{"id":3798,"date":"2018-01-30T23:22:44","date_gmt":"2018-01-31T03:22:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/?p=3798"},"modified":"2020-11-23T12:01:21","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T16:01:21","slug":"albert-kiesling-at-williston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/albert-kiesling-at-williston\/","title":{"rendered":"Albert Kiesling at Williston"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Albert<\/a>
Albert Kiesling next to the Easthampton Congregational Church, working on a view of Shop Row. (Easthampton Historical Society) Please click images to enlarge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Anyone familiar with Easthampton in the ’40s through the ’60s is likely to recall a taciturn gentleman with an easel and paintbox, often engaged in capturing a town landmark or rural scene.\u00a0 Albert Kiesling (1885-1968) was born in Clinton, Mass., and moved to Easthampton to work in the textile mills.\u00a0 He was a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 and friend of the American expressionist painter Oscar F. Adler (1868-1932), another Clinton native.\u00a0 In fact, Kiesling and Adler often painted the same scenes together.<\/p>\n

In the summer of 2016, Easthampton CityArts+<\/strong><\/a>, in association with Albert Kiesling’s family, mounted an exhibition and sale of a large group of his paintings, at the Mill Arts Project (MAP) Gallery at Eastworks in Easthampton.\u00a0 The following video, from Easthampton Media, is an excellent introduction to Kiesling’s work.\u00a0 (Alumni from certain eras may recognize some of the people interviewed.)<\/p>\n

https:\/\/vimeo.com\/173671869<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

There are five known Kiesling paintings of Williston scenes.\u00a0 One had been on campus since 1945.\u00a0 Following the CityArts+ exhibit, Williston Northampton was able to obtain the other four, through a combination of alumni generosity and purchases.\u00a0 They are:<\/p>\n

The Old Gymnasium<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Old Gymnasium<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Old Williston Seminary Gym, with its distinctive tower, was built in 1864, the first free-standing athletic building in any American secondary school.\u00a0 It stood on High Street, at the rear of the original Williston campus.\u00a0 Rendered largely obsolete by the construction of the Recreation Center (now the Reed Campus Center) in 1930, it was razed following the school’s consolidation onto the present campus in 1951.\u00a0 Kiesling painted the scene in 1952.\u00a0 Williston Northampton was able to acquire the painting through the generosity of Patricia Zavorski Coon ’61.\u00a0 This painting currently hangs in the office of the Director of Athletics.<\/p>\n

\"Kiesling<\/a>
Kiesling at work on the Gymnasium painting<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Button Mill<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Button Mill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The painting of the original Williston Button Mill, Easthampton’s first factory building, was commissioned in 1945 by Charles Johnson, class of 1875, Treasurer of Easthampton Savings Bank, and presented to the school by the Class of 1905, one of whose members, Guy Richard Carpenter, was instrumental in tracking down and preserving many of the documents and memorabilia that now comprise the Williston Northampton Archives.\u00a0 The rendering of the building, erected 1846-47, is accurate, but Kiesling has placed it on the site of the so-called “Button Building” on Union Street.\u00a0 That structure, which still stands, was erected in 1861-62, while the original button factory remains as part of the mill complex on Cottage Street.\u00a0 One of the workers’ tenement houses beyond the mill also survives, now home to the Easthampton Diner.\u00a0 Kiesling added a couple of historical touches to the background: the spire of the Payson (now Easthampton Congregational) Church and, in front of it, Williston’s original (1841) White Seminary building.\u00a0 This painting hangs in the front parlor of the Head of School’s Residence.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Old Campus<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Old Campus on Main Street.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This undated painting now hangs in the Advancement Conference Room in the Williston Homestead.\u00a0 Purchased in 2016 via the Archives Fund, it shows the pre-1951 campus from the intersection of Main and Union Streets, from the vantage point of the Congregational Church’s front lawn.\u00a0 The buildings, from right, are South, Middle, and North Halls.\u00a0 All these structures were torn down after the move to the New Campus in 1951, but a portion of the distinctive iron fence remains in place.\u00a0 Also visible are the Maher Fountain, which remains today, and the First Congregational Church, which succumbed to fire in 1929.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Old Campus, from a vantage point a bit to the left of the painting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Payson Hall<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Payson Hall, formerly Hill’s Mansion House<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the mid-19th century, Hill’s Mansion House was Easthampton’s grand hotel.\u00a0 Even then, it housed Williston students able to pay the premium rates.\u00a0 The huge wooden building stood at the top of the hill on the corner of Main and Northampton Streets.\u00a0 In the early 20th century, when the hotel business had fallen off, the school bought the building and renamed it Payson Hall.\u00a0 It was used as a dormitory, dining commons, and for many years, the home of the Williston Junior School.\u00a0 From the early 1950s on the structure, in increasingly fragile condition, hosted inexpensive apartments.\u00a0 It burned in the early 1970s.\u00a0 Kiesling’s 1963 painting, part of the 2016 purchase, is now in the office of the Director of Alumni Engagement.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Mansion House in the late 19th century<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Williston Birthplace<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Williston Birthplace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here the subject is the Payson Williston parsonage, also known as “The Birthplace,” on Park Street, opposite the Homestead.\u00a0 Dated 1968, thus one of Kiesling’s last paintings, this seems less successful than the others\u00a0\u2013 something in the perspective is not quite right. The artist has set the building well back from the road and included a nonexistent mountain.\u00a0 Also part of the 2016 purchase, this painting presently hangs in the Williston Birthplace, now a faculty residence.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Williston Birthplace, ca. 1880. Note the kid on the tricycle!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally, if you watched the video<\/a><\/strong>, you’ll recall that Kiesling was also an enthusiastic creator of snow sculpture, often of epic proportions.\u00a0 On Saturday, February 10, as part of the 5th Annual Easthampton Winterfest, the Nashawannuck Pond Steering Committee will host the First Annual Albert Kiesling Snow Art Competition<\/a>. <\/strong> Please click the link for details!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Easthampton painter Albert Kiesling was known for his scenes of historic town landmarks, many of them lost to history. Some of his paintings include Williston subject matter. Five such works are now part of Williston Northampton’s collection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[67,53,125,111,68,66,12,25],"tags":[463,127,26,464,360,149,290,466,467,361,465],"class_list":["post-3798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acquisitions-and-discoveries","category-campus-and-building-history","category-easthampton-history-2","category-fine-performing-arts","category-recent-gifts-acquisitions-and-discoveries","category-recent-gifts","category-williston-academy","category-williston-seminary","tag-albert-kiesling","tag-button-factory","tag-easthampton","tag-easthampton-cityarts","tag-mansion-house","tag-old-campus","tag-old-gym","tag-oscar-f-adler","tag-painting","tag-payson-hall","tag-williston-birthplace"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3798"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3798"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5009,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3798\/revisions\/5009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}