SEPTEMBER 2014 Volume 58, No. 3
Historical Society of Haddonfield “Dedicated to the study and preservation of Haddonfield History”
INSIDE: President’s Message
2
Library News
3
Collections Update
3
Moving Houses
4-5
Reminiscenses
6-7
Membership News
8
HSH Centennial Fair
9
New Librarian
9
News from our Neighbors
9
Book Club News
10
Eagle Scout Project
10
From the Museum Cellars
11
Upcoming HSH Events General Membership Meeting Scandals, Rumors & Dirty Rotten Lies: Historical Gossip from America’s Colonial Period featuring speaker Dorothy Stanaitis Wed., Sept. 17th Greenfield Hall 7:30 pm HSH Centennial Fair Sat., Sept. 27th Greenfield Hall 12-5 pm Haunted Tours Oct. 17, 18, 24, 25 7:00 pm Meet at Greenfield Hall Haunted Mansion Oct. 25th Greenfield Hall 6-9 pm Oct. 30th Greenfield Hall After the Parade 343 KINGS HIGHWAY EAST HADDONFIELD, NJ 08033 856-429-7375
The Bulletin General Membership Meeting: September 17th
SCANDALS, RUMORS & DIRTY ROTTEN LIES:
Historical Gossip from America’s Colonial Period with Dorothy Stanaitis By David M. Stewart
A
s Alice Roosevelt Longworth once said, “If you haven't got anything good to say about anybody, come sit next to me.” And where does one go in Haddonfield to find such Scandals, Rumors and Dirty Rotten Lies? Why the Historical Society of Haddonfield, of course! At our next General Meeting one will be able to enjoy not just any old gossip, but historical gossip from the colonial period presented in dramatic form by master storyteller, Dorothy Stanaitis. Ms. Stanaitis was an avid lover of stories from an early age, fostered by the storytelling of her parents and the radio program Let’s Pretend. She shared her love of stories with thousands of children during her more than thirty years as Program Director at Gloucester City Library. She has also served as a certified tour guide in Philadelphia and a costumed interpreter at the Camden County Historical Society, and taught literature at Rutgers, where she has continued to serve as a Trustee. She has published over 125 stories and articles and even hosted an award winning cable program called It's Storytime.
curtains into the lives of the high and mighty and what they say off the historical record when they think no one is listening. “There's so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it hardly behooves any of us, to talk about the rest of us” said Edward Hollis Hoch, and I can almost see poor Alice rolling her eyes. For what would be the fun in that? Join us on September 17th at 7:30 pm at Greenfield Hall for an entertaining, educational evening with only a slight bit of scandal—unless you have some new scandal to fuel the gossip fire. In which case I'll save you a seat next to me.
She has presented a variety of programs of true historical stories both locally and all along the East Coast. But certainly the most popular has been Scandals, “a peek behind closed doors to learn what was churning the gossip mills of Colonial Philadelphia.” She brings the stories alive in the costumed guise of an indentured servant woman who eavesdrops at her mistress’s tea parties and passes on what she hears. In this way the audience gets insight into both the downstairs life of a servant struggling to get by, and a peek behind the www.haddonfieldhistory.org
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The Bulletin
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
1
00 years ago a group of Haddonfield residents came together to form an organization dedicated to the preservation of the history of Haddonfield: the Historical Society of Haddonfield. Led by Julia Bedford Gill, Samuel Nicholson Rhoads and James Lane Pennypacker, these farsighted individuals encouraged their friends and neighbors to donate their family and business records to the Society so that those histories would be available to future generations. And they provided a strong legal framework for that Society, incorporating on December 13, 1914. A list of Charter members is on display in Greenfield Hall. Their legacy has continued to thrive and this year we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of that organization which owes so much to the people who have nurtured it over the years with their time, talent and treasure – then and now. You can add your name to that list of dignitaries by renewing your membership or joining the Society in 2014. That list of Centennial Charter members will hold a special place in the Society’s archives. We’re celebrating this Centennial anniversary by reaching out to our community in a number of ways. If you haven’t yet explored our new website which debuted in February please do so: www.haddonfieldhistory.org. In March our candlelight dinner presented a visual scrapbook of HSH history thanks to the indefatigable efforts of Kim Custer and her committee. This fall we hope you’ll join us at our HSH Centennial Fair. On September 27, 2014 from 12 – 5 pm, Greenfield Hall will teem with booths from area restaurants, family games from the past, concerts, horse drawn carriage rides, presentations and even a cake competition. Please join us for a fun filled afternoon – take a carriage ride through Hopkins Pond, test your luck in egg races and marvel at the amazing birthday cakes area bakeries have produced. While we hope it won’t rain – we do have a rain date,
E-mail: info@haddonfieldhistory.org
Sunday,
September
28th,
2014.
We are embarking on a major fundraising campaign to build a new library building. As we’ve reported in our last issue, the Mickle House can’t hold much more. We have contracted with DCM architects to produce renderings of a new library facility that will be built on the site of the existing garage. This state of the art facility will ensure that Haddonfield’s history is preserved for the centuries to come. In the meantime some structural repairs will be made to the Mickle House. The library, closed for the month of August, reopens in September with a new archivist/library director, Dana Dorman (see announcement on page 9). While the repairs may not be completed at that time we will still try to honor research requests as quickly as possible and hope to be back to full operations by late fall. Finally, we have a new publication that will be coming out this year – Haddonfield On the Move. It’s a compilation of Helen Mountney’s wonderful stories of Haddonfield buildings that have moved over the years – still in service although perhaps in new locations. Stay tuned for more information on release. We hope we’ll see you at our General Membership Meeting, September 17th and at the Historical Society’s book club meeting on September 23rd. Bill Meehan is once more conducting his Haunted Haddonfield walking tours in October and of course Greenfield Hall will once again turn into a Haunted Mansion in time for Halloween. Please join us for any or all of these events – and of course we’re always looking for volunteers to help with them. Please leave a message at Greenfield Hall if you can take part even for just an hour or two. We appreciate your support and look forward to being a vibrant part of Haddonfield life for the next 100 years.
Carol Smith, President
The Bulletin
LIBRARY NEWS
S
ince Ken Cleary’s departure, the library volunteers have been doing great work keeping the library open and functioning while we await the arrival of our new archivist -librarian in September. We have been busy helping the Indian King Tavern find advertisements for The Ark, which they have been doing some archaeological work on. In addition we have assisted our usual number of patrons who have been looking for either house histories or genealogical information. We were able to assist the State of New Jersey
COLLECTIONS UPDATE
H
SH is receiving interesting artifacts this year. Our latest acquisition is an oil painting – a portrait – done by Margaret Whitaker Weir Stedman in the 1940s. David Stedman, Margaret’s grandson, and his wife Peggy are the donors. We thank you, David and Peggy, for this exciting addition to the Society’s art collection by local artists. And, thank you for the lovely frame. Here is why this particular work is so exciting. Margaret’s subject is Elizabeth Hopkins Lenhart. Some of you may remember her; I suspect most of you do not. Now you can get to know her from this painting from c. 1940s. It seems these two ladies were friends and members of the same studio group here in Haddonfield. Betty Lenhart was a very respectable artist herself and HSH has some of her work hung already in Greenfield Hall’s foyer. Following is some interesting biographical information on Margaret (1882-1963). She was an accomplished painter of miniatures on ivory, portraits and still lifes. One of her fine paintings on ivory is on display in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where she was a student of Anna Archimbaux. Margaret was born in Waco, Texas, daughter of Duncan Campbell Weir (1845-1926) and Alice Whitaker (1850-1934). They left Texas when Margaret was very young and she grew up in the Wilkes Barre, PA, area where her father, a coal mine supervisor, was heavily involved in politics and Sheriff of Lackawanna County. She studied
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By Kathy Tassini with old photographs of Birdwood and John Estaugh Hopkins for a brief film about the finding of Hadrosaurus Foulkii. There is an exhibit about the Hadrosaurus at the New Jersey State Museum as part of the 350th Anniversary of the founding of New Jersey – all the young dinosaur hounds in Haddonfield would love to be taken to see it. In addition, we continue to receive treasured pictures, historical documents and books from Haddonfield and former Haddonfield residents. We are always appreciative of these important gifts.
By Dianne Snodgrass at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. Early in her career she was an art teacher in the Atlantic City public schools. It is fitting, therefore, that the Stedman Gallery at Rutgers University, Camden, which opened as a memorial to her and her husband in 1975, runs an extensive program of art appr ec iati on f or urba n youngsters of which she would be very proud. On June 26, 1920, Margaret married Alonzo Walrath Stedman (1884-1960), president of Standard Tank and Seat Company in Camden, NJ. Moving from Camden when their son was born, they settled in Haddonfield. She was a member of the First Presbyterian Church. Margaret learned the skill of painting in water color on ivory, and she was still painting ivory miniatures in the early 1950s. She was part of a studio group and also enjoyed painting in oils and pastels, especially of family and friends. One of her teachers of portraiture was Charles Benz. This portrait of Elizabeth Hopkins Lenhart, a family friend and co-artist, is representative of some of her studio work. The Historical Society of Haddonfield is honored to be the recipient of such fine work.
Recently donated portrait of Elizabeth Hopkins Lenhart painted by her friend and fellow artist Margaret Whitaker Weir Stedman.
www.haddonfieldhistory.org
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The Bulletin
Moving Houses Around and About - XXIV
JESSE PEYTON’S CARRIAGE HOUSE TURNED AROUND
I
n the mid-1800’s, when Jesse and Jennie Peyton and his family lived at 247 Kings Highway East, where Colonial Avenue meets Kings Highway East, there was a sizable carriage house which was built about 1860 quite a few feet back from the street behind their house. This carriage house opened onto a driveway leading directly out to Grove Street. After the P e y t o n ’ s daughter and son House at 21 Colonial Avenue today. -in-law, Jane and Charles Hillman, moved back into her parents’ house after her father’s death in 1897 and the new road called “Colonial Avenue” had opened up by 1907, they divided the old
By Helen Mountney Peyton house which had been moved to their new locations. The house was divided into two separate houses and each was moved to its permanent location at 27 and 31 Colonial Avenue respectively (see Bulletin Vol. 56, No. 3, Sept/Oct 2012). The carriage house was turned a quarter-turn clockwise and moved to become a lovely single, two and one-half story residential home at 21 Colonial Avenue, a short distance north from the Peyton house. The original back line of Peyton’s property was where Willitts Avenue is now. The exposed wide beams in the attic show that this is a well-built structure. There is also a full basement under the house, partially below ground level. The following is the report from Garry Wheeler Stone, Historian, NJ State Park Service, who made an inspection of the property on May 21, 2014: “21 Colonial Avenue is a 1 and 2/3s-story structure with its gable end facing the street. The walls of the building have been padded out with aluminum siding, but the gable foundation (“rock-faced” concrete block) is 20 feet wide, suggesting the width of the building frame. All of the frame of the building is concealed by finishes except for the roof. The rafters are straight-sawn nominally 3x4 inches in section (23/4x4, 3x4, 3x4-1/8). They are mitered and nailed at their apices. The rafters appear to be age-darkened pine. The framing nails are not visible. NO whitewash is present on the rafters.
Sanborn Insurance map 1914 showing carriage house before move, and pigeon houses now gone.
The roof is sheathed with randomwidth, wide plank. The wood is soft, probably pine or poplar. The plank are reused and possibly of considerable age. The few plank measured varied in width from 10 to 15 inches. Most retain evidence of several layers of whitewash. Nail holes, sheared off nails, and a machine-cut, machineheaded redundant nail are other Cont’d on page 5
E-mail: info@haddonfieldhistory.org
The Bulletin
Page 5
MOVING HOUSES from page 4
evidence of reuse. The plank appear to be straight-sawn, but are so heavily weathered that the saw marks are difficult to detect. Why are saw marks on the interior side of the plank so heavily weathered? Were the plank reversed at some point in their history? One or two plank retained the negative images (areas of no white wash) of framing members parallel to the plank. There are no negative images of studs perpendicular to the plank. Thus the immediately prior use of these plank appears to have been the vertical siding of an outbuilding. Thus if these plank are reused from the walls of the building frame of the structure now at 21 Colonial Avenue, they would have been nailed to the sill, the girt (girder) supporting the floor joists, and the rafter plate.
According to Mr. Boyd Hitchner, a neighbor, the beautiful boxwood hedge across the front of this property came from the Wood Farm (formerly Elizabeth and John Estaugh’s property) when the property on the side streets was sold. This makes a very appropriate planting for that home and gives some privacy to the well landscaped large side yard. This property has been owned by Danielle Dayton and Kathleen England since the fall of 2012.
The use of roof sheathing rather than shingle lath suggests that the original roof of 21 Colonial Avenue was metal. The 1914 Sanborn maps of Haddonfield, Sheet 5 (available on line from Princeton) shows a multitude of outbuildings behind 247 Kings Highway (the current Bean Insurance Agency) including a 2-story, metal or slate-roofed stable. It is marked 18 1/2 Grove Street as it was along the alley between Grove Street and Colonial Avenue. If this is the building now at 21 Colonial Avenue, it was rotated 90° when it was moved to its current location.”
Boxwood hedge at 21 Colonial Avenue, originally Wood Farm.
Are YOU a Centennial Charter Member? www.haddonfieldhistory.org
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The Bulletin
REMINISCENCES
W
e have learned of the deaths of two people who have made great contributions to the history of Haddonfield, as well as to the community as a whole and I would like to submit a brief remembrance of each.
Elizabeth Danenhower Rhoads (1924-1914) Betty Danenhower Rhoads was a wonderful friend to the Historical Society and to the community of Haddonfield, even though she had lived in Richmond, Indiana since her marriage to Bob Rhoads in June of 1960.
Betty Rhoads from her 1960 wedding to Bob Rhoads
Betty and Bob returned most summers to visit their extensive network of family members and friends who lived here and to go to their beloved Long Beach Island. Betty was born and raised in Haddonfield, attending Haddonfield Friends School and Moorestown Friends School before she went off to Mt. Holyoke College. I will never forget the first time I met Betty and Bob. He had called me about bringing “some Rhoads things” in for the Society Library. This was the beginning of a thirty year relationship between Bob and Betty and me. Bob would come almost every summer with MORE of the Rhoads Collection of documents, photographs, books and ephemera relating to his grandfather, the amazing naturalist, historian and renaissance man, Samuel Nicholson Rhoads – fulfilling his grand-father’s wish that these materials return Haddonfield and the Historical Society of which he was a Founder. Betty, it turned out, loved the museum collections, as her mother, Elizabeth Danenhower had before her. She would bring antique china, clothing and ultimately Haddonfield-made furniture from her own family’s collection which she too believed belonged “back home in Haddonfield”. They were a special couple who loved their life in Indiana, but always cared deeply about their Haddonfield roots and family. We are all
E-mail: info@haddonfieldhistory.org
By Kathy Tassini saddened by Betty’s death in March and extend our condolences to her daughter Laurie Diane, her granddaughter, Danielle Church, and her brother-in-law and Society member, E. Lawrie Rhoads, Jr. We shall miss her – but always remember her with a smile for her happy and generous nature.
Bryson Carvell Armstead, Sr. (1923-1914) Bryson Armstead was a very special and remarkable gentleman. We first met Mr. Armstead about 15 years ago when he came to the Historical Society Library having been told that we might be able to help him with a quest – a very intriguing quest. He was concerned with the survival of Mt. Peace Cemetery in Lawnside, an historic African-American Cemetery that is the final resting place of at least 77 AfricanAmerican Civil War Veterans, including John Lawson, who received the Congressional Medal of Honor. Mr. Armstead had worked for years with Lloyd Romero of Lawnside on caring for and documenting the cemetery. After Mr. Romero’s death, Mr. Armstead was determined to see the cemetery listed on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places, but was getting no help or support, no matter where he turned. Inspired by his determination and knowledge of the history of the area, we were able to assist him with needed additional research and put him in touch with other historians who had experience with National Register and NJ Register nominations as well as the NJ Historic Trust and the National Trust for Historic Preservation who supported his efforts. As a result Mt. Peace was placed on the NJ Register in 2008 and the National Register in 2009. The cemetery is still in need of continuing help which is now being spearheaded by the Lawnside Historical Society, but it all came from the devotion of Bryson Armstead and Lloyd Romero to the AfricanAmerican war veterans buried at Mt. Peace. Bryson Armstead was born in Haddonfield in December 1923 and raised in what was once a large and supportive African-American Cont’d on page 7
The Bulletin
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REMINISCENCES cont’d from page 6
community that existed here. He was raised mainly on Potter Street and attended the then segregated Haddonfield elementary schools and graduated from HMHS in 1943. Upon graduation he entered the US Navy, serving on a military transport ship until February 1946. After leaving the Navy, Bryson received his BA from St. Augustine College in Raleigh, NC under the GI Bill. He went on to receive a Master’s degree. He was a born teacher and taught for thirty-five years in Howard City, MD, Mount Laurel, NJ and the Philadelphia school district, retiring in 1986. He settled in Lawnside, NJ and became active in many important causes, including serving on the
board of Interfaith Caregivers in Haddonfield, New Visions and Good Samaritain. He was a lifetime member of the NAACP. Over the years, Mr. Armstead would stop by the HSH Library bearing some documentation relating to Mt. Peace Cemetery or early generations of his beloved wife, Lois Sadler’s family. He entrusted these materials to the keeping of the HSH Library for future generations. His last great gift to us was an oral history of his early life in Haddonfield and his wartime experiences. We were so fortunate that he and his dear friend Bob Twitchell both agreed to share with us their reminiscences of their lives and of Haddonfield, truly a priceless final gift.
Bryson Armstead was a special and remarkable gentleman.
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF HADDONFIELD Trustees
Officers President
Carol Smith
Vice President
Kathryn Raiczyk
Treasurer
Mike McMullen
Recording Secretary
Barbara Hilgen
Corresponding Secretary
Sophie Dubiel
Immediate Past President
Lee Albright
Legal Counsel
John Reisner
Term expires 2015
Jim Hansen Kenneth Kramer Sue Maslowski Pat Peacock
Term expires 2016
Pamela Chase Kate Hilgen Dave Stavetski
Term expires 2017
Liz Albert Charlene Kelly Creed Nancy Mattis
Committee Chairs Buildings - Charles Chelotti Collections - General - Dianne Snodgrass Curator of Dolls - Shirley Raynor Community Outreach - Elizabeth Albert Curator of Tools - Don Wallace Education - Pamela Chase Finance - Mike McMullen Fundraising - Carol Smith Bulletin Editor - Nina Wallace
Grounds - Robert Marshall Library - Doug Rauschenberger Long Range Planning - Charlene Kelly Creed Membership - Barbara Hilgen Publications - Kathy Tassini Publicity - Dave Stavetski Rentals - Barbara Hilgen Volunteer Management - Kathryn Raiczyk Web Coordinator - Nina Wallace www.haddonfieldhistory.org
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The Bulletin
MEMBERSHIP NEWS
I
t’s not too late to have your name added to the Historical Society’s 2014 Centennial Charter. At this time 228 names of renewing and new members have been added to the list. Michael and Dolores McMullen are the newest members of the Founder’s Society. Their names have been engraved on a plaque in Greenfield Hall. Mike has served on our Board of
By Barbara Hilgen Officers and Trustees for many years, and we can always count on Dolores for volunteer help. Their financial commitment in support of our mission is greatly appreciated. We welcome the following new members and hope they will become active volunteers when time allows:
Philip and Natalie Italiano Jeffrey Boogaard Please contact Barbara by email barbabs40@gmail.com or phone (856) 4294594 with your ideas about how to increase membership in HSH.
THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF HADDONFIELD 2014/15 MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
YES! I (we) would like to JOIN The Historical Society! YES! I (we) would like to RENEW my (our) membership! The type of membership desired is: Senior Citizen
Contact Information:
$ 25.00
Contributing Member
35.00
Name
Contributing Household
55.00
Address
Patron Member
150.00
Patron Household
250.00
Founder’s Society
1,000.00
Founder’s Household
1,500.00
E-mail Address Phone #
THE BULLETIN newsletter preference: _____ e-mail/electronic copy
_____ “snail mail” copy
Call me about Volunteer Opportunities! I can help with: Please make your check payable to:
Mail the Application & Check to :
The Historical Society of Haddonfield Questions? Call the Office (856) 429-7375
The Historical Society of Haddonfield 343 Kings Highway East Haddonfield, NJ 08033
E-mail: info@haddonfieldhistory.org
The Bulletin
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HSH CENTENNIAL FAIR
E
veryone…mark your calendars for the Historical Society of Haddonfield Centennial Fair to be held on Saturday, September 27th from 12-5 pm with a rain date of Sunday, September 28th. After a wonderful year of celebration for our 100th Anniversary, we will be winding down with this final celebratory afternoon event at Greenfield Hall, offering fun, food and entertainment for the entire family. Haddonfield Plays and Players will provide entertainment in the back garden as well as the Haddonfield Pick-Up Band. Dance Haddonfield will join us for
By Liz Albert afternoon dancing. Indian King Tavern is participating as well. We will have family games throughout the day. Food will be provided by various Haddonfield restaurants and vendors: Jalapenos, Da Soli, Cross Culture, Hollingsworth Bakery, The Posh Shop Bakery and Sweet Pea Ice Cream. With more surprises to come, we are looking forward to seeing you there!
HSH CENTENNIAL
Fair
Anyone interested in contributing to the event…ideas or effort…please contact Kathryn Raiczyk at (856) 685-7310.
HSH HIRES NEW RESEARCH LIBRARIAN
I
am pleased to announce that Dana Dorman will be joining the Historical Society of Haddonfield as our new archivist/ librarian, starting September 2. Ms. Dorman has a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a M.A. in Public History from Temple University. She also is a Certified Archivist from the Academy of Certified Archivists. Her archival
and public history work experience has encompassed a number of institutions, most recently the Historical Society of Pennsylvania as a researcher in the library division and as a project associate, historic images in their New Technologies Project. — Doug Rauschenberger, Chair, Library Committee
News From Our Neighbors
EVENTS AROUND TOWN Amazing Medical Breakthrough Announced—the Cure for Two Left Feet!
Dancers report smiling and feeling happy, much livelier social lives, and a dramatically improved sense of well-being from the vigorous (but gentle) exercise provided by dancing.
Researchers at Dance Haddonfield in Haddonfield, New Jersey today announced the successful completion of tests on a new treatment for that mysteriously debilitating condition known as “2 Left Feet.” Review of the tests by the FDA (Federal Dance Administration) reveal that this new method is 120% effective in clinical trials.
The tests have been conducted every Sunday since April 2000, with lessons from 7 to 8:15 pm, and open ballroom dancing from 8:15 to 10:30. pm. Treatment is only $12 (sorry, not covered by most medical insurers). The treatment center, Grace Church, is located at 19 Kings Highway East, Haddonfield, NJ. Joe Murphy, head of clinical da n c e r e se a rc h , ca n be reached at (856)429-5355 or at Jemurphy@Voicenet.com. Information about this treatment can be found at www.dancehaddonfield.org.
Tests show that after just one night of swing, fox trot or rumba, any Sunday evening at Dance Haddonfield, Grace Church, Kings Highway, Haddonfield, NJ, all symptoms of “2 left feet” disappear.
www.haddonfieldhistory.org
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The Bulletin
BOOK CLUB NEWS
A
n Idea Whose Time Has Come, by Todd S. Purdum, was our summer selection. The time, 1964; the subject, The Civil Rights Act; and a great cast of characters… everything you need for summer time diversion is here. If you lived through the
By Connie McCaffrey 1960 era, the book is also nostalgic, just another plus. A discussion of the book is scheduled for Tuesday, September 23rd, 7 pm in Greenfield Hall. All are welcome. No rsvp necessary.
EAGLE SCOUT PROJECT
WILL RESTORE HISTORICAL SOCIETY’S FRONT GARDENS
T
he Historical Society is collecting funds for an Eagle Scout project to be done on site. Boy Scout Ross Graham will be doing a much needed renovation and refurbishment of our front yard plants and herb garden. As you can see from these photos, our herb garden is quite neglected and overgrown and needs tender loving care! An integral part of any Eagle Scout project is fundraising, and in this case the funds will be used to directly benefit the Society.
By Nina Wallace
Any donation, cash or check, would be very much appreciated to make this project possible. Checks should be made out to the Historical Society of Haddonfield, with a note designating it for the Eagle Scout landscaping project, and dropped off or mailed to: Historical Society of Haddonfield 343 Kings Highway East Haddonfield, NJ 08033 Thanks to those who have already donated— we are grateful for your support!
Boy Scout Ross Graham has been hard at work this summer, restoring our front gardens. As you can see from the photos at left, our herb garden suffered from neglect and had become wild and overgrown.
E-mail: info@haddonfieldhistory.org
The Bulletin
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From The Museum Cellars
THE TOOLS OF THE ARTISTS
W
e have created a new display in the domestic quarter of our Museum Cellars. We now call this former aisle: “Artists’ Tools”. This has enabled us to bring a very special device out of the attic. It had been up there since it was donated by Andy Johnson living on Centre Street in Haddonfield several years ago. It had never been forgotten! It is so unusual that I had to bring it into our tool collections. So we sacrificed an aisle to make it happen. This is one fantastic Victorian artist’s tabouret! Made of rod and tinplate, it holds the artist’s paint tubes with round holes to hold varnishes and thinners as well as a cup atop it’s pedestal to hold brushes in a floral cut-tin bloom about four feet above its cast iron tripod base on the floor. Here’s where a picture says a thousand words! Since this tabouret belonged to Fithian I went back to Andy in order to pin down its provenance in more detail. Frank Livingston Fithian was Andy’s mother’s grandfather. He moved to Haddonfield with his parents in 1876. He later attended The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and another prestigious art school in New York. He worked at Curtis Publishing Company in Philadelphia, creating cover art and drawings for The Saturday Evening Post, The Ladies Home Journal, and Judge magazines. Fithian was a close friend of Emlen McConnel on Warwick Road, and built a studio behind 240 Washington Avenue in 1900 which is still there. He summered in Holgate and belonged to the Haddonfield Episcopal Church. His other friends, neighbors around Washington Avenue, were Ephraim Gill and Isaac Collins. They often hunted wild game together. Andy grew up in that house at 240 Washington Avenue. Behind Fithian’s tin tabouret is a collection of sculptors’ tools which I had collected over the years… and behind that is my old wooden easel. Today it displays a 1977 calendar with a photograph of the “Tatem House”, as we called it in 1951, at 309 E. Kings Highway. The stucco on its front had been removed by 1977 and shows now its original brick façade. In 1951 the members of The Haddonfield Art
By Don Wallace
League were invited by Mr. Hopkins, representing the Public Library of Haddonfield, to paint pictures of old Haddonfield homes for its Centennial celebration. I chose to paint the Tatem House because its oval cut fencing is so identifiable and also because Caryl, my wife of 60 years, and I used to walk past it twice daily on our way to and from Haddonfield Memorial High School until 1950. We also passed the Bauer home, now Greenfield Hall. The stucco was still on the Tatem House when I painted it in 1951. This painting hung in the public library for sixty -one years. I consider this 1977 calendar to be a placeholder for my painting which was returned to me in 2012 by the librarian who was preparing the remodeling of the library with its very limited space. When my son and granddaughter are finished having it grace their home - perhaps in 50 years? - it will sit on my easel overlooking the artists’ tools. Does anyone think that I might wield such influence fifty years after I’m gone? I’m going to try… if I’ve learned anything in these twenty years, it’s that nothing happens fast around here!
Ornate Victorian tabouret belonging to Haddonfield artist Frank Livingston Fithian, left center; Antique sculptor’s tools, and the 1977 calendar featuring a photo of the “Tatem House”, below.
Now, if you think this isn’t history, please consider this: when these paintings of old Haddonfield homes were displayed and dedicated to the public library, Governor and Mrs. Alfred Driscoll came to see the showing because this “Tatem House” was in Mrs. Driscoll’s family… that was her maiden name. They were displayed on the second floor of Borough Hall. I sent Caryl over to hear what was being said as they looked closely at my painting of their historic home. Mrs. Driscoll was overheard telling the Governor, “Wasn’t the artist clever to have painted tree leaves over the third floor, because that floor was added later!” The Driscoll and Tatem families were related by this marriage, but little did she know that I just didn’t want to paint more windows! Now, is this historic enough for you? Please help me make my dream come true. You should make a resolution to come in to see these fantastic historic artifacts, and I will reveal (never before expressed) additional artistic flaws in my painting. www.haddonfieldhistory.org
The Historical Society of Haddonfield
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Addressee or Current Resident
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Phone: 856-429-7375 E-mail: info@haddonfieldhistory.org
GREENFIELD HALL HOURS Monday, Wednesday & Friday afternoons from 1 - 4 p.m. First Sunday of the month 1 - 3 p.m.
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