Meet Garrett P. Orr, Sr., Painter Extraordinaire!

Lane's Landing, Cape Ann by Garrett P. Orr, Sr.

Do you remember reading about Garrett Orr in St. Hubert's Chapel, Garrett Orr, Smoke Rise Memories, the story that Joan Semmler Oravits shared about art work related to the Chapel?

Thanks to that article, I received the following email from Pete Congleton, grandson of Garrett P. Orr, painter and artist extraordinaire!

Here is his message:

Dear Christine,

My wife, Carie, who happens to work in the Class Deans Office at your Alma Mater, is always on the lookout for Garrett Orr paintings that may be floating around out there.  She found your blog and I wanted you to know a little more about him.

"Gary" or "Grandpa Orr" was the father of my late mother, Sandy.  Born in "aught-seven" as he liked to say, he grew up in the little town of Caro, Michigan.  He had a knack for drawing as a boy, and after attending the University of Michigan, he attended the Art Institute of Chicago.

He married his hometown sweetheart, Elinor Smith, and they moved to New York where Gary made a living as a commercial artist, chiefly in the growing field of outdoor advertising.  I remember him explaining how he would design and paint the picture for the ad, and then block it off in sections to enable the outdoor painters to blow it up to billboard size.  During the war he did a number of paintings encouraging people to buy war bonds.

Can't recall the specific years, but Gary and Elinor bought a home in Mountain Lakes, NJ in the early 1930s, where they raised my mother and her little brother -- my namesake, "Uncle Pete."  Both Sandy and Pete graduated from Mountain Lakes H.S.

After Elinor died of cancer in the late 1950s, Gary may have moved back to New York City, because that's where he met and fell in love with Jan Brewster, who I knew as "Mor Mor," thanks to my sister Wendy's mispronunciation of "Grandma Orr." Gary and Jan married and lived for a while in an apartment in Tudor City, which Mor Mor fondly referred to as "the Tender Trap," after the Frank Sinatra tune by the same name.

Portrait of Carie by Garrett P. Orr, Sr.Remarkably, 
Grandpa painted this not long after
he'd had a stroke that initially prevented him
from being able to paint at all!

Sometime in the early 1960s, Gary and Jan moved to Montville, NJ, where they bought a house that had once belonged to a canal boat captain.  Remnants of the old canal could still be seen nearby on the other side of Valhalla Road.  Grandpa set up a beautiful artist's studio upstairs, and Mor Mor operated a small craft business from the in-law apartment downstairs ("The Witch Stitchery," and "The Naughty Needle" are two of the plaques I recall seeing).  MorMor's specialty was needlepoint and she had a book published by the title "Needlepoint Now."  There's even a stitch she invented that was named after her.

At the peak of his profession, Gary was the president of the Art Directors Institute of New York, and in retirement from commercial art, he continued to earn a living by doing portraits for people.

I'm going to send you a couple of photos of paintings we have, but in response to your commentary on his painting of the St. Hubert's Chapel, I'd like to hazard a guess.

Grandpa Orr had a good sense of humor, an eye for composition, and a love of water-- I can see him wanting to break up the monotony of the snow-covered ice in the foreground of your painting.  The painting we have over our living room mantle is a good example of his puckish humor.  The scene is a boat pulled up on a marshy shore with huge granite slabs forming a landing of sorts in the foreground (they are actually the remnants of an active quarrying enterprise that once flourished on Cape Ann on the North Shore of Massachusetts).  The focal point of the picture is a bright spot under the trees to the right of a little house. Mor Mor once told me that when Grandpa finished the painting, he asked her what she thought. She said she liked the focal point but it seemed empty somehow.  Grandpa then proceeded to paint in a tiny silhouette of himself with Mor Mor.  I know that it's him because of the way his head is cocked to the side!

Thanks for remembering my grandfather on your blog and for adding a little dash of serendipity to my day!

Cheers,
Pete Congleton

Thanks so much, Pete, for letting us get to know your grandfather, Garrett Orr!

By the way - this video titled Pete and the new Dodge, Garrett Orr Sr- outdoor artist & Jr, Jake and Sandra Congleton- 1957 [which I had come across earlier] now makes a lot more sense! Pictured here must be Pete and Sandra, your uncle and mother; Jake must be your dad. Do you know where this was filmed?

Smoke Rise History in Photos: 9/22/12 at the Inn

For those of you who love Kinnelon history, you might want to attend the upcoming History of Smoke Rise presentation taking place at the Smoke Rise Inn on Saturday, September 22, 2012 at 5pm.

The Saint Hubert's Chapel Conservation Committee has organized the photographic presentation of the history of Smoke Rise, which hasn't taken place in a while. 5 years to be exact!

The event benefits St. Hubert's Chapel.

Here's how to participate:

Contact JoAnn Brett at 973-838-8228 or email her at jobrett@optonline.net.

Tickets are $25.00 per person [children under 18 are free].

Make checks payable to "Kinnelon Heritage Conservation Society Inc."

By the way, I just heard from William Child who will attend and be available to sign maps - should you decide to purchase one!

If you are planning on coming, consider having dinner and/or drinks at the Smoke Rise Inn.  Here is a link to the dinner menu. The food is outstanding!

Meet William P. Child: Smoke Rise Map Creator

William P.Child, a long time former Smoke Rise resident, is the creator of the Smoke Rise Map described in Support St. Hubert's Chapel in Smoke Rise!

He reached out to us after that article was published and shared wonderful details about the map, growing up in Smoke Rise and his love of art and music.

I'm pleased to share those details with you here.

---------
William P. Child writes,

Growing Up in Smoke Rise

I was born and lived a few years on Long Island, N.Y., but for most of my young life I grew up in Smoke Rise, living at the same residence, 445 Pepperidge Tree Lane, for over 20 years - with my family, parents Ernest (Jim) Child Jr. and Elizabeth (Betty) Child, brother Jim and sister Susan - from 1955 to 1975/76? when we moved to Lake Mohawk, in Sparta to have a lake access residence for our family deep keel sailboat and small water ski runabout.

I am proud to say I am from Smoke Rise, and have many fond memories of life there.  My dad could never beat Mr. Ray Edwards in sailing back in the day, though he tried every Sunday, so his name might not be on the sailfish winners plaque (though it might be for second place?).

I went to Kiel, Stonybrook, junior 7th and 8th grades and the first year of high school at KHS, before transferring to Avon Old Farms in Avon, Ct (same school Pete Seeger graduated from in 1936 and Kristian Bush of Sugarland graduated from in 1988 - Bush's family is renown for the Bush Beans famous product, the one with the dog on the commercial that might give out the family recipe if allowed). 

I was in one of the first "rock" bands, The Aztecs, that played for Kinnelon Junior and High School dances back in the mid 60s and am friends on Facebook with an original member of the Aztecs and Smoke Rise neighbor, Gregory Applegate Edwards. (I'm friends on Facebook with several old friends from Smoke Rise and Kinnelon.)

I have myself written over 135 original songs (copyrighted 31) and am in the Jefferson Township Community Chorus, which performs on Jefferson Day (super nice fireworks display at night too!), including a song I wrote in 2005 "My Sweet Home Jefferson," that we have sung there the last 5 years. Music and art, and Nature are major aspects of my makeup and it all started in Smoke Rise during my youth.

For fun you can hear some of my songs on Youtube or at Reverbnation.com

The Smoke Rise Map

I extensively hiked the terrain, trails, etc. of beautiful and misty at times Smoke Rise on many short hikes (many off-trail) several times a week for many years, keeping written logs and rough sketches of all springs, rivulets, interesting rock formations (Sacred Mesa is one discovered? and shown on my map just west of Hawks Wing - my given name to Green Hill just south of Pine Tree). All of the Indian (Lenape or Delaware) names, as stated in the Legend on the map itself, were derived from various books mostly those of Herbert Kraft and M.R. Harrington. 

Other interesting names were derived from my investigation/knowledge/creativity. It was a long painstaking process (you should see my normal handwriting.. ugh) to get all the details onto the board with quill pen and nib and ink, and brush on the water color layers for elevation visual aid -- all with no major uncorrectable or cover up for "mistakes".

I finished the map original and, it being the country's bi-centennial in 1976, thought it might be great to have copies made and sell them door to door, framed or unframed (interesting that many of the frames were obtained at the present frame shop in Sparta before I was the resident framer as I am presently). I went to The Fairfield Press in Fairfield, N.J. and agreed to pay for 400 copies (a mere start and about 30 second run, then stop the 4 color separation offset litho process large machine).

The original map (in my attic) had a much darker blue to the ponds and lakes but the artists at the Fairfield Press colored them in with the blue you see on the copies now. I still have some of the original copy run in my back porch. I recently sold one to Ms. Karin Rohrer who lives in New Hampshire now (if I remember correctly).

I signed the map in the lower right hand corner with my then abbreviation "logo" C (wrapping around wp) Child/William Phillips. After obtaining a Master Arts degree in Painting, from Long Island University in Greenvale, N.Y., I decided it was better on new projects to spell out, clearly, my name for future clarification of the true artist.

St. Hubert's Chapel

I wish you all good luck with the fund raising program for a very worthy continued preservation of St. Hubert's Chapel (I've rowed and sailed there many times). It's a GEM of a structure like a jewel in a "jewel of a lake" as well. Check out the structure's (reddish stone Old English Cotswold (name of Smoke Rise Mansion, too) style and symbolism of Avon Old Farms, funded and designed by the first woman, Theodate Pope Riddle, architect licensed in Connecticut, who was a survivor of the Luisitania (refusing to take up room in a lifeboat that more needy needed, grabbed a life jacket and jumped overboard). She vowed if she survived to use any power or monies her family had to make a school for young men, that they might make a better world for all (students actually worked the farm in the early years).

I actually found out about Avon Old Farms School through a good friend, Bob MacGinnis (sp?), back in the day who attended Avon as well. His parents may still live in Smoke Rise (I haven't been in touch with Bob for years). See how influential Smoke Rise was to my life! The map was pretty much a labor of love.

Thank goodness beautiful and historic Smoke Rise is still going and I hope doing well in these tough times.

Sincerely and flattered,
William P. Child

--------
Thank you, Bill!

Do you have memories of life in Kinnelon and Smoke Rise? Which were your favorite haunts? Let me know!

St. Hubert's Chapel, Garrett Orr, Smoke Rise Memories

The recent article about Support St. Hubert's Chapel in Smoke Rise has generated wonderful email messages!

Joan Semmler Oravits, who contributed an article about Growing Up in Smoke Rise (at 153 Green Hill Road), recently forwarded me photos of "some old Smoke Rise treasures" that she has had for years. They are pretty marvelous as are the details that she shares with us below.

First, Memories About Living in Smoke Rise

Joan has the following to say about Laurel Lane.

"I remember Laurel Lane. There was a wonderful lady who gave us piano lessons in the early 1960s who lived on that road. Her last name was Wycke (not sure of spelling) and she gave lessons to what seemed like then half of the Smoke Rise kids! She would hold recitals several times a year in her home, always a nerve wracking time so I remember those quite well. She was a dear lady and, unfortunately, passed away from a heart attack about 2 years after our lessons started."

About Tom Kline, Joan says,

"Did Tom have a brother named Phillip? I believe Phillip Kline (also on Ski Trail) graduated the year before I did from Kinnelon High in '68."

[FYI - Kinnelon High School is holding a 50th anniversary event on September 15th, 2012 from 7 to 11pm at the Sheraton in Mahway. Here is a link to the KHS 50th Anniversary flyer with information and to a message from Debbie Bartkowski Annaheim '77 [if the message doesn't work for you, let me know. I came across it on the Facebook Page for the KHS 50th Anniversary Gathering.]

Second, St. Hubert's Chapel Items

Joan shares two items where St. Hubert's Chapel features prominently.

First is a tile which Joan  framed. As she explains, "it shows a black/white drawing of the Chapel with "St. Hubert's Chapel, Smoke Rise, New Jersey" on the front. This belonged to my mother (Rita Semmler) and she had it for a good many years hanging in our kitchen on 153 Green Hill Rd. so it has to be from the late 1960s or early 70s. I think it must have been a Smoke Rise fund raiser item for whatever cause, possibly for the Smoke Rise Community Church."

Next is an oil painting that Joan had an artist paint of the chapel in 1977. As Joan describes,

"One of my mother's best friends in those days worked for an art gallery in Kinnelon and my mother used to have items framed there. On one visit there with my mother where we were viewing some paintings by local artists I suggested that St. Hubert's would make a wonderful subject and I would be so interested in talking to an artist who would be open to the idea of doing one. Long story short - the gallery owner must have talked to a few artists and one, Garrett Orr, agreed to do the painting for me!"

Joan continues,

"It was so long ago, but I think he must have started this painting in the winter and maybe walked across the ice at some point to take some preliminary photos for sketches. 

His first finished item had the ice all around the chapel and I felt like it did not show "water" was around it so he redid that section and broke up the ice so I could see water. He was a wonderful man and I think did a wonderful job of capturing the little chapel as it was during that time. 

I'm not sure what happened to him as I was living in New York City then and only came home on weekends to visit my parents. I did not know then how special that painting would be to me as time went on and today it hangs in a special place where I can see it every day. It is one of my favorite items and has survived through 2 major tornadoes here without a scratch!"

Thank you, Joan!

By the way, here's what I located online re: Garrett Orr:

From Outdoor Advertising Collections in the Hartman Center - Garrett Orr Papers, ca. 1890s–1994 "Orr started out as a graphic artist and went on to become the Art Director of Outdoor Advertising Incorporated (OAI) and the President of the Art Directors Club of New York. This collection documents his artistic output and includes original drawings, water colors, and paintings produced by Orr for the outdoor advertising campaigns of Gillette, Ipana, Lucky Strike, Mazola, Seagram, Verney, Viceroy, and White Rose."

If you have photos and stories you'd like to share, let me know.

Support St. Hubert's Chapel in Smoke Rise!

There's lots afoot with St. Hubert's Chapel in Smoke Rise! Not only in preserving the Chapel, but also in  opportunities to support the Chapel restoration and preservation.

Sadly, I missed the Smoke Rise Days tour of the Chapel, but I'm told by a reputable source that regular scheduled tours may be in the works. That's a good thing because so much has been accomplished to bring St. Hubert's Chapel back to its former glory. I'll keep you posted as I learn more.

In the meantime, there's now a wonderful way to support the historic restoration and preservation of Kinnelon and Smoke Rise's beautiful landmark, St. Hubert's Chapel! Now available for sale are T-shirts, tote bags & maps of Kinnelon. 

More specifically (and shown in the photo below):

• Shirts for $15.00, 
• Tote Bags (zippered) for $20.00 

• Maps for $20.00 (see slide show). 

As you can tell from the photo, the shirts are dark green with a beautiful white print of St. Hubert's Chapel.

The tote bags are all black with the same white print of St. Hubert's Chapel. 

Two maps are available for sale. One represents a map by William P.Child (a long time previous Smoke Rise resident, hiker and lover of the very bedrock and all natural formations and living creatures - flora and fauna included - that make up the foundation of why most want to call Smoke Rise, home) of the Kinnelon area. The other is the historic map of Smoke Rise in the time of Francis Kinney.

All items are great conversation pieces for your summer visitors and college bound kids. Each college dorm should have at least one map of Kinnelon on its walls!

Check out the slide show below, courtesy of Thomas Hannigan. [Note: you can also access the St. Hubert's Gift Items photo set by viewing it directly in Flickr.]

To order these items, please contact JoAnn Brett via phone: 973 838-8228 or email jobrett@optonline.net.

 

Please share this message with others you know who might be interested in helping support St. Hubert's Chapel.

Smoke Rise Art Show & Sale: 3/25/11

Calling all Smoke Rise artists, neighbors and art lovers! Come to the Creative Expressions Arts & Crafts Show and Sales taking place Friday, March 25th, 2011 at the Smoke Rise Inn. It is sponsored by the Women of Smoke Rise and proceeds benefit St. Hubert's Chapel.

The program, which features artwork created by Smoke Rise residents, has two parts:

+ Kids from 4:30 to 6pm
+ Adults from 7 to 9pm

It also includes a 'Small Treasures' area with works priced between $25 and $200.

Visitors are invited to judge which artwork they consider the best!

Roe Saks, President of the Women of Smoke Rise, shares the following:

"Creative Expressions, sponsored by the Women of Smoke Rise, is an Art Show and Sale, with a portion of the proceeds this year going to benefit the restoration of our St. Hubert's Chapel.

While all are invited to attend and purchase artwork, the artwork and crafts on display and for sale  are the creations of our own talented Smoke Rise residents, young and very young!

Smoke Rise residents will be asked to judge all categories.  

We are offering an area called "Small Treasures", featuring artwork from $25 to $200.  These pieces are those which are not being judged in the show.

The event is Friday, March 25th at the SR Inn in Smoke Rise.  Judging begins at 4:30 pm!  We will announce the winners of the children's section at 7 pm and the adults at 9:30 pm!"

Everyone in Smoke Rise, Kinnelon and beyond! are invited to attend the Creative Expressions Arts & Crafts Show and Sale. Come and vote for your favorites! Be tempted by the small treasures created by artists big and small.

Enjoy the Smoke Rise Inn on Friday, March 25th, from 4:30pm to 9pm. Meet your Kinnelon neighbors, have some hors d'oeuvres and a drink from the cash bar.

Celtic Cross by Louis C. Tiffany Studio, Kinnelon's St. Hubert's Chapel

Kinnelon's Magnificent Celtic Cross In St. Hubert's Chapel; from Louis C. Tiffany Studio

If you've participated in one of Tom Kline's guided tours of St. Hubert's Chapel in Smoke Rise, NJ, you've definitely had the glorious opportunity to admire this gem of a stained glass window in the form of a Celtic Cross from the studio of Louis C. Tiffany.

If you haven't, then I share with you here a recent article from the 10/15/09 issue of Smoke Rise News that tells the tale of the Cross' repair and to which I include my photos of the cross.

Saving an Old Rugged Cross

Island Chapel Gets a Face Lift

One brilliant product of the prolific studio of Louis C. Tiffany and Associated Artists was a thick, rustic, stained-glass window in the form of a Celtic Cross that illuminates the tiny baptistery of an intimate chapel on a diminutive island in a small lake in Kinnelon, New Jersey. Tiffany artisans produced the window and other appointments within St. Hubert's Chapel for Francis S. Kinney, a millionaire director of the American Tobacco Company. Kinney erected the medieval-style chapel in the late 1800s and his family used it privately for more than fifty years.

But in 1957, a decade following the death of the last Kinney heir and the subsequent redevelopment of the Kinnelon estate into a community which we call Smoke Rise, five young vandals broke into the chapel, looted its contents, and destroyed much of what they could take.

Fortunately, the window survived with little damage. Today the picturesque building, still accessible only by boat, is watched over by the St. Hubert's Chapel Conservation Committee, a component of the nonprofit Kinnelon Heritage Conservation Society, and the Smoke Rise Security. With a security system now in place the chapel is almost totally restored.

In late 1993, stained glass artisans from Rohlf's Studio in Mount Vernon, New York, removed the Celtic cross window and began its restoration. To correct from warping caused by the weight of the thick glass and the massive leading they divided the window into ten sections and inserted them into an unobtrusive steel frame to protect the window from vandalism and exposure to the elements, then double glazed the frame with plate glass. They reinstalled the window fitting it into a heavy new oak frame. The conservation may have come just in time. Experts feared that if the measures had not been taken soon the Tiffany treasure, which was valued in 1995 at more than $400,000, could have fallen out of its lead framework.

The chapel was rededicated and is open to the public on some occasions, a treasured possession of the Smoke Rise community.

More information on the Celtic Cross and St. Hubert's Chapel is available from the Historic Preservation magazine May/June 1995, or the Stained Glass magazine, Fall 1995. The origin of St. Hubert's Chapel is published by the Kinnelon Heritage Conservation Society.

[The photograph of the Celtic Cross included with this article appears in the Art Glass home page magazine 1995.]

I love stained glass. When I think that this glorious work of art exists in the midst of Kinnelon, I can't help but be reminded of how special this part of New Jersey is!

What do you think? And, what are some of your favorite stained glass windows?






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St. Hubert's Chapel Clock & Bell Tower

Back on Sunday, July 5th, 2009, we had a very special experience, courtesy of Tom Kline... A tour and visit to the St. Hubert's Chapel clock and bell tower and a view that left us breathless.

The St. Hubert's Chapel clock and bell tower are -understandably- not part of the tours that Tom offers. Because the stairs are extremely narrow, with a few steps missing, and there are plenty of metal parts sticking out in places offering the potential to get caught on.

Tom wanted to be able to share the experience with others and felt that pictures and an account in The Smoke Rise & Kinnelon Blog would do just that.

Nonetheless, this special visit not only took us up the tower but also back in time to appreciate the effort and careful detail that Francis S. Kinney put into the creation of St. Hubert's Chapel.

I hope you can imagine how excited we were to absorb the experience and to hear Tom Kline describe the many details of the Chapel Clock & Bell Tower.

If you've participated in one of Tom's Chapel Tours, you may remember seeing a poster inside the Chapel describing the Fresco.

That poster includes a description of the clock and bell tower, too.

Here is what it says:

"... A small door leads to the clock and bell tower. Three large brass bells can be found one flight up. The largest is 43" across the base. Cast in Baltimore, Maryland in 1886, the bells were mounted onto huge oak beams and set into place wile the tower was under construction."



The photo shows you the largest bell. Note the words:

"McShane Bell Foundry, Henry McShane Co., Baltimore, MD, 1886."

[Note that McShane Bell Foundry, with its own Wikipedia entry -unfortunately, not very detailed- has also been featured on Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs!] Here is an Index to Chimes by McShane - no St. Hubert's listed, though.]

From the photos, you can somewhat appreciate the narrowness of the circular staircase and also how massive the beam is that supports the bells and the clock weights.

Continuing on with the description.

"The circular staircase winds past these chimes to another platform which supports the tower clock. The clock is a manual wind-four dial tower clock manufactured by E. Howard and Company of Boston. Howard clocks are considered by collectors to be the finest clocks manufactured. The mechanism operates off three weights totaling some 2,500 pounds and would chime the hour and quarter-hour.

For safety reasons, the tower is closed."

The clock mechanism is truly remarkable.

Think about it. This is a mechanism that was put into commission in 1886 - more than 100 years ago. And, yet, it stills keeps time.

Yes, it needs manual winding, but it still keeps time.

Marvelous.

Here, you see the view up the tower with the various beams supporting the weight mechanisms.

There are three separate clocks: for minutes, hours and chimes.

I love the elegance of the mechanisms, all cast iron, very solid and enduring the test of time. Hah! Pun intended.

Now, in inviting us to visit the St. Hubert's Chapel Clock Tower, Tom promised us a view that we would never forget. Given how dark the inside of the tower is, we weren't sure what to expect... until he removed the whole clock face from the tower wall.

... and showed us this amazing view.

A View of The Land (and water) Where The Smoke Rises.

Thank you, Tom!

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St. Hubert's Chapel, Amazing Discovery July 2009

During this year's tours of St. Hubert's Chapel in Smoke Rise's Lake Kinnelon, Tom Kline shared an amazing new discovery: that the Chapel once housed a bronze statue of the Madonna and Child [pictured below] by Gustave Dore -- who also created the statue of Night, the location of which we discovered during The Old Birch Spring Trail...

How Tom came to this amazing discovery is fascinating.

It begins in Rhode Island. If you remember from an early Cornie Hubner Story [see Didja Know? The Cottage - Francis S. Kinney's Home], Francis S. Kinney spent time in Rhode Island, and more specifically, Narragansett, RI, where there still exists the Kinney Bungalow. [The Kinney Bungalow is owned by the town of Narragansett and managed by the Narragansett Land Conservancy Trust which has been in contact with the Kinnelon Historical Commission.]

According to Tom, the Kinney Family owned not just the Kinney Bungalow, but also land [i.e., a farm] where the building was located, and a summer home. In early June, he visited Narragansett, to meet with the Narragansett Land Conservancy Trust and personally inspect the Kinney Bungalow and see the site where the Kinney summer home was.

Francis S. Kinney built the Bungalow in 1899 for his daughter, Beatrice's debutante party. However, the Trust believed that the daughter's name was Frances [You'll note in this web page about The Kinney Bungalow, the reference to a daughter named Frances.], a detail that Tom corrected the Trust on.

Shortly thereafter, Tom decided to research Beatrice online, both as "Beatrice Kinney" [note this fascinating article on Morris Kinney Gives Dance; Entertains for Mr. and Mrs. Harry La Montagne at Sherry's] and "Beatrice Kinney Lamontagne".

The second search led to link to a National Registry of Historic Places Inventory document for St. Mary Help of Christians Church in Aiken, South Carolina. Aiken, it seems, was a popular winter resort in the early 1900s.

Go to page 3 of that document and you will notice mention of a Gustave Dore bronze statue of the Madonna and Child. Look further on pages 5 and 7:

The Madonna was cast in bronze by the Thiebaut foundry in Paris shortly after the 1880 Paris Salon. It was purchased by a Mr. Kinney, who interred the statue in an island chapel on Kenlon, his Butler, New Jersey, estate. His daughter, Beatrice Kinney Lamontagne, acquired the statue after his death. A winter resident of Aiken, in 1947 she donated the Madonna to Monsignor George Lewis Smith and St. Mary Help of Christians church, where it remains today, as a memorial to her husband, Harry Lamontagne.

Tom then investigated Gustave Dore, a renowned French artist, engraver, illustrator and - later in life - sculptor. [This link shows you the many illustrations he did of Dante's Inferno, and other works by Dante, Tennyson, Balzac, Rabelais and others.] Now, check out this passage from the Life of Gustave Dore which describes that Dore exhibited great talent for - no, mastery of - drapery and that this was noticeable in his sculptures Glory, Night and Atropos and Love...

Night? Yes, that Night! The 'NIGHT' that appears carved into the rock along the Birch Spring trail... Eureka - on two counts!

As it relates to the Chapel, Tom explained that Dore's Madonna and Child occupied that space that for years he had said once held a baptismal font. Imagine as you walk into the Chapel on the right hand side, underneath the Celtic Cross window, seeing the statue pictured above on the large stone pedestal that is there now. As a reminder, it's two feet high, square along the back edge and sides and rounded on the front, and if you look at the floor, the mosaic pattern also follows the pedestal arc.

Truly an amazing St. Hubert's Chapel discovery.

For the record, over 100 people visited St. Hubert's Chapel this past July 5th, 2009.

In addition to the Madonna and Child discovery, Tom also pointed out the new windows inside the chapel and the new cross above the entrance door - which you can see in the photo on the left.

In a separate post, I'll share with you our adventure in the clock tower.

Thanks, Tom!

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Save July 5, 2009 For St. Hubert's Chapel Visit

Did you get to experience [or at least see] the glorious sunshine that appeared today? My friend Jeanne Byington said it didn't make its way to Manhattan until much later... Nonetheless, I assure you it truly was sunshine -- just in time for the weekend and just enough to have me anticipating lovely holiday weekends at the Smoke Rise beach, and an upcoming tour of St. Hubert's Chapel.

That's right! The next major beach events coincide with July 4th weekend. If you haven't experienced them yet for yourselves, these are worth taking part in!

Fireworks, sand-castle-building contests, minimalist regatta [which I promise myself I will participate in some day!], beach activities and tons of other marvelous activities... And, my very favorite: tours of St. Hubert's Chapel in Smoke Rise led by Tom Kline, the ultimate source of all knowledge relating to this magnificent edifice!

From the schedule, tours will take place on Sunday, July 5, 2009 from 1pm to 4pm, when lovely boat owners will ferry us to the Chapel and back for the experience of a lifetime....

You will come, right?

And let others know?

I've been on two of these tours so far, and can't wait for my third - especially given the marvelous story that John J. Connelly recently shared with us [see Discovering Kinnelon's St. Hubert's Chapel in 1965].

If I may, I'd like to encourage you to be ready to donate something in support of St. Hubert's Chapel. After all, it represents a gem in the Smoke Rise and Kinnelon crown and we must support it. It is truly unique and worthy of our appreciation.

I'll be there. I hope you will, too! And, be sure to take your photo by St. Hubert's Chapel and I'll make sure to showcase the photos here and/or on Flickr. Deal?





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Discovering Kinnelon's St. Hubert's Chapel in 1965

Sometimes, the wondrous happens... as in discovering St. Hubert's Chapel when you are 9 years old and tlhe structure all but abandoned, and having that grown up nine year old share the tale with us here.

That is what I have for you today. An amazing tale from John J. Connelly, now in California, who lived in Smoke Rise on Orchard Road as a child and left in 1974. He graciously shares this tale.

---------------

One especially cold winter in 1965 when I was 9 years old, I and a boy from the neighborhood named Richard Waltmann, hiked through the trail at the end of Orchard Road, finally arriving around by the Smoke Rise lake. We were freezing and spotted the Chapel out on the island. The ice was frozen solid, so we decided to walk across the lake and explore the building in the hopes of possibly seeking shelter from the cold wind.

It is one thing to be escorted to the Chapel Island by informed guides who can share its history, the origin of the stones used in its construction and its original purpose, but I'm telling you, it is quite another to be a young Catholic boy discovering it quite by accident.

Stepping on to the Island, I was struck by the stark image of the dark Chapel against the purity of the deep snow all around. The roof was white with snow. A driven snow bank covered the front steps and partially obscured the immense front door covered in strange lettering. Richard and I were dumbstruck. We looked at each other in awe and I remember him just saying "Whoa!".

The door was locked so we climbed through one of the broken windows and entered the altar area. The floor was thick with debris and bird droppings. The air was filled with the sounds of birds, cooing and fluttering their wings. I fancied myself to be an artist back then and the images flooding into my brain were, frankly, intoxicating.

Richard found a little blue stone on the floor under some rubble. I looked up at the ceiling and noticed some moisture. The whole roof looked like it could come crashing down at any moment. The floor was so thick with droppings and debris that we were leaving footprints where ever we walked. But, ours were the only footprints, suggesting to us that we were the first sojourners to the Island in a long time.

"Who built this?" we said to each other, and "Does anyone know this is here?"

We stooped down to see if we could find other colored stones on the floor in front of the altar, when we noticed that there were two large white oval places on the face of the altar where stones had once been. They were right in the center of the altar. Richard and I couldn't resist, so on the one on the right I scrawled the date and my initials and Richard took the one on the left and did the same.

Walking forward I was drawn by the soft blue light of a stained glass window across the way. As I approached it, staring up, I was suddenly startled by a large white angel on the left. Having just spent 3 years at St Anthony's Catholic School in Butler, I instinctively kneeled before the statue, removed my wool cap, and blessed myself. I mean, I wasn't about to take chances being disrespectful in such a mystical and obviously Holy Place. The gentle rhythm of the cooing was all around.

Richard called out, "John, there's a room here with a staircase!"

Richard and I slowly made our way up the stairs in pitch darkness.

"Are you sure this is safe, Richard?"

"I don't know."

Just then bats began to flutter around us, and birds frantically flapped about in the near total darkness. We ducked and waited for the commotion to die down, then continued to scale the steps. As we went higher there was a little light from above that illuminated three large bells suspended from wooden planks. We continued until finally reaching a roof. "Did the steps just go to the roof?" we wondered. But, pushing hard, the roof flipped open, and we entered the clock room.

Back then, it was shin deep in bird droppings. Pushing the panel to enter the clock room had stirred up the droppings and we coughed violently for a minute or two. Wind was howling outside and slight breezes were entering into the clock room from weather worn slits in the wood clock faces. I felt like I was going to throw up from the smell and the debris in the air when I noticed a latch on one of the clock faces and pulling it open, fresh air and light filled the tight space.

The view revealed was extraordinary. It was of the Smoke Rise Beach, the Talbot's home and the Tower. We admired the scene and then turned to examine the clock works in the middle of the room.

Richard found an old lever in the debris which he went about trying to figure out where it fit. Finally, we figured out it was a cranking device, and placing it where we though it should go, gave it a half turn.

Suddenly the clock came alive, spinning, clicking and large weights dropping. Faces alive with glee, we watched it move until suddenly, without warning, the large bells below us sounded one powerful gong.

Nervous that the bell would alert adults that we were there, we decided to begin to make our escape. We closed the clock face, and carefully made our way down the spiral staircase to the landing below. Richard went straight to the window, but I to the angel. I don't know why, but climbing up on the base of the angel, I kissed her on the cheek, then kneeled again in front of her and blessed myself. Climbing through the window, we left the island. I was nine years old and I felt that I had been in the presence of God.

Now, the story could have ended there. But it doesn't.

One of my closest friends growing up was Tom Kline. Almost every day we would meet up and go on some sort of adventure together. I was Alice through the looking glass when I was with Tom, and he was my white rabbit. I'd just follow him down the rabbit hole and the adventures we went on together are legendary.

One day I told Tom about the Chapel. He listened intently as I told him about the condition, the statue, the altar, the stained glass window and the clock works. He asked if I could take him there, and I said sure. So, off we went.

As it was spring, we climbed aboard his canoe and paddled to the Island. Tom was enraptured. He studied the place, not like a young boy, but like an archaeologist. When we went to the bell tower, he spent a long time peering at the machinery. "Hmm", he'd say, "I think this piece goes here and that piece goes here....but, there's a piece missing. See if you see something that looks like this on the floor." And so on. I couldn't drag him away.

Next thing I remember, we were spending our summers at the island. Painting the clock faces, sweeping the debris, trimming the landscaping. I was there at Tom's side through all of it in the early days. He even sweet talked the man building the legendary "Million dollar house" across the way from the chapel into donating roofing materials for the chapel. Had Tom not re-roofed the chapel that year, the entire structure would have been lost. Thanks to Tom, it was preserved. At a time when I don't recall much talk about historic preservation, Tom just did what he felt he had to do.

Now, I have blue eyes, and one day Tom brought some blue powder out to the island and he squirted the powder into the angel's eyes. He just said that she should have blue eyes. He never explained it any further. Was it because he was appreciative that I'd told him about the Chapel? Was he in love with a blue eyed girl? I never asked and he never said. Tom's like that in many ways. A man ultimately of very few words but very deep passions. But one thing was clear; Tom had found his true love and he was to go on to devote his life to the preservation of that Chapel. I feel honored to have been there at the moment he'd found something so rare and beautiful that it changed his life.

He was there when I did the same, but that's a story for another day.

After many years of Tom's loving restoration efforts I had the opportunity to return to the Chapel with Tom as my tour guide. Just him and me. Yes, this time it was Tom taking me to the Island. It was a beautiful day and Tom showed off all the extensive work that has been accomplished in the many years since I'd been there with him. So much of the damage I remember has all been erased. The entry doors have been preserved. The large key that he'd somehow managed to gain possession of years ago still unlocked the entry door.

As we stepped in, I still felt the awe of a 9 year old and had to stop to pay my respects to the beautiful blue eyed angel that still greets visitors to her sanctum all these years later. Tom explained that no matter what he's done, the blue can not come out of the marble. He joked "So, don't try that on your marble unless you want it to stay blue." Maybe. Or maybe he just prefers that his angel stay a blue eyed one.

Everywhere I looked, evidence of vandalism and neglect had been reversed. Tom's made sure of that. But, as I made my way to the altar, there on the two prominent soft white patches, were two bits of vandalizing that Tom had purposely not erased. My eyes teared up as I read there written:

"RW and JJC - 1965."
---------------------------
Thank you, John.







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Frozen Lake Kinnelon - January 2009

Yes, it's a bit strange to be looking back on photos from January and of frozen Lake Kinnelon when it's early April and the forsythia are seconds away [depending on the level of sunshine we can expect tomorrow] from bursting. However, it does put things into perspective - don't you think?

These photos come from two outings on Lake Kinnelon. One took place on January 11, 2009 when I had just gotten back from a trip to Dallas and both daughter and husband urged me to take a quick walk to experience the unimaginable: a frozen lake!

We took off from the Crossway boat ramp and followed the tracks below to an ice fishing campout complete with TV, dogs, and kids.

We didn't go very far. This was but an initiation.

The following weekend, on January 24, 2009, I got talked into a much more ambitious lake walk... From the starting point below, at the Crossway boat ramp, all the way to St. Hubert's Chapel and back.

The idea of walking to St. Hubert's held great appeal. After all, per my early post titled St. Hubert's Chapel Visit, and

"Rough stones were gathered from the slopes surrounding the lake, and during the winter, massive horse drawn sleds were used to transport them across the frozen lake to the remote island. "

... the chapel had to have been built during the cold harsh winters when the lake was frozen.

Here, then, was an opportunity to experience the chapel and the lake as Francis Kinney and his contemporaries did.

Now, I will be honest. Very honest. I found walking across the lake extremely unnerving. I did it, but I don't think you have ever seen anyone walking more gingerly than I did. My husband and daughter marched confidently ahead of me, laughing at my discomfiture. I kept going, but the booming of the ice and general 'talking' of the surface underfoot tensed my neck muscles and had me thinking that each step would be my last. Some sections were hard and solid feeling. Others were wet and overly crunchy and irrational looking.

Nonetheless, I made it. Phew!

And the experience was unlike any other.

Later on, we learned from Bjorn Walberg that the booming sounds are 'good' sounds [as this post about frozen lake ice cracks supports]. When the ice is too thin you don't hear them. However, Bjorn also shared the fact that he fell into a lake in Norway, with skis on after assuring his wife that the ice was safe.... and he was laughing while he told the story, apparently the height of Norwegian humor!

Check out this post titled A Blog Of Ice with Tibetan and Norwegian inspired ice music... Bjorn, this one goes out to you.

I've posted the photos to Flickr: Frozen Lake Kinnelon NJ.





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Louis C. Tiffany and St. Hubert's Interior

As mentioned in St. Hubert's Chapel Visit, Francis Kinney commissioned Louis Comfort Tiffany for the interior of St. Hubert's Chapel in Kinnelon, NJ, some time after 1886 and before 1889 when the Chapel was dedicated.

Louis Comfort Tiffany [1848 -1933] was the son of Charles Lewis Tiffany who founded the venerable Tiffany & Co. A talented artist, he was known for stained glass windows and lamps, ceramics, jewelry, blown glass and glass mosaic. He was originally trained as a painter, learning from George Inness and Samuel Colman, both landscape painters. Tiffany captured an Art Nouveau sensibility [also see Art Nouveau].

Despite the painting background, from 1875 on Tiffany became increasingly interested in glassmaking. In 1879 with several other artists he formed Louis Comfort Tiffany & Associated American Artists. This was dissolved in 1885 so he could focus solely on glass arts, when he launched Tiffany Glass Co. [which in 1902 became Tiffany Studios].

Given the dates, I assume that Tiffany Glass Co. is the organization that Francis Kinney worked with for St. Hubert's Chapel.

From The Saint Hubert's Chapel booklet: "In order to carry out Kinney's plan for a medieval church, Tiffany assembled a team of artists and antiquarians. Under the direction of J.A. Holzer, a prominent artist, they set out to research the life and times of St. Hubert. The group spent three years locating art treasures and exploring museums in Belgium and throughout Europe to collect data. Sketches, models and drawings were made and sent to New York where a highly skilled group of professional craftsmen under Tiffany's supervision, carefully recreated the various artworks that were to be installed at St. Hubert's Chapel."

I have found references to J.A. Holzer and Louis Comfort Tiffany working on the following projects - all after St. Hubert's Chapel: Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University built from 1892 to 1894; Church of the Covenant in Boston, MA [redecorated in the 1890s]; Marquette Building in Chicago built in 1895; St. Paul's Church in Troy, NY in the 1890s; Willard Memorial Chapel completed in 1894 in Auburn, NY.

My conclusion: St. Hubert's Chapel represents a very early Tiffany Glass Co. project. I expect that many aspects of the Chapel's interior captuer early concepts and techniques that Tiffany and Holzer would have developed further in subsequent projects.

According to Cornie Hubner in a Didja Know? article titled "St. Hubert Chapel": "Two complete families of sculptors and masons were brought from Italy and resided on the estate for more than two years. Their work and that of the wood carvers and carpenters was directed by the Tiffany supervisor, Mr. A. Holyer [i.e., Holzer]. He also designed and supervised much of the interior with its tile floor and many inlays."

"The Tiffany organization supplied the altar and fixtures, furnishings and vestments decorated with many long gone semi-precious stones. Scenes of the Forest and the hunt were pictured in original windows. A wood sculptured confessional, a fireplace, and pews provided seating for 24."

The Chapel Brochure describes the baptistery, site of the magnificent Tiffany window, as follows:

"In the baptistery of the Chapel is a Tiffany double-paned window in the shape of a Celtic cross. This thick glassed window is filled with a most elaborately wrought cross of lead grill-work. The lumps of glass are broken roughly to make as many facets as possible, so as to reflect the light and add to its brilliance. The lower portion of the cross originally contained the symbols of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, the foundation of the faith which is represented by the cross itself. [Two of the symbols were removed by thieves during the past forty years.] Above, in the arms and top of the cross, the symbols of the four Evangelists, the channels of the faith, are represented respectively. The exterior glass of the double-paned window was selected to appear as a mosaic in the stonework and enhance the beauty of its interior view when sunlight is transmitted. "

According to Wikipedia's entry on Tiffany, "In the beginning of his career, Tiffany used cheap jelly jars and bottles because they had the mineral impurities that finer glass lacked. When he was unable to convince fine glassmakers to leave the impurities in, he began making his own glass. Tiffany used opalescent glass in a variety of colors and textures to create a unique style of stained glass. This can be contrasted with the method of painting in glass paint or enamels on colorless glass that had been the dominant method of creating stained glass for several hundred years in Europe."

From the descriptions, it sure sounds like St. Hubert's Chapel's Celtic cross of stained glass captures Louis C. Tiffany's unique glass works technique and sensibility. I hope to get better photos when I next visit.

From the Metropolitan Museum of Art's website comes information on Tiffany's stained glass work:

"Beginning in the late 1870s, Tiffany and his early rival John La Farge revolutionized the art of stained glass. Until then, the craft had remained essentially unchanged since medieval times. La Farge and Tiffany, dissatisfied with the limited colors and poor quality of available window glass, experimented with novel types of materials, achieving a more varied palette. Opalescent glass, internally colored with variegated shades of the same or different hues, enabled artists to substitute random tonal gradations, lines, textures, and densities—inherent in the glass itself—for the pictorial details that previously had been painted on the glass. Other innovations involved plating, the addition of one or more layers of glass to attain greater depth of color and three-dimensional effects and to blend different hues. Tiffany drew from a stock of thousands of different types and colors of glass, some of which were given dramatic textures and shapes through the use of molds and through manipulation of the material in its molten state."

Fascinating, isn't it? What a gem and historical masterpiece available in Smoke Rise and Kinnelon, NJ. If you haven't already, do make a point to visit St. Hubert's Chapel.

The St. Hubert's Chapel Conservation Committee replaced the entry, baptistery and bell tower roofs in 1992. Electrification and alarm system came in 1993. The Tiffany Celtic Cross was removed for restoration in 1993, and reinstalled in 1994.

The Chapel's entrance door [pictured above] was also designed and created by Tiffany Studios. It was restored in the mid 1990s.



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