Featured Artwork: September Mountain

The Dresser Cottage, Riverton, VT. The peak in the
distance is Mt. Mansfield looking north and slightly west.
⮞ Enlarging the picture will show a picture comparison ⮜

"Painted from the sightly summer home of Mrs. Geo. D. Dresser at Riverton, Vt. (near Montpelier) which I used to visit occasion-ally. Exactly like the painting Silent Evening, it was bought by Mrs. Dresser and after some time given back to me and then sold to my dear friend, Mrs. B.B. McCormick (Elizabeth Albro), of Halidon Hall, Newport, R. I."

Editor's Note:

The diary comments above need to be explained. Mrs. Dresser did not return her paintings to Woodward because she did not like them or want them. Her health was waning, and her time was short when the early 1930s came. The paintings hung in her summer cottage in Riverton, VT, and the subjects were specific to the surrounding sceneries. The painting above is from the cottage itself. Mrs. Dresser is not the only owner to do this. There were several. More below ⮟

Woodward in his 1923 Studebaker, mid-1920s. The picture
was taken during a visit to the Dressers. That tree looks like it
matches the one in the cottage picture above.

Woodward in front of the cottage with
a number of people we cannot name. Mrs.
Dresser is the woman in the white dress.

Prairie Ave. is a neighborhood of over fifty
mansions known as "Millionaire's Row" in
Chicago's Southside. ⮞ Wikipedia link ⮜

Respectfully, Woodward held on to the painting until after Mrs. Dresser died in Feb. of 1937 at 76. Mr. Dresser also passed in 1937 but we do not have a day or month (he was 77). From an article we discovered, written by Sylvia Parker, and published for the Vermont Historical Society, A Riverton Retreat: Royal Charter to State Forest, (Vermont History Vol. 78, No. 1 (Winter/Spring 2010): 95-111), we learn that Mrs. Dresser is the daughter of Railroad/Trade & Grocery tycoon John Wesley Doane of Chicago. Mr. Doane was more a financier and banker of railroads than an actual "railroad builder." He did sit on the board of his Prairie Avenue neighbor's company, the Pullman Com-pany, as well as the New England Railroad, and several others. He was actually better known for his trade company that specialized in coffee and tea, and grocery wholesale business. He was born in Thompson, CT, so thus a New Englander and his lineage can be traced back to the 18th century. Given that Mr. Doane was a financier, and involved in railroads which were critical to the development of real estate, and Woodward's father a noted real estate developer, than we believe we may have our link. We are preparing a Scrapbook Page on Mrs. Julia Dresser and this link will take you there when it is ready.

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Halidon Hall, Newport, RI, an 1853 Victorian marvel.

Speaking of "Millionaire's Row", Halidon Hall is a famously gothic home in posh Newport, RI. It is also famous for it appearing on an album cover for the musical group, The Cowsills, who were the inspiration for the 1970s TV show, the Partridge Family.

Two of those three items occurred after Woodward's time but his mention of it in his diary entry deserved some comments. There is plenty of history to the place and for that story visit Bapresley.com, a Cowsills tribute page, and for pictures of the home today visit here: Jamestown Realty.

Below is a picture of a label still attached to the painting's stretcher. It is from the 1938 art exhibition for the Art Association of Newport. Today the association is now, simply, The Newport Art Museum. The label also offers the name of the painting, as well as its "Return Address," being simply, "Halidon Hall, Newport, R.I." ⮟

The label attached to the back of the stretcher

As far as who B.B. McCormick is or why she has two names... We have not had much success. The only explanation we could come up with is she is some sort of performer, singer, actress, or maybe, a writer and "B.B." is the stage name or pseudonym. We looked up both names and got nothing.

We do have, however, a clear lineage of provenance from its current owners who we are immensely grateful to, but they were also unable to tell us much about McCormick because she was the grandfather's first wife, indicating that Mrs. McCormick would die young, possibly not long after she got the painting. Fortunately, is was loved enough to be kept and cared for over the years.