"Upright 1943. The first picture I made in the old gray shop, done in the late winter of 1943. Rich in the quaint atmosphere of the dear place. Sold, March, 1944, to the Grand Central Art Galleries for their 1944 Founders" Show."
The story of the "little shop" is a fasinating one. Woodward bought the property adjacent to the
Hiram Woodward Place in 1931. It is believed it was bought to become a "gallery" Woodward can hang his work as a showroom. However, it was in poor
condition and true to Woodward's love of preservation he had to fix it up before it could be satisfactory to his standard of quality. Unfortunately, the Hiram Place
was struck by lightning on July 3, 1934, burning the place essentially to the ground spoiling Woodward's intentions.
Later when
Dr. Mark entered RSW's life and became a trusted employee (landscaping, errands and driver) and a
son-like presence in his life. Woodward then slated the little shop to become Dr. Mark's music shop. This is of course, before Dr. Mark changed his plans to become
a musician to being a doctor.
Woodward then began calling the old mill his "folly." Only Woodward meant this in the English tradition - a building
constructed primarily for decoration or without any specific use or purpose. Woodward loved the poetic and this description met that standard as well as when he
bought it he couldn't quite afford the indulgence.
Yet he never sold it. He kept it and maintained it for the remainder of his life. It is believed one of the
reasons he kept it was its proximity to the swimming hole made from the Clark Brook stream which the old mill also used as an ingress to run the mill's tools. Woodward
had created a picnic area along side the swimming hole going back as far as before he owned the Hiram Place. When he just lived in the
Burnham Cottage sometime between 1913 and 1916.
For a time it was considered another "studio" but that has been disproved. There is no evidence it was ever used as a studio. This is the ONLY known painting painted inside the building. We know it was used at least once to house guest visiting the area and it eventually fulfilled its intention when Woodward left the property to his beloved cousin Florence Haeberle who used it to house her small antique business from the 1960's to 1984 when she retired.
To read more about the "Little Shop" studio please CLICK HERE