In 1908 the illustrator George Hand Wright bought an old house and 30 acres on Cross Highway. The house had been built in 1764 by Eliphalet Sturges. Wright lived there until his death in 1951, and in the decades between he became, in the words of the Westport Library, “considered by many to be the founder of the Westport Artists Colony.” He co-founded the Westport Artists Club in 1947.
The colony grew fast. Robert Lambdin counted “twenty or so artists” in town in 1918. By 1934 there were “seventy-eight painters, sculptors, etchers and designers,” according to the Westport Library’s history of the colony. Patch has put the number of illustrators who worked in Westport between 1900 and the 1940s at more than 160. Among the early arrivals were Angus MacDonall, Neil Mitchill, Edmund M. Ashe and John N. Marchand.
A map of the colony
The artists did not settle evenly. The Connecticut Creative Places project places the sculptors James and Laura Fraser near the Weston line, Percy Anderson and Ossip Linde near Kings Highway, Arthur Dove and Karl Anderson near Bridge Street, and the cartoonist John Held Jr. near Compo.
Some of their houses still change hands, and the history comes with them.
Three houses with a past
93 Cross Highway. Wright’s house nearly disappeared. Ed Gerber bought it in 2010 to keep it from being demolished and restored it. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015 as the Sturges-Wright House.
167A Compo Road South. Henry Raleigh, who helped found the colony with Wright, Frederick Dorr Steele and Rose O’Neill, lived in a house built here in 1913. It was listed for sale at $1.895 million in May 2025, 06880 reported.
244 Compo Road South. In the summer of 1920, newly married, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald rented the Wakeman Cottage here. The Westporter-Herald announced the lease on June 4, 1920. WSHU describes the house as a 1758 Colonial with a historical marker. It sold for $2.95 million in 2008 and for $2.5 million in July 2015, to Eric and Amy Lerner.
The school in the mill
In 1948 the illustrator Albert Dorne and Edwin Eberman founded the Famous Artists School in Westport, a correspondence course whose faculty of 12 illustrators included Norman Rockwell and Austin Briggs.
The actors who stayed
Later residents included actors. Paul Newman lived in Westport from 1960 until his death there in 2008, in what 06880 has called the couple’s Coleytown home near the Newman-Poses Preserve. Joanne Woodward led the Westport Country Playhouse through its renovation. Bette Davis lived at 1 Crooked Mile Road, a house built in 1929, from 1967 to 1976. It was listed at $2.275 million in April 2025. Martha Stewart restored an 1805 farmhouse on Turkey Hill Road that later served as the model for her television set.
What it means for a buyer
A colony house carries a story and, often, constraints. Houses in a local historic district need a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Historic District Commission for exterior changes visible from a public way. Any house at least 50 years old and larger than 500 square feet is subject to a 180-day demolition delay. Before you buy a house with this kind of history, ask the Historic District Commission whether the address is designated, and ask the seller what records of the house’s history come with it. Our buyer’s guide to rebuilding explains the rest.
Sources
- Westport Library, George Hand Wright research guide, accessed Oct. 2026
- Westport Library, Westport art and artists research guide, accessed Oct. 2026
- Westport Library, Gatsby in Westport, accessed Oct. 2026
- 06880, George Hand Wright, accessed Oct. 2026
- Patch, Celebrating the history of Westport as an artists’ colony, 2009
- Connecticut Creative Places, Historical background, accessed Oct. 2026
- 06880, Roundup, Henry Raleigh house, May 7, 2025
- WSHU, The Great Gatsby, Great Neck and Westport, April 10, 2024
- WestportNow, F. Scott Fitzgerald house changes hands at $2.5 million, July 2015
- Wikipedia, Westport Country Playhouse, accessed Oct. 2026
- Wikipedia, Paul Newman, accessed Oct. 2026
- 06880, Joanne Woodward, accessed Oct. 2026
- 06880, Bette Davis, accessed Oct. 2026
- Wikipedia, Martha Stewart, accessed Oct. 2026
