By Janet M. Conner

A whole foods movement, over a hundred years ago, was the impetus for a wealthy Farmington man to invest in bringing healthy grains to the local market.  Winchell Smith, successful actor and playwright, undertook a new role in the 1920s, the grain milling business.  His intent was not to add to his wealth, but to support agriculture and public health by offering natural grain choices.  Smith was influenced by a friend, William C. Klauser, and became interested in the whole foods movement.  Klauser organized the National Health and Food Guardians, Inc. organization in Hartford to oversee bakery cleanliness, use of quality ingredients, and whole grain flours.[1]  The latter was thought by medical authorities to improve digestion.  In the ad at left, Smith advertised his Mill Stream Bread under the direction of the NHFG, at Hartford’s Hayes’ Colonial Bakery in 1923.  They needed two delivery trucks to meet demand at that time. [2]

Smith built a mansion at the juncture of the Farmington and Pequabuck rivers that he named Millsteam Manor in 1917.  Concurrently, he purchased the historic Thomas Hart gristmill on Mill Lane that dates to the late 18^th century.  Furthermore, he constructed a four-story grain elevator and storage building located at 1371 Farmington Avenue.  Smith formed a $350k corporation, and invested $100k in the building that was in operation until 1931, under the name Winchell Smith, Inc. [3] The original complex had two main concrete structures with a grain elevator, the largest in this section of the state, according to the Farmington Valley Herald [4 ], and also a railroad siding.  A large fireproof building was erected in 1924 for storage of grain and fertilizers that were unloaded directly into the building.  The photograph, is taken from the vantage of the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail, which is built on the bed of the former New York/New Haven railroad line.  A railcar exited onto the siding and into the red shed building at right. There are large concrete hoppers underneath it.  According to The Federal Writers Project in 1938, Smith “wanted to encourage grain raising [whole food] in the state of Connecticut.” [5] He purchased expensive farm machinery and “contracted farmers to plant rye, wheat, and buckwheat.” [5] Mr. Smith, when personally placing an advertisement in 1920 at the Hartford Courant , remarked: “This is the genuine, old-fashioned kind, no adulteration, and only the finest selected buckwheat used. You can sell it to anyone who has ever eaten old-fashioned buckwheat cakes.” [6]  Grain deliveries would be tested for water content and quality, and weighed.  This determined how much the farmer was paid.  Then the grain was scooped up by belt-driven buckets on a conveyor and elevated to the fourth floor.  This conveyor was powered by an engine that turned a power shaft.  On the top floor, the grain was then separated and fed down chutes into bins for storage. 

However, despite this time period of post-war economic growth between 1922 and 1929, demand for agricultural products declined due to overproduction [7], and finely ground flours for human consumption proved unprofitable for Millstream breads.  Smith therefore switched gears, literally, to have his millstones grind a coarser grain for agricultural “cow feeds and middlings”. [5]  In a 1929 government “Report on Inspection of Commercial Feeding Stuffs,” these were the products registered under his brand, Mill Streams:  Boomerang, which was dairy feed, Fortune Hunter, a scratch grain, Lightnin, a laying mash, and Twenty Per Cent, a dairy ration. [8] Some of these names were a nod to his play titles.  In addition, the company also sold farm implements and fertilizer.

 After several years of failing health, Smith leased the grain storage building to the Farmington Grain Company.  The building went on the auction block in September of 1932 [9], however, the gristmill continued in operation to accommodate local farmers and residents.  Today the gristmill building is owned by Miss Porter’s School.  The grain storage building had been recommended for listing on the State Register of Historic Buildings in 2014. [10] Since then, it was sold in 2024 to a development company with proposal to the Town of Farmington for residential redevelopment. [11] It now stands as a ghost of its former life, silently awaiting its fate.

SOURCES

[1] “Winchell Smith Turns From Writing Plays to Remodeling Aged Mill: Is Spending Thousands to Make Ancient Mill on Farmington River Center in Pure Food Campaign,” The Hartford Courant, December 11, 1922, 7.

[2] “Winchell Smith Flour Used By Hayes’ Bakery: ‘Mill Streams’ Bread is Becoming Popular in Hartford,” The Hartford Courant, June 10, 1923: A6. 

[3] “Winchell Smith Inc. Formally Organizes: Certificate Filed With State Secretary Shows Officers Elected Napier Stores Inc. File Dissolution New Haven Dairy Co. Increases Capital Stock To Million Dollars,” The Hartford Courant, April 28, 1923: 15.

[4] “Building Large Addition To Grain Elevator,” Farmington Valley Herald, Hartford, Connecticut, September 4, 1924, 5.

[5] Federal Writers’ Project, Connecticut; a Guide to Its Roads, Lore, and People (Washington, DC: 1938), 147.

[6] “Meet Winchell Smith, Miller of Farmington: He’s Advertising Buckwheat Flour, Ground On His Estate and Guaranteed to Be of Just as High Quality as His Plays,” The Hartford Courant, December 30, 1920: 5.

[7] Gene Smiley, “The U.S. Economy in the 1920s” (Marquette University), Economic History Association, https://eh.net/encyclopedia/the-u-s-economy-in-the-1920s/

[8] ‘Report on Inspection Commercial Feeding Stuffs’, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, Connecticut, 673. Accessed August 7, 2025. https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/caes/documents/publications/bulletins/b317pdf.pdf

[9] “Winchell Smith Feed Warehouse To Go on Block,” The Hartford Courant, September 20, 1932: 2.

[10] Lucas A. Karmazinas, “Winchell Smith, Inc. 1371 Farmington Avenue.” Mills-Making Places Of Connecticut, Preservation Connecticut   https://connecticutmills.org/find/details/winchell-smith-inc. Accessed August 7, 2025.

[11] Don Stacom, “Developer wants series of apartment buildings, fresh businesses between Route 4 and Farmington River in Farmington,” The Hartford Courant, September 21, 2021

Additional Reading:

“Winchell Smith Playwright Dies In Farmington: Noted Figure of American Theater for 40 Years, Passes at Home, Mill Streams, Aged 62 Funeral Will Be Held Monday In Poor Health Many Years — Wrote Many Successes, Including ‘Lightnin” Was Widely-Known In Theater World,” Special.  The Hartford Courant, June 11, 1933: 1.