How About A Scrabble Museum

At Fairfield Hills?

To the Editor:

I have something to add to the community debate on the use of facilities at Fairfield Hills. Why not develop a National Scrabble Museum?

For newcomers to Newtown (or the otherwise uninitiated), the game of Scrabble was invented by the architect (and Newtown resident) Alfred Mosher Butts in the early 1930s during the height of the Great Depression. The unemployed Butts (with some time on his hands) sought to capitalize on the growth of crossword puzzles that had become so popular during the 20s throughout the country. The story of the game includes an interesting research project that Butts carried out in order to arrive at the right number of tiles corresponding to each letter for his new game. He and his family produced the first versions of Scrabble as a cottage industry from an abandoned schoolhouse in Dodgingtown. When the orders outstripped the family’s ability to fill them, Butts approached the Selchow and Richter Corporation to produce the game (and there is an interesting story here as well). The rest, as they say, is history.

I haven’t seen statistics, but Scrabble must be one of the most popular games in American history. There are many Scrabble fanatics out there who have spent (probably too many) hours of their lives poring over those challenging possibilities created each time they reached into the bag for letters. Many more of us have played the game on and off for much of our adult lives (I took a travel version of Scrabble around the world with me in 1985 and played at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, on the TranSiberian Railway, and in the park under the Eiffel Tower). I find it hard to imagine how many millions of Scrabble sets are tucked away in coat closets all over the country.

I also like this kind of connection for our town. Scrabble is a literary game, but never a parlor game reserved for the rich and famous. Scrabble grew in popularity in response to the growth of literacy in the United States. With leisure time brought on by industrialization and the explosion of newspapers, news magazines and literature, Americans in the 20th Century were, in many ways, a nation of readers. This is a success story for American democracy. The dreams of 19th Century immigrants and factory workers to have their children use education to improve their lives were realized (at least in part) through universal literacy. By the time World War I played itself out, nearly all Americans could read and write. This was the fertile ground that Alfred Mosher Butts found when he began to tinker with the game of Scrabble. I like our town’s connection to the heartbeat of the country through the game. This is good for us –– part of our identity.

There are many possibilities for this idea. A historical section of the museum would be interesting –– complete with photographs of Newtown in the period. Perhaps displays of different versions of the game through its history. Some kind of “hands on” exhibit for children is probably manageable and –– who knows; people with greater imagination than mine need to take a crack at it. There seems plenty of room to create.

I think also that a sign out on I-84 would bring in travelers to the museum –– both those who know of it and those who need a rest from travel with something interesting to see (when our family is on the road, we always look for something worthwhile besides a Pizza Hut before picking a meal stop). This would translate into business opportunities of many kinds that might grow alongside a successful and interesting museum.

Last, I don’t think this thing has been done. The nearest thing I could find is the Elliott Avedon Museum and Archives of Games at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. They have a segment on Scrabble among several other games. My guess is that they, as well as many others (including Selchow and Richter), would be willing and valuable resources to tap in building a national museum to the game of Scrabble.

Just a thought.

Ted Welsh

4 King Street, Newtown                                          September 27, 2003