A View from the Bridge'' and ''The Price'' with this view of him as at home in a rural setting. He was a sequoia in the literary world, but it is probably true that only those who knew him thought of him as a lover of the land, a planter of trees, a man who took solace and peaceful pleasure in evergreens.

''You know, people can talk all they want about the genius of Arthur Miller, but we never paid attention to that,'' said the actor Richard Widmark, 90, a Tophet Road neighbor since 1968. ''He was just my best buddy down the road. We were just two country boys interested in tractors and mowers and the land.''

Indeed, as home to Mr. Miller longer than any other place, Roxbury -- he first moved there in 1947 -- might rightly be said to have the strongest claim on the playwright's perspective. And as counterintuitive as that might seem, the experiences that he had there demonstrably informed his work. The fact is that if his work was almost always grave in its bedrock moral seriousness, it was also remarkably diverse in setting and tone. So was Mr. Miller's demeanor. He had, as many of his friends recalled, a surprisingly puckish wit and a huge desire to laugh. He also -- who knew? -- liked to sing.

''He was a closet crooner who dreamed of his own lounge act,'' said the playwright A.R. Gurney, who has lived in Roxbury since 1983. ''I was at his house about three months ago, and someone was playing 'Georgia on My Mind' on his grand piano. Arthur started singing, and we all sat down and listened. He was excellent.''

Litchfield County has become, of course, something of a celebrity refuge, a place where the wealthy can disappear in colonial backwoods, the gentry can call their long-fallow fields farmland and colorfully clad bicyclists can challenge themselves on the long hills whose narrow roads don't carry much four-wheel traffic other than the odd Mercedes convertible. You have to have money to live in Roxbury, and especially in later plays -- like ''The Ride Down Mt. Morgan'' about a wealthy bigamist who has become morally reconciled to his grossly selfish behavior; and ''Resurrection Blues,'' about the nexus of power, money and television, in which a Latin American dictator hires an American television crew to film a crucifixion -- the savage humor derives from a disdain of the kind of affluence that creates privilege without responsibility.

Mr. Miller himself was hardly immune to the trappings of wealth and fame; you couldn't expect otherwise from a man who lived with Marilyn Monroe. When the couple first moved to the farmhouse, they planned to raze it and build another house on the property, and Ms. Monroe contacted Frank Lloyd Wright to design it. (Mr. Miller put the kibosh on the plan, after Wright produced a frivolous, prohibitively expensive design that included a circular living room with a dropped floor and a domed ceiling, and a swimming pool built into the side of a hill that ''would require, I judged,'' he once wrote, ''heavy construction on the order of the Maginot Line.'')

In later years, Mr. Miller often played tennis at Dustin Hoffman's house nearby with Mr. Gurney and others, and his friends' recollections were dotted with boldface names. The writer Frank McCourt, who also lives on Tophet Road, recalled a croquet tournament.

''Arthur was my wife's partner, and Mia Farrow was my partner,'' Mr. McCourt said. ''Well, Mia and I were going like gangbusters, but Mia suddenly missed this simple shot, and they won. And she said, 'Oh, I'm sorry, I just got so distracted gazing at Arthur. What a handsome man!'''

This life among celebrities surely informed the autobiographical plays about Marilyn Monroe (that he always denied were autobiographical) ''After the Fall'' and his final, touching work, ''Finishing the Picture,'' that seemed to indicate he was still struggling with his role in her life and death.

But when Mr. Miller first moved to Roxbury in 1947 -- it was in a shack he had built on the property of his first house on Tophet Road that he wrote ''Death of a Salesman'' and ''The Crucible'' -- the area had yet to lose the air of the Depression, ''when small, bony farms still covered the landscape,'' as he wrote in his autobiography, ''Timebends.'' Even then it was an artist's haven -- the sculptor Alexander Calder was a neighbor -- but though the farms were dying off, he wrote, for the next decade and into the 1960's, ''the area still wore its pleasing air of relaxed rural decay.''

The writer Tom Cole (best known for his screenplay for the movie ''Smooth Talk'') bought that first house on Tophet Road from Mr. Miller, and the two men subsequently became fast friends, taking almost daily walks.

''You'd usually find Arthur in his old woodsman's shirt, faded jeans, an old work hat,'' Mr. Cole said. ''He spent quite a bit of time trying to invent a bird feeder that could foil the squirrels.''

The disconnect between the turbulent work and the easeful setting in which it was written brings to mind Wordsworth's famous dictum: ''Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.'' But it's also true that the country life was hardly absent from Mr. Miller's work.

For one thing, Mr. Miller was an accomplished carpenter, which is useful as a metaphor for his playwriting. As many critics have pointed out, his plays were meticulously built. But it was literally true, too. He was handy. Among other things, he built that writing shack at his first Roxbury house, as well as the back staircase on the home of William and Rose Styron, neighbors for four decades. And he was also a decent mechanic. These were skills he honed early on in his life, in Brooklyn, and in many of his plays he celebrated them as undervalued by society. After all, one way of looking at the downfall of Willy Loman, the famous salesman, is that he had nothing to show for his work; he built nothing, created nothing.

But this philosophical strain was present in Mr. Miller's work from the beginning. His first play, ''The Man Who Had All the Luck,'' which died after four performances on Broadway in 1944 but which was successfully revived by the Roundabout Theater in 2003, was set in rural Michigan. (Mr. Miller became a writer not in New York, but in the Midwest; he attended college at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he won his first accolades.) It's about a man who is handsome, personable, charming, decent and self-aware, but essentially without useful skills. Still, it is he -- not the deserving auto mechanic, not the hardworking athlete, not the schooled breeder of mink -- who survives calamity and achieves wealth and security for his family.

Roxbury and Michigan may share some rural qualities, but New England is not the Midwest, and more than half a century in Connecticut certain qualifies Mr. Miller as a New Englander. Even though a native New Yorker, he had the craggy mien and -- in public, anyway -- the often forbidding demeanor of a chill Yankee.

He also had a spine, the kind of rectitude that New England has claimed as a signature since the days of Cotton Mather. The painful probity of his work -- the acknowledgment of the inevitability of moral failure and the anguish that results from the grave mistakes of good men -- seems descended in a direct line from Hawthorne. Nowhere is this clearer than in ''The Crucible,'' in which John Proctor, a beacon of honor in Hawthorne's own town of Salem, Mass., is put to death because he cannot lie about his own sin.

The play was literally about the Salem witch trials, but symbolically about the insane Communist-purging campaign of Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee. Mr. Miller, called before the committee in 1956, famously declined to name names of those with whom he had attended Communist-sponsored meetings in 1947.

In Roxbury, Mr. Miller had an especially close ally named Jacqueline Dooley. In his book, ''In the Country,'' which he wrote in 1977 with his third wife, the photographer Inge Morath, Mr. Miller recalled that one night Mr. McCarthy had gone on television and challenged anyone to say he had spoken a lie. And soon came the news, Mr. Miller wrote, ''that a Mrs. Dooley of Roxbury, Conn., had fired off a telegram to demonstrate that the senator had indeed told some lies. It was the sole response from the people of the United States.''

Mrs. Dooley, now 84, said this week that the McCarthy era cemented their friendship.

''That's why Arthur and I were so close,'' she said. ''Just because he had progressive ideas and dared to question authority, they called him a Communist. What he was was deeply devoted to moral responsibility and social justice. He also happened to be a great friend: no airs, no hidden agenda, just a real nice, down-to-earth guy.''

She could as well have been describing John Proctor of Salem as Arthur Miller of Roxbury."

Posted by: Nettie Nov 11 2009, 01:16 AM

Wow 'Mezzo'

Tons of info ! Let me suck it all in. Thanks.

Posted by: Mezzo Nov 11 2009, 01:26 PM

You're welcome. It's amazing what you can learn when you google.

Posted by: Nettie Nov 13 2009, 04:01 AM

EDITED Never mind Mezzo. I went to Timebends and it says the Calder's lived about a mile away. I still don't see how he could make that statement though.

Posted by: Mezzo Nov 13 2009, 04:00 PM

Nettie, this is just the type of thing that interests me. I noticed the address in Gottfried's book, too, and after finding all sorts of documentation stating that the home Arthur and Marilyn bought was, in fact, located at 232 Tophet Road, I can only guess that Gottfried either made an error or he deliberately changed the address to 323 to fool people who might bother to go to Roxbury for photos and the like.

Look at this map on mapquest: http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1c=Roxbury&1s=ct&1a=232+Tophet+Road&2c=Roxbury&2s=ct&2a=306+Painter+Hill+Road

Traveling by road from 306 Painter Hill Road to 232 Tophet Road, you would cover 1.4 miles. As the crow flies, it would be about 2400 feet, or about one-half mile. Maybe the topography of the area allows for the properties to be in view of each other. If 306 Painter Hill Road is a hill and is elevated this could be true.

Posted by: Mezzo Nov 13 2009, 06:39 PM

I've just found the street address for the summer home in Amagansett. The home is now owned by Joseph and Lucy Kazickas of Rosehip Partners and Lucy's Whey; its address is 5 Hamlin Ln, Amagansett, NY 11930.

Here is a link to an aerial photo of Hamlin Lane; I don't know which house is #5. From what I've read of the home now, it is over 4500 square feet and has a pool. Click on #2 and you can zoom in to have a view of Hamlin Lane.
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&ss=wp.joseph+kazickas&where1=Amagansett%2c+NY&style=r&s_cid=ansPhBkWp01&mkt=en-us

Here's a link to a blog by someone who stayed in the home:
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=326594619&blogId=413045678
I wish there were some pictures.

Google Maps pinpoints a home at 5 Hamlin Lane; just zoom in and you can see it.

Posted by: Nettie Nov 13 2009, 06:41 PM

Makes sense about the topography. Thanks again Mezzo. Did you know these 2 others who were neighbors?

http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/frank-mccourts-house-former/view/?service=1

http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/richard-widmarks-house-former/

Posted by: Mezzo Nov 13 2009, 07:22 PM

Thank you, Nereida. I did know that they had been neighbors, and Richard Widmark played tennis with Arthur on his court at 232 Tophet Road. I hadn't looked at photos of their homes, though.

It looks like Hamlin Lane is very private, just as you say. As the home is so changed and is, of course, privately owned, maybe you could just soak up the atmosphere and catch a glimpse of the oaks that Marilyn and Arthur loved. Of course, if you get there, you just might see Alex Baldwin playing on his basketball court! It looks like a lovely, bucolic, expensive neighborhood! It might be fun to walk through the town, too. Look on the Dan's Hampton's website/blog and search for Marilyn Monroe and you'll find some information about the places she frequented when she was there.

Posted by: Nettie Nov 15 2009, 05:18 AM

I was referring to the Roxbury house neighborhood being very private but I see from your site that so is the Hampstons. I don't care to go to the Hampton rented cottage though. Wow, it has tripled in size it says. I see the Baldwin house is close to the Hamlin house http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/alec-baldwins-house/.

Posted by: Mezzo Nov 15 2009, 03:46 PM

Oops! Yes, I think the Roxbury neighborhood is also very private. I've just read that the pines by the house are the ones that Arthur and Inge planted when she was pregnant with Rebecca; not knowing she was pregnant, she and Arthur lugged the seedlings uphill for several hours. Despite the fact that I resent her a little for being the wife that followed Marilyn and for allowing her son to be institutionalized, I think she was a strong, interesting woman.

Posted by: Nettie Nov 16 2009, 03:17 PM

Hi Mezzo

THE REGION; Fire Hits Home Of Arthur Miller

AP
Published: May 3, 1983

A fire this morning heavily damaged the home of Arthur Miller, the writer. Mr. Miller and his wife, Inge Morath, were not in the house on Toplet Road when the fire started, at about 9 A.M.

They are in Peking, where Mr. Miller is directing a production of his play ''Death of a Salesman,'' according to Eileen McMahon, a press agent.

The Roxbury Fire Chief, Gary R. Adams, said Miss Morath's mother was in the house but was uninjured.

Chief Adams said the fire started in the basement and crept up to the second and third floors through heating ducts. He said it had probably started accidentally; the exact cause is under investigation. ''There were flames everywhere when we arrived,'' he said. ''It took approximately two hours to get it under control.''

The house, purchased by Mr. Miller in 1957 while he was married to Marilyn Monroe, sustained ''between $50,000 and $100,000 in damages,'' according to Chief Adams.

http://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/03/nyregion/the-region-fire-hits-home-of-arthur-miller.html

Posted by: Mezzo Nov 28 2009, 01:45 PM

Thanks, Nettie! I guess that means the house is considerably changed since Marilyn's time there, then.

Posted by: Nettie Nov 28 2009, 05:43 PM

I guess this is what the "current" look of the house should be after the fire.

In picture 1 it reads:

I want this Architectural Digest article !!!

Picture 2 with Rebeca in 1995, must be a seperate building, maybe Inge's photo studio, matches the color of the long brown building with the round end you mentioned earlier, picture 3.

In the 2001 movie Plain Jane, scenes filmed in the house, you see this brown building, picture 4.

YES ?

Posted by: Nettie Nov 28 2009, 11:25 PM

deleted small image

Posted by: Mezzo Jan 14 2010, 12:56 AM

I stumbled across some information on the home that Frank Lloyd Wright designed for Marilyn and Arthur in Roxbury. The plans were originally designed for a family in Texas but the home, a 7000 square foot structure named Crownfield, was never built. In 1952 a member of the Mexican government asked Frank Lloyd Wright to design a home to be built for him on the cliffs of Acapulco Bay. Wright modified the Crownfield plans to suit the building site and needs of the family. However, after the death of the family's young son, the plans were again set aside. In 1957 when Marilyn approached Wright about plans, he once again redesigned the Crownfield plans to suit the Roxbury site, adding a pool. In 1993 Taliesin Architects adapted Wright's original plans once again, enlarging the structure to 74,000 square feet and building the King Kamehameha Golf Club located at 2500 Honoapi'ilani Highway, Wailuku, Hawaii. The modified plans retained the large central domed room and the radiating barrel vaulted wings, which now contain meeting rooms, kitchens, a private dining room, locker rooms, an employees' lounge and golf cart facilities.

Here is one photo of the finished structure:

Posted by: Mezzo Jan 14 2010, 02:53 AM

Thanks for the photos, Nettie. The low wall must be the one that Marilyn wanted; its installation proved fatal to the nearby trees when their roots were cut through.

Posted by: Mezzo Dec 17 2011, 03:08 PM

From http://wanderlustinct.wordpress.com/
"Following the narrow path of Tophet Road, pre-independence era stone walls guide and mark the rolling homesteads and farms.

Perched atop a lovely green and wooded hill lies the home of Arthur Miller, and during their marriage, Marilyn Monroe. The quaint cottage is shaded from the winding road, and lies within the depths of Litchfield County, on what feels like a private corner of the world. And these among other reasons are probably what this famous couple loved so much about the estate. After their marriage in 1956, the two escaped New York City hustle and bustle for Roxbury, CT and their country home."



From
"In 1956, Miller married screen diva Marilyn Monroe; the couple divorced in 1961, just 19 months before she died of a drug overdose. Miller's daughter, Rebecca, from a later marriage, is married to actor Daniel Day-Lewis and is listed on land records as owning 49 acres of land on Tophet Road worth about $1.3 million.
Miller's estate contributed about 47 acres to the Roxbury Land Trust."



Read more: http://www.newstimes.com/news/article/Roxbury-a-quiet-place-for-famous-authors-to-savor-417465.php#ixzz1gnYCswac

From http://www.locationary.com/place/en/US/Connecticut/Roxbury/Arthur_Miller_Writer-p1002588063.jsp
Contact Info
Address 232 Tophet Rd, Roxbury, Connecticut, United States
Postal Code:
06783-1517

From http://www.connecticutbarns.org/45557
"Building Name (Common)

Captain David Leavenworth Homestead
Building Name (Historic)

Captain David Leavenworth Homestead
Address

232 Tophet Road
Roxbury
Typology

English
Tobacco Shed
Other Shed

Historic Significance

Architectural description:
Barn I:
The western half of the west block of this L-shaped barn is almost certainly the oldest section and may have originated as a tobacco barn. It has a dirt floor, which suggests it was not used for cows, and is notable for a spacious interior with a high roof and single-span beam.

The barn stands on the east side of Tophet Road, to the north of the small board-and-batten barn. The c. 1770 house on this property stands to the south. Features include: 26 x 50, 26 x 60; peak-roofed barn consists of two elongated blocks arranged in an L-plan. The west block is oriented with one gable to the west and intersecting at its east end with the north end of the east block; western part of the west block is probably an old English barn (now clad in drop siding), which has been elongated to the east (that part is clad in board and batten); a pair of rolling doors is centered on the south elevation of this block, which has a standing seam roof; shed addition to north; concrete block base; interior is framed with hewn timbers; dirt floor. The east block of the L-shaped barn has an asphalt shingle roof and is clad in board and batten; west side frames the barnyard; on the east side a two-part shed-roof addition runs from the south gable end to a shingled silo at the northeast corner of the barn.

Barn II:
The barn stands on the east side of Tophet Road, to the south of small board-and-batten barn. The c. 1770 house on this property stands to the south. Features include: 28 x 24; peak-roofed barn stands with gable ends to the east and west; shed-roofed wing extends to south; south elevation has two sets of hinged doors; scattered windows (6-pane sash); fieldstone foundation; wood frame; board and batten.

Historical significance:
The tobacco barn, or shed as it is called in the Connecticut River Valley, is one of the most distinctive of the single-crop barns. They tend to be long, low windowless buildings with pitched roofs. They are characterized by vented sides and roofs to regulate air flow and allow harvested tobacco to cure at the appropriate rate. Derived initially from the design of the English barn, the shed is composed of a fixed skeleton consisting of two- or three-aisle bents repeated at intervals of 15 feet to the desired length. The wood-framed bents sit on piers of stone or concrete and the bents are connected by girts and diagonal braces. Typically there are one or two door openings at each end, making the shed a "drive-through," although some sheds are accessed through doors on the sides. The interior structural framework serves a second purpose in addition to supporting the walls and roof of the building; it provides a framework for the rails used to hang the tobacco as it cures.

The oldest barns still found in the state are called the "English Barn,” “side-entry barn,” “eave entry,” or a 30 x 40. They are simple buildings with rectangular plan, pitched gable roof, and a door or doors located on one or both of the eave sides of the building based on the grain warehouses of the English colonists' homeland. The name “30 by 40” originates from its size (in feet), which was large enough for 1 family and could service about 100 acres. The multi-purpose use of the English barn is reflected by the building's construction in three distinct bays - one for each use. The middle bay was used for threshing, which is separating the seed from the stalk in wheat and oat by beating the stalks with a flail. The flanking bays would be for animals and hay storage.

The term dairy barn is used as early as the 18th century (along with “cow house”). Modern dairy barns are characterized by their interior arrangements of stanchions and gutters to facilitate milking and the removal of manure. In some cases this is just a few stalls in the corner of a barn, in others it can be a large barn dedicated to that single purpose.

A shed is typically a simple, single-story structure in a back garden or on an allotment that is used for storage, hobbies, or as a workshop. Sheds vary considerably in the complexity of their construction and their size, from small open-sided tin-roofed structures to large wood-framed sheds with shingled roofs, windows, and electrical outlets. Sheds used on farms or in industry can be large structures.

Field Notes

Information from a survey of Roxbury by Rachel Carley.

The c. 1770 house on this property is attributed to Capt. David Leavenworth, and the farm was in Leavenworth hands for much of the 19th century and again in the 20th century. In 1949, the same year he wrote Death of a Salesman, the playwright Arthur Miller (1915-2005) purchased the property, and it remains in his family. A portion of the barn was reportedly a studio for Inge Morath (1923-2002), a noted photographer who married Miller in 1962.

Former CT residence of Marilyn Monroe"

Posted by: Mezzo Dec 17 2011, 03:38 PM

I found some more photos inside and around the house on the magnum website.

This is dated 1962, and there is Marilyn's Hugo:

This is dated 1963. I wonder if it is the hammock Marilyn bought:

From p.318, "Timebends":

Dated 1962, in Marilyn's Roxbury laundry room:


The Roxbury kitchen, 1963 and Arthur's study, 1965:

Posted by: Nettie Dec 17 2011, 04:14 PM

Oh Mary

I just woke up and even though it's Christmas, not in a very happy mood Just one of those days.

Got out of bed and there was your post in one of my favorite threads. Thank you, thank you, thank you .
I love the new pictures of the house with the wall in front. But have never seen the barn picture. And all the information I haven't read it all carefully yet but the specifications are confusing to me. Wish I had someone t explain it all so I can picture it all better. I've seen several pictures of Inge and Miller in the house but never with Hugo. That makes me sad. Marilyn loved him so and we have so many beautiful pictures of them together even in NY. I hate that she died and Inge got to keep living with him, but I do understand. I am sure Arthur adored Marilyn at the time they were married but at the end she probably drove him nuts. Being married to Marilyn Monroe was very unsettling. Life with Inge was certainly more his style. They definitely had much more in common. They were 2 very different woman.

But thank you for the super interesting post. I have to sit and soak it all in better. Let me go have breakfast first. Thanks for jump-starting my day Mary

Posted by: Paju Dec 17 2011, 06:03 PM

Thank you so much! The Roxbury house looks beautiful and it's so great to see some photos inside the house

Posted by: Mezzo Dec 17 2011, 11:12 PM

You're welcome, Netti and Sirkku. This topic is endlessly fascinating to me.

Nettie, I've been inexplicably blue lately, too. I am happy that the info and pictures may have cheered you.

From the description of the barn pictured (Barn I in the article) it is north of the house, pictured below:

Posted by: Shine84 Dec 18 2011, 04:36 PM

thanks u for your research, I´ve soaked it all in, in the last hour. What a beautiful place and how quiet it must be there.

Posted by: zeldazonk61 Mar 26 2012, 07:33 AM

I find those photos rather heartbreaking. All her dreams for having a family were in that house. The hammock, Hugo etc. and there Arthur is enjoying it all with Inge Morath. It a bit shitty really.

Posted by: Fav Mar 27 2012, 07:34 PM

It's life though isn't it. Some things work out and some don't for lots of reasons. Me, I think I'd want to move to get new memories somewhere else but I know plenty of people that don't see things that way. It's just down to the individual and their circumstance. I don't think those photos were intended as a gloat. I don't know what the thought was behind them and what article they may have featured in but I doubt there was any ill feeling behind them.

Posted by: Nettie Mar 27 2012, 08:59 PM

I'm torn between feelings. I think Arthur was so miserable towards the end of their marriage that he just had to feel so happy to find a new life, joy again. Remember, he totally blocked out ALL feelings for his son that was put away in that hospital.

I personally would want to start fresh somewhere else. Like he did after leaving his 1st wife, he sold that house and got another even though in same town, street, whatever. But I think he truly loved this house, the land, (even though it was Marilyn who bought it for him out of her own money). I know it was the one thing that he kept going back to when he was stressed with life. It brought him peace. And so I see that too. It seems kind of insensitive to me to see them pose in the exact house maybe, but I really think he was totally over with any feelings for Marilyn at the end.

Posted by: mberton Mar 27 2012, 09:17 PM

I agree with you Nettie that Arthur was miserable at the end of the marriage and must have felt relief to find a new life. I have read that he loved the Roxbury house - it was his sanctuary - and it is a beautiful house. But MM and Arthur must have had some happy memories there too. There is no doubt that Marilyn continued to have an impact on Arthur's life and influenced his playwriting right up to his own death (dare I say it, even profit from their relationship). I'm sure he reflected on their marriage often through the years and knowing her as he did, understood her demons. Personally, I think he continued to have feelings for MM because he wrote so much about her in his work.

Are the photos with MM at Roxbury?

Posted by: zeldazonk61 Mar 28 2012, 04:55 AM

Yea i agree in that the marriage was over and they were all over the drama. Still I know if I was a third wife (the fact that she was marilyn aside) i would want to change the decor a bit. Its really odd that its all still the same. Its the hammock more than anything...I think if she had been a live to see that photo with him and the daughter she couldn't have in the hammock, it would have devastated her.

Posted by: ginie Mar 28 2012, 12:27 PM

what home ?

in 1952 from http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/m/arthur_miller/index.html

in 1987 from http://forward.com/articles/111977/view-from-a-bridge-of-posterity/

Posted by: Nettie Mar 28 2012, 08:30 PM

The first house had to be 155 Willow St Brooklyn Heights as it says here he owned it in the early 1950's.



The second house was the house he lived in with Marilyn because he owned it until his death.

Posted by: Mezzo Mar 29 2012, 02:30 PM

Yes, Nettie, I think you're right about the 1952 photo. Here's another one, which identifies the location as his home:

The following from the New Yorker, online, and refers to the first home Arthur owned in Roxbury. Interestingly enough, the article was accompanied by a photo of Arthur and Marilyn in her T-Bird.


Photograph by Paul Schutzer/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images.

March 1, 2012
WALKING WITH ARTHUR MILLER
Posted by John Lahr
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/03/walking-with-arthur-miller.html#ixzz1qVjpzUHj

"At some point during the afternoon, Miller, Morath, and I drove over to forty-four-acre plot Miller had bought with the profits of “All My Sons,”situated on the corner of Tophet—the hottest part of hell in the Old Testament—and Gold Mine. We walked up behind the main house, to the knoll where the cabin nestled in a thicket of birch trees.
MILLER: In those days, I didn’t think this hill was quite as steep. I always thought I was walking on pretty flat ground. I have memories here. I kind of enjoy seeing it and thinking, Gee, I really did something there.
MORATH: I’m so glad I’ve seen it. I didn’t know it was so tiny.
MILLER: It’s six by ten. I’ll tell you about the windows. I didn’t know how to make windows, how to frame them. I was in town, and there were two young carpenters, itinerant carpenters. I met them in the grocery store. And we got talking. I said, “Would you guys frame out some windows for me?” So they came up here, and they did this in a day. Made the window frames. You can take out the windows in the summertime. It’s all open. See, this whole thing lifts out.
MORATH: There’s no electricity up here now.
MILLER: I had it—electricity must have come out from the house. I learned a lot building this place. See, the big problem was getting the rafters of the roof up there alone. See that triangle? I finally built it on the ground, then swung them up. Until I confronted the issue, I had no idea how I was gonna do it—a bit like writing a play, you know. You get to a certain point, you gotta squeeze your way out of it.
John Lahr’s essay on Arthur Miller, along with a profile of Mike Nichols, who is directing the current Broadway revival of “Death of a Salesman,” appear in his book “Show and Tell: New Yorker Profiles” (Overlook Press)."

Here is an exterior shot of the studio at Miller's first Roxbury home, from http://www.shedworking.co.uk/2007/09/arthur-millers-shed.html:

"Arthur Miller's shed
In 1948, Arthur Miller built a white clapboard cabin in Roxbury, Connecticut, specifically as a base in which to write Death of a Salesman, even though he had never built anything similar in his life (he said the hardest part was putting up the roof rafters by himself). As he built, he put together the play in his mind, although he did also make use of his desk, an old recycled door. Here he is pictured above in a photo with slighly unsettling perspective taken by Inge Morath. More details about the shed and the play in a great, but quite long, article by The New Yorker's John Lahr here."

More information on Roxbury, and a description of the area by Arthur himself, from http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/nyregion/thecity/20CONN.html:
"EARLY a half-century ago, on the property in Roxbury he had bought with his wife, Marilyn Monroe, Arthur Miller seeded a pine forest. A stand of some 6,000 trees now rises formidably on the land behind the farmhouse on Tophet Road, which was built in 1769, and where Mr. Miller, who had lived there since 1958, died on Feb. 10.

...This life among celebrities surely informed the autobiographical plays about Marilyn Monroe (that he always denied were autobiographical) "After the Fall" and his final, touching work, "Finishing the Picture," that seemed to indicate he was still struggling with his role in her life and death.

But when Mr. Miller first moved to Roxbury in 1947 - it was in a shack he had built on the property of his first house on Tophet Road that he wrote "Death of a Salesman" and "The Crucible" - the area had yet to lose the air of the Depression, "when small, bony farms still covered the landscape," as he wrote in his autobiography, "Timebends." Even then it was an artist's haven - the sculptor Alexander Calder was a neighbor - but though the farms were dying off, he wrote, for the next decade and into the 1960's, "the area still wore its pleasing air of relaxed rural decay.

The writer Tom Cole (best known for his screenplay for the movie "Smooth Talk") bought that first house on Tophet Road from Mr. Miller, and the two men subsequently became fast friends, taking almost daily walks."

Another photo of the second Roxbury home, ca. 1958:

Posted by: mberton Mar 29 2012, 08:47 PM

Another of Roxbury with Miller and Morath.

Posted by: Nettie May 7 2012, 04:43 AM

[quote name='Mezzo' date='Aug 18 2008, 12:07 PM' post='173441']
Chris, I am sorry for my error. The date of the photograph, according to a 15 February 2005 New York Times article, is 1958. In this larger format, construction materials are seen in front of the home.



I believe that with this documentation, we can safely say that the photo shows Arthur in front of 323 Tophet during the time that it was being remodeled.

Posted by: Mezzo Sep 20 2012, 02:40 PM

This looks a little fishy to me. Does anyone know if it's been altered or if it's genuine?

Posted by: nicky62 Sep 21 2012, 03:55 AM

Sometimes pictures were airbrushed for the magazines and news papers but it does look fishy
nicky62

Posted by: CYRILPARIS Sep 21 2012, 11:58 AM

For me genuine. Here is in large

Posted by: Mezzo Sep 21 2012, 05:07 PM

Thank you, Eric. It seems it was taken on the same day as the photo with Hugo the basset hound.

Posted by: ronaldo Sep 24 2012, 11:21 PM

It surely does look fishy. Even when the pic is small it looks unreal. Something clearly is not correct with this image.

Posted by: CYRILPARIS Sep 25 2012, 11:57 AM

Yes the same day.

Posted by: Alanma Sep 25 2012, 12:41 PM

It does seem a bit odd, though.
The picture is probably genuine as to time and place, but maybe came out poorly, so had to be "enhanced" back at the office before publication.
The figures are so well defined against the background as if in front of a "blue screen"; so detailed although in shadow, and their feet do not seem to touch the ground.

Posted by: Mezzo Oct 4 2012, 02:10 PM

From "The International Who's Who of Women 2002"

Posted by: Nettie Dec 20 2012, 06:58 PM

I have found a few pictures that I had previously posted in a larger size. I will post them here and go back and delete my smaller ones.
You can see how truly beautiful Marilyn's old farmhouse was. And really big too.

Posted by: Nettie Nov 12 2013, 02:57 AM

" ROXBURY, Conn., May 2— A fire this morning heavily damaged the home of Arthur Miller, the writer. Mr. Miller and his wife, Inge Morath, were not in the house on Toplet Road when the fire started, at about 9 A.M. "

Posted by: Joan Newman Dec 19 2013, 06:02 PM

"While the famous architect is perfecting his plans, Marilyn and Miller are roughing it in the cottage,
which is without electricity and has only a rustic form of plumbing."

Posted by: Joan Newman May 29 2015, 03:54 AM

Some current pictures of 232 Tophet, now Daniel-Day Lewis' home in Roxbury taken by my friend in May 2015. The house is so close to the street.You can pull right in front of her driveway and house. See Miller's writing studio as you go up their driveway.

If this house were in California they would have a huge gate and fenced walls to protect their privacy. In new York you have doormen who watch out for unwelcome fans. But Roxbury is country and everyone looks out for one another. They do not welcome fans or strangers for that matter. My friend said felt as if at any minute she was going to get discovered and thrown out of the neighborhood. And that the roads are very narrow and winding. It is most beautiful. Where is our Maryellen ?

Posted by: Stacy♥ May 29 2015, 05:18 AM

great pics.

Posted by: Fav May 31 2015, 10:42 PM

Yes thanks Joan, great photos of the house. You're so right - anywhere else would have huge gates in front of it.

Posted by: Joan Newman Aug 2 2016, 05:39 AM

November 17, 1969
Stars Help Arthur Miller Film TV Antiwar Allegory

ROXBURY, Conn.- Eli Wallach, wearing a light beige cardigan over a blue workman's shirt, sat on the wicker rocking chair on the still lush lawn in back of Arthur Miller's house the other day. A low coffee table stood at his left and alongside that was another rocker, where Robert Ryan would sit after mounting the short, steep hill that rose from the pond in the distance.

The scene about to be filmed was the first in Arthur Miller's new, one-act script, "The Reason Why." The actors had rehearsed it briefly, and now the camera on the tripod was set to roll, focused on Mr. Wallach's face bathed in the brilliant fall sun-just as the script required. In fact, as Mr. Wallach would say shortly as part of the dialogue, "It's like the first day of the world." The air was crisp and crystal clear, the blue morning sky still cloudless.

"Roll!" went the order to the cameraman. Mr. Wallach let his eyes wander over Mr. Miller's 450 rolling acres of magnificent Connecticut countryside. Paul Leaf, the director, crouched behind the camera to make sure he was getting what he wanted. "That's right, Eli," he said. "It's a great day, relax, soak it all in." When he was satisfied he said "cut" to the cameraman and ordered the hand-held camera to prepare to shoot Mr. Ryan coming up the hill.

The budget for "The Reason Why" was nominal, $14,000, and Mr. Miller provided the setting, as well as lodging and food for the actors. There were midday sandwiches of cold roast beef, prepared by Mrs. Miller, rolls of cheddar cheese, coffee, cider and fruit. Besides the director and the actors, a 10-man crew was involved in the one-day's shooting. Mr. Ryan, one of the stars in Broadway's "The Front Page," had come up the night before with Mr. Wallach-after the final curtain of the show.

https://archive.org/details/thereasonwhy_201411

Posted by: Joan Newman Nov 5 2018, 02:09 AM

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/232-Tophet-Rd_Roxbury_CT_06783_M30941-11182#photo17

232 Tophet Rd
Roxbury, CT 06783
Single-Family Home
$2,100,000
Sold Price

Property Overview - Tree Farm. One of Roxbury's most coveted properties surrounded by meadows, woods and views on 32+\- acres. The renovated farmhouse dates back to the 1800's and includes a swimming pool, an incredibly large barn with guest wing, former studio and serious workshop. There is also a second smaller barn. Great location surrounded by Land Trust.

This is the 2nd house. No mention of the Miller's having owned it.
I couldn't find any news on Daniel Day Lewis selling it though.

Posted by: Mezzo Mar 6 2020, 12:01 AM

- deleted; duplicate information -