Winvian Farm is a private, luxury

resort A resort (North American English) is a self-contained commercial establishment that aims to provide most of a vacationer's needs. This includes food, drink, swimming, accommodation, sports, entertainment and shopping, on the premises. A hotel ...

located in

Morris, Connecticut Morris is a New England town, town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 2,256 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The town is part of the Northwest Hills Planning Region, C ...

History

Winthrop H. Smith Winthrop Hiram "Win" Smith (June 30, 1893 – January 10, 1961) was an American businessman and investment banker. He was notable as a name partner of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith. Biography He was born on June 30, 1893, in South Hadl ...

, a founding partner of

Merrill Lynch Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, doing business as Merrill, and previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investm ...

, and his wife, Vivian, purchased a 113-acre

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

farm in 1948, naming it "Winvian", after their combined names. Their son, Winthrop H. Smith Jr. inherited the property and, with his wife, Maggie, commissioned the building of 18 individual architectural cottages on the property, completed in 2006. Winvian became wholly owned by Maggie Smith, who operates it as a

boutique hotel Boutique hotels are small-capacity Hotel, hotels that provide more personalized service than typical hotels. They typically have fewer than a hundred rooms, and are considered more "trendy" and "intimate", often due to their location in urban ar ...

with Smith grandchildren, daughter Heather Smith, as managing director, and son Win Smith III, as director of sales and marketing.

Property

Winvian Farm, located in the Litchfield Hills of Connecticut contains eighteen individualized cottages and one master suite, is a private Relais & Chateaux, AAA 5-Diamond Hotel & Restaurant which utilized no fewer than fifteen architects on the project. Each cottage has its own unique design based on each architect's vision to serve as a homage to Connecticut. For example, the Helicopter Cottage houses a U.S. Coast Guard Sikorsky Sea King Pelican HH3F rescue helicopter in a guest bedroom equipped with all the amenities. Others include a Masonic-style temple, a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...

, a treehouse, a cave.

Media coverage

Winvian has been featured on the Travel Channel's feature, ''Extreme Mind Blowing Hotels''. The show profiled some of the most unusual hotels in the United States. Each of the ten hotels featured had unique themes that set them apart.

References

{{coord, 41, 41, 49, N, 73, 12, 07, W, scale:10000, display=title Resorts in Connecticut Hotels in Connecticut Morris, Connecticut