RSW's Diary Comments

"Painted in 1943. The waterfall of my brook down at the shop property on the Shelburne Falls Buckland road. Made in June 1943. One of the few successful brook pictures I have made."

Editor's Note:

A rare color picture of the Little Shop with the
artist's 1931(2) Packard parked in front. We chose this
image in the hope that it will give a reference to just
how small this building is. Behind the building is a
channel that led the what through the old mill turning
the gears that would produce the power to make tools.
That water came from Clark Brook, the subject above.
See the pictures below for the falls and more...

The "shop property" Woodward is referring to is the Old Boehmer Mill he called "The Little Shop." The mill once made specialized medical instruments for doctors and hospitals. No longer in use, it was once rented to a cousin of Woodward. Sometime after the cousin moved out, Woodward bought the place, we believe, to turn it into a gallery from which he could display and sell his work. The property was adjacent to his Hiram Woodward home and Studio, making it convenient to do so. However, that plan was spoiled when lightning struck his home in 1934 destroying the home and studio.

Woodward did not sell the place even after he moved into his new home and studio, Southwick. Woodward called it the shop, we believe, because it was once a workshop but in a letter to a friend he mentions it is going to be Dr. Mark's "music shop" when he was an aspiring musician. Eventually it would be left to his cousin Florence who made it into an antique shop for many years fulfilling its intended purpose.

This is a close view of the Clark Brook coming out
of the woods behind the Hiram property. There are at
least three ridges of the falls visible before the rocks
at the bottom. We did not walk up further to take pics.

This picture shows a glimpse of the old town
logging road. The woods to the right of the brook is
where we believe Woodward placed himself to paint this
scene. Note how similar the 2017 trees are to 1942.

The rocks do not look exactly the same as the
ones in the painting. But the difference over 70 years is
to be expected. Kids could have played on the falls and
moved rocked or dammed the falls, etc. what hasn't
change is that enormous rock in the middle of the brook.

The pictures might appear the same but they are from a series of pictures Larch and Brian took in 2017 of the swimming whole next to what Woodward called the Burnham Cottage, then owned by Mrs. Millie March who recently passed (May 2024). Millie was kind enough to give us access to her home where the artist once lived before buying the entire Hiram Woodward property. We appreciate her so much and always enjoyed our visits with her in the years since then.

We have not yet gotten to our story about the swimming hole but the images here give just a hint of the bowl shaped area just after the falls. What you don't see is the bridge that crosses the brook. The abutment of the bridge's base would be dammed up to create a very sizeable pool suitable for swimming. It was quite popular with the Woodward and Wells' families.