Payson Tucker Sunset Hill obsolete version with cuts to use later

need better title/s

wet your whistle at this hard rock memorial 

hard rock memorial to wet your whistle 

Recently a patron asked about this somewhat mysterious and enigmatic piece of public sculpture in the Rotary Park at the corner of Route 16/302 and Depot Road in North Conway. 

For me, this object can serve as a story gateway that leads from this monument, to a man, to a house, to maps, to lasers and finally to the mountain summits at the edge of the horizon for some of the most famous views in White Mountain Art. 

For the younger crowd, the site serves as a Poke gym through the Pokemon Go mobile game (My son knew all about that subject, I on the other hand was clueless about that). See an article about that from the Conway Daily Sun here. 

I knew just by glancing at it that for past generations, it served a more practical function as part of the necessary infrastructure during the horse and buggy days. 

It is a watering trough, a once critical remnant of a lost landscape and time period that remains today only as a vague memory. 

To explore the story, we will use both modern technology and also look at historic photos, maps, newspaper clippings, wills, legal documents, paintings, prints, sculpture, and even rugs and sheet music. 

You can start your own search with your smart phone through the "Clio" app. The entry for this fountain is here. To look for other historic sites in the Conway area check out this link here. To use this program simply turn on your phone's location and ask Google to search for "the clio dot com" and as you drive around it will direct you to a host of historic sites. 

The Google Street View image above, as well as a series of related maps and satellite images, can be found here.  You can use this site to navigate to the park. It is conveniently located just south of the new home of the Mount Washington Valley Chamber of Commerce and west of a free parking lot from which to explore the area. 

You can see the Chamber website here. 

The 2003 Town of Conway Annual Report here reveals that this was not it's original location. It was moved here in September of that year. 

The photo in the lower left corner shows Poco & Athena as the "first customers" to the fountain at its new location.  (Photo by Karen Hallowell) 

Also on the cover is a photo of Gary Webster, Chair of the Board of Selectmen, along with members of the North Conway Rotary Club, cutting the Ribbon at the opening ceremony for the Depot Street Park. (Photo by Lloyd Jones/Conway Daily Sun). 

Coincidentally construction of the Conway Public Library's new addition also began in 2003 as evidenced by the photo of then Librarian, Margaret Marshner, standing in front of the Conway Public Library. (Photo by Tom Eastman, then of the Mountain Ear).

By moving the fountain to the new location, the trough lost it's original context and some of the story connections. We will attempt to reset that here (at least virtually). The Conway Public Library's Henney History Room has a photo of it in it's old location here. 

As documented in bold capital letters on the watering trough, it was a gift to the community from Payson Tucker in 1894. 

Here is a portrait of Payson Tucker (no, not the fish face above, but rather the guy with the serious handlebar mustache below). 

Tucker was a railroad magnet, business entrepreneur, and philanthropist who had a summer home in Conway (more on that later). 

civil war? 

According to "Find a Grave" here he was born Feb 14, 1840, died at age 60 on April 27, 1900, and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Portland Maine. 

The Conway Historical Society has a marble bust of Payson Tucker which we believe was originally presented to the Maine Eye and Ear Infirmary by his widow after Payson's death. A fifty-six page pamphlet from the November 21, 1900 "unveiling" of the bust can be found here. Information about the sculptor, Frederick A. Shaw, can be found on p. 25 here. Shaw's name is inscribed on the back of the bust. 

According to wikipedia and mainememory the Maine Eye and Ear Infirmary was founded in 1886 and merged with Maine General Hospital in 1951. See links here and here. 

That same face was also profiled on a three-handled silver trophy cup with a gilt (gold) interior, made by Tiffany and Company now on display at the Portland Museum of Art  here (click on images to enlarge them). 

Another side of the cup celebrates Tucker's involvement with Union Station in Portland Maine. 

More images of Union Station can be found here and information here. 

The inscription can be seen at this link here. 

It reads "Presented to Payson Tucker by employe's (sic) of the Maine Central Railroad - a testimonial of affection and x?" can't read the last word. December 1896," two years after Payson Tucker gifted Conway the watering trough.

Tucker's summer home in North Conway was featured in an 1892 Atlas which we have at the Conway Public Library's Henney History Room. Here is the same scene today from Google street view here. 

You can still see the stone posts flanking the entrance to the hill top site, now the location of the Red Jacket Resort. You can read more about that history on their website here. 

The trees in the photo obscure the stables and the ice house which still exist, extant... trees also hide thesaurus the view that would have been seen by the broad, wide piazza that surrounded... This view was actually discovered by an earlier generation of White Mountain artists, more on that later... 

Tucker's will, which can be found through the library's ancestry database, insert image, discloses, divulges, informs, indicates includes detailed gave it to his wife

We recently received a donation of the following postcards that help show more of the site when it was the Birchmont Club (click on images to enlarge them). 

insert other photos

birchmont/e from hhr pp 

and ck shoe box photos at elh scan as needed 

 

Note the magnificent birch tree from which the summit home gained its name (more on this tree later). 

Info from Tolles insert observatory 

put here about the view and piazza here, not above

outbuildings 

the estate included 

add champney dining room, here or later?

What the post cards do not show are the magnificent views from the hill, which had been discovered by an earlier generation of painters and photographers. However, before we look at some of their art, let's look at some maps to orient ourselves. 

The 1892 map above is from the same atlas that has the print of Tucker's summer home. It links his house to other sites we will explore in this and other blogs including his next door neighbor, the home and studio of Benjamin Champney. 

1860 map shows Champney but not show Payson Tucker

did i do this before?

This Rambler Echo map published in the x date issue of The White Mountain Echo newspaper shows ... 

The NH Stone Wall Mapper program here offers combination of both modern and historic maps. On the one hand lidar lidar, lasers on the other hand layer old quad maps 1896, 1942 and 1945. If have any questions about how to navigate through this just contact us. 

insert those maps here via print screen and paint (make them all large) 

more close up 

here is a fairly familiar satellite view 

The image is bisected by the railroad tracks and just to the right of that busy Route 16/302. 

On the right half of the image you can see the curving entrance driveway leading to the red roofs of the Red Jacket Inn and it's blue pool. 

On the left side of the image you can see farmed fields, woodlots and the Saco River with a wide beach. 

below is a view of the same coordinates with the lidar layer selected 

explain Lidar stands for (laser imaging, detection and ranging) is a remote sensing method, a pulsed laser measures the computer ... as if the buildings and trees removed showing the landform. 

the view above is as if the sun were coming from the northeast and below is as if the sun were coming from the northwest. 

compare the images, look for the meandering brooks, the field patterns, 

you can even see the Red Jacket's swimming pool. 

You can also apply layers of quad maps this one blow from 1896. 

Above you can see ten buildings along the road, the big house and large barn. 

This one below from 1942 you can see more roads and buildings being added 

changes over in a three year period in 1945. 

then go back out or start out and then go in? or? this to current Google map with labels

more close up (cut this if choose to do this above) 

now to the vista the views 

this small hill is home to an astounding number of White Mountain paintings. It was the center of many viewpoints wma 

in many directions, prospects, perspectives 

The view is featured on the cover of our main history of Conway. 

see what hounsell says about Payson Tucker, Birchmont, Champney, etc. 

probably a student of champney sixty ties to another book in hhr collection, perhaps the most commonly referred to
hounsell

notice the steeple on the left,
the original for this cover at chs

some question about who painted it? another in private collection
ur2
you can see the steeple here

and that birch tree on the right
but where is the sunset? there are more than one sunset 

another similar copy at Bethel
view from sunset hill
done by others, see previous blog/s
inness, etc.

champney did print of sketch of the view for a bondcliff? bond? map but not from sunset hill?
link to wmhistory website, map 

more steeples can be found in this painting and print while from same hill, not the same steeples
this has confused a number of people,

then to
see pics hhr shared
\\STAFF\Share\Henney Room Shared\Blog pics HHR shared future\steeple pics
and history pics steeples  

Champney washington from sunset hill with steeple 

here. 

wma com

and another here. 

this one here by champney shows his house but not the steeple 

start with pic bob and the kensett,

add winslow homer artists sketching 

add George Inness from sunset hill 

In previous blogs we examined different versions of a single view of Mount Washington from Sunset Hill starting with an enlargement of a print at the library. 

I mentioned then that the scene had been enlarged for easy study and can be found on the stair hall leading down to the Henney History Room at the Conway Public Library. The print was made from the painting below by Kensett. 

The print at the library above was based on this painting Mount Washington from the Valley of Conway by John Frederick Kensett, below. It is now in the collection of the Wellesley College Museum. You can read about it here wma com  (is it 1851 or 1869?) 

The White Mountain Art website displays thesarous the 1869 Kensett painting at Wellesley here. do they have a annotated topographical features list view of this? 

and or photo comparisons 

and or sketch comparisons 

The painting was purchased by the American Art Union and made into an engraving by James Smillie, and distributed to 13,000 Art Union subscribers throughout the country.

Compare the painting with the photo below which I took last autumn, hoped leaves off the trees, but too many evergreens to capture the image, scene. 

cut some of those trees and add a few sheep and we would recreate the Kensett view. 

Today, you can’t see this view most of the year due to the trees that have grown up since the days when this was a farming landscape and the fields were more open. While the scene vanishes from view for most of the year, as Simon and Garfunkel sang, “Seasons change with the scenery” (or actually the scenery changes with the seasons) and for a brief time this will be a good time for peaking (hills and mountains) and for peeking a little into the past, allowing us to unweave time like in a tapestry at least until the lime green leaves of spring return.

Another summer (no summit snow) version, dated 1851, strikingly similar viewpoint, (match topography) slightly different version in private collection? email them about that can be seen below fmi see  here (this webpage has details including the steeples) 

As indicated, suggested, implied before, numerous over twenty? count pics below after I cut the inness and two kensetts other (19 with name in title, 4 others I recognize, id mine by the 5 in jpeg name) version of that view name in the title looking towards Mount Washington from Sunset Hill 

id by summit of Mount Washington usually at or near the center and pyramidal sharp point of Adams on the right. 

sometimes also includes White Horse Ledge to Kearsarge. 

These profile, prospects, outline seen in artworks by Boutelle, Brown, Champney, Cropsey, Durand, Ferguson, Gerry, Higgins, Inness, Luthy, Moore and Paskell, Ritter, and Shattuck. others can be seen here. (mount washington gallery) 

insert those pics? from virtually the same spot? 

these paintings provide interesting details, features possible clues to fences, ponds, sheep, cows, dogs, steeples, stone, seasons and other buildings... explore in other blogs, even trees have tales to tell 

However, must always remain skeptical, not intended to document, artistic license 

insert pics, comment on them now or later, some now, some later   

Champney also did the print below that accompanied the Bond map of 1853. 

You can read more about that print  here and many other artist prints here. 

For info on the map see this article by Adam Jared Apt on the White Mountain History website here. 

While the Kensett more famous, I must admit fondness for the luminous, painterly Inness below. 

include the inness here? 

while Kensett most famous, perhaps my favorite, inness

tie inness to 

steeple church seen here

the academy and other church steeple in kensett and smillie

orchard 

free range cattle, mixed colors 

ledges, see previous blog road to mordor 

part of video tour youtube did on luminous terrain exhibit here. 

Currier and Ives published their version of the painting around 1860. Later their image was used as inspiration for wall decoration in the Currier and Ives room at the Eastern Slope Inn.

Currier and Ives Print

while this northwest, ck with compass, towards mt washington most famous view, not the only view 

wma looking southwest, also popular 

do this now or as a later blog? 

besides the Mount Washington view, the hill also provides significant views, artistic inspiration, peaks Chocorua and Kearsarge

Chocorua view towards southwest 

see wma Mount Chocorua Gallery here. 

id by point of Chocorua and the "three sisters" peaks to the right, then by Blue Mountain, Eagle Ledge, Haystack and the tail end of South Moat. 

see wma annotated topographical features here and here. 

in other directions similar views painted from Sunset Hill by Bricher, Brown, Champney, Ferguson, Inness, Moore and others can be seen here. (north conway gallery) includes Homer's masterpiece of painting of painters painting, do up separate blog on that. here. Homer as the lead or tail for the sw chocorua view? 

insert the homer

do this here or later? 

prob later as the tail tale 

fuji from cemetery 

see bcltp pics 

C:\Users\chino\Pictures\places dell 14-5000\sunset hill  d14-5000 

Read more about this one here. This one has a photo comparison here. 

My photo below places the viewpoint in what is now the cemetery just south of the Red Jacket but still on Sunset Hill. 

insert more chocorua view 

again wma com has x paintings of this from this viewpoint 

poignant saying, one to live by, in a cemetery 

where payson tucker buried? prob portland maine

insert those pics here 

This Champney here. 

now familiar with profile Chocorua from this angle, suggest location for another favorite painting by Winslow Homer, here. . here. on the White Mountain Art website. 

tip of Chocorua and three sisters to the left of the left painting follow to the left of the bird. 

just below the summit, look for the back pack in the foreground. 

For more details about that see previous blog/s here 

or just copy that homer bit here? or some of both 

Another view to the northeast from Sunset Hill with a focus on Kearsarge 

wma com Mount Kearsarge Gallery here. 

but most of these from the meadows, or along the Saco

now we turn to photography and prints other mediums. 

Bierstadt, 

more on stereoviews 3d here. previous blog 

and science, 

add view Hitchcock sunset hill to Kearsarge 

and my photos fuji trying to match the view 

bottom left corner labeled Mt. Pequawket now known as Kearsarge. 

insert text about the image from Hitchcock 

read it here: 

let's look again at the trough and tucker's aesthetics 

While the decorative carved stone was is celebrated product, the most common ... was the curbing and pavers you see here. 

pair of bumpers

pair of bumpers 

made from redstone granite, horizontal bands of red and green granite from nearby granite quarry, 

link to my virtual tour of the redstone quarry part of my "reel" history series on hhr cpl website here. 

ledges, see previous blog road to mordor and valley vision video 

thanks to valley vision video here (this here now or below with aesthetics?) 

water trough itself in red granite not unlike, reminiscent of ancient roman bathtubs (see example in the vatican) 

we also offer free outreach programs to local schools and community groups on White Mountain Art, Redstone Quarry and numerous other subjects, 

tapered flanking piers alternating green, the red, then green surmounted by floral roundels

central section, edged by dog bowls  

the back of the sculpture thesaurus, provides a bench to view the well designed and immaculately tended to plantings and ... describe more of the park. 

The park here and across the street also commemorates other Rotarians including .... list and insert pictures here 

examples of some of Tucker's other sculptural interests, patronage, benefactor, art and history, monument and landmarking 

return back to Portland, Tucker's aesthetics, role as patron of the arts, artistic interests

PMA pearl diver here. (this not working Sat 6/5/21 try again later) 

and here. 

and here. 

Cleeves monument here and here. 

base for Longfellow below 

base for Longfellow bust here. 

and here. 

According to the pamphlet,  here.  

social insights, p. 25

"He loved the good, the true, and the beautiful."

somewhat mired in typical flowery Victorian language 

His interest not only aesthetic but also social insights in art Tucker bust pamphlet rugs in library, etc. 

"Once in my library as he stood admiring some rugs I had shown him, he said, "But, ah! doctor, think of the condition of the life of those in the Orient who made them, "of fingers weary and worn, of eyelids heavy and red," and how little those poor people received of what you have paid for them." And there was that twinkle in his eyes and expression of his face that spoke volumes." 

Odd interesting sentiment for a successful capitalist. 

even music sheet music 

when to go from payson tucker to keeley institute

or do that in another blog starting with the 1860+ maps? 
and the cool tree house
scan that pic high res

He was a recovering alcoholic 

other old maps yield insights, into changes this area of North Conway 

xyz