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A replica of socialite Florence Brooks’ Shinbone Shack and “The Barn,” recently added as an event center.
Shinbone Shack
From the ease of city life to the hardships of country living
W
hen worldly, wealthy, socialite Florence Brooks arrived in an isolated area of Stoddard in 1918, the townspeople had something new to talk about. Brooks was an independent woman in her early 40s from New York City, and why she decided to visit the backwoods area of this small town was fodder for speculation and gossip. Brooks was an educated woman from a family whose wealth went back generations, and she had lived the privileged life of a young debutante, attending private schools in Connecticut, New York and Europe. She had traveled extensively and was accustomed to a life of luxury in New York City. Stoddard farmers eking out a living on rocky farms did not understand why Brooks would swap her city life of ease for the hardships of country living in this remote area. Brooks fell in love with the picturesque setting of an old sawmill pond surrounded by mountains and isolation. Enthralled with the unspoiled beauty and solitude of 32
nhmagazine.com | November 2021
this little valley, she decided to make it her own. She bought a two-acre plot at the site of the old sawmill and named it Woods Mill Manor. Neighbors watched with curiosity as the New York socialite prepared to build her manor. First, a small cottage would be built, a simple cabin in the woods, which would be her seasonal home while her dream manor was constructed. Brooks had inherited much of her family’s fortune, enabling her to dream big, maintain a life of privilege, and be generously involved in philanthropic causes. Over her lifetime she donated several hundred thousand dollars to various charities. During World War I, she was active in the Red Cross and the lesser-known Blue Cross, which cared for horses and dogs that had served on the battlefields. Brooks not only shared her money with the causes she supported, but also donated her time and energy. In 1919, Brooks met Arthur Aten, who would become her fourth husband. The
COURTESY PHOTO
STORY AND PHOTOS BY MARSHALL HUDSON
Florence Brooks was said to be equally comfortable dressed in hunting garb and toting a shotgun in Stoddard or dressed in furs and dripping with diamonds as a New York City socialite.
rumor was that she agreed to marry him if he would build her the cabin on her new property. In a somewhat nontraditional marriage, Florence Brooks-Aten continued to travel between Europe and her home
