{"id":4656,"date":"2020-03-31T15:07:43","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T19:07:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/?p=4656"},"modified":"2021-07-31T23:25:07","modified_gmt":"2021-08-01T03:25:07","slug":"the-tale-of-the-lion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/the-tale-of-the-lion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tale of The Lion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>We are not a campus of monuments.\u00a0 Other schools may have their statues of alumni Presidents, of creepy idealized schoolboys, of King Ozymandias<\/strong><\/a> . . . Williston has a statue called \u201cThe Actor,\u201d generally understood to represent a fictional knight whose every attribute defies institutional aspirations toward Purpose, Passion, and Integrity.\u00a0 And, of course, a lion.\u00a0 No . . . The Lion<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Lion in Winter. (Please click images to enlarge.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Lion has no name, nor does he represent the school\u2019s Wildcat mascot.\u00a0 He stands guarding the flagpole.\u00a0 His empty eyes scan Mount Tom, perhaps anticipating danger from the bike path.\u00a0 For generations he has been a magnet for children, some of them quite old, who cannot resist riding him.\u00a0 Chameleonlike, his colors change so often that while his aging body is cast iron, observers may be forgiven for assuming that he is comprised entirely of layers of paint.\u00a0 Perhaps like Auden\u2019s Sphinx<\/strong><\/a>, The Lion is admired, but unloved.<\/p>\n

Periodically, especially before important events like Convocation and Commencement, The Lion metamorphoses to a neutral color, institutionally repainted in the name of Looking Neat and Clean.\u00a0 It never lasts.\u00a0 The Lion has celebrated the national holidays of many countries, graduations, and the occasional birthday.\u00a0 At times of local or national tragedy, leonine memorials have been de rigeur<\/em>.\u00a0 These have tended to last longer than other redecorative efforts.\u00a0 He has been painted to advertise school plays, has appeared in support of political candidates, has been colored pink to promote breast cancer awareness,\u00a0 and adopted a rainbow insignia to commemorate Williston\u2019s participation in an LGBDQ Day of Silence.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
(Ann Hallock)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not every paint job has been so high-minded.\u00a0 A couple of years ago, The Lion sported an odd shade of light blue, serving as background for a too-public senior prom invitation.\u00a0 (Embarrassed, she declined.)\u00a0 And painting traditions have changed over the years.\u00a0 There was a time when a student subject to involuntary early departure might leave a farewell message.\u00a0 More often, his friends would paint the beast in the miscreant\u2019s memory.\u00a0 Until a recent shift in tradition, it was rare actually to see anyone painting The Lion.\u00a0 Most of the time, he appeared, overnight, to have painted himself.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Lion in the 1930s, in its original Williston location, next to Swan Cottage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How the Lion Came to Williston<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Edward Clare (William Rittase)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Lion was brought to Easthampton in the 1920s by Williston Junior School Headmaster Edward Clare (for whom Clare House is named), and was installed next to what is now called Swan Cottage, on the crest of the Main Street Precipice.\u00a0 When Ed Clare died suddenly in 1947, his widow Hazel stayed on, as did his Lion.\u00a0 In 1965 the statue was relocated to a spot on the main campus, next to the Theater, where it remained until 1996, at which time it was moved to its present location, to make room for Falstaff.<\/p>\n

The Legend of the Lion<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to legend, as transmitted by Hazel Clare, The Lion was one of a pair that stood overlooking the Charles River in Boston, on the property of a British merchant.\u00a0 At the time of the Boston Tea Party, a mob invaded the merchant\u2019s house and dumped the lions into the river.\u00a0 The Tory fled to Canada, and the lions remained underwater until around the time of the Civil War, when they were dredged from the river during the expansion of the Charlestown Navy Yard.\u00a0 Col. George Moore was the officer in charge of the recovery operation.\u00a0 In civilian life, Col. Moore sold pianos.\u00a0 That detail becomes relevant because at home in nearby Walpole, Mass., Moore had access to a variety of cranes, blocks, and tackles meant for hoisting pianos through upper-story windows, thus also useful for fishing cast iron lions out of the muck.\u00a0 Moore took one of the lions for himself and installed it at his Walpole residence, which he named Lionhurst.\u00a0 The second lion was taken by someone else, and lost to history.\u00a0 Col. Moore had a daughter, Treby Moore.\u00a0 Treby, who never married, was Edward Clare\u2019s aunt.\u00a0 She gave Ed the Lion, which he brought to Easthampton.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Hazel Clare, telling stories (William Rittase)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At least, that\u2019s the story Hazel Clare used to tell.\u00a0 It certainly appealed to every small (and larger) child to whom she told it. I had the good fortune to have known Hazel for much of my life.\u00a0 In the 1950s, she was my art teacher in the Easthampton Public Schools.\u00a0 Until her death in 1982, she was my neighbor on Glendale Street.\u00a0 Hazel was a passionate and creative storyteller.<\/p>\n

And therein lies the problem.<\/p>\n

Another Legend<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
“Perhaps the Lion is admired bur unloved?”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We\u2019ll get back to Hazel Clare in a moment.\u00a0 But a brief digression, that may seem familiar to current Williston students: in February 2020, a faculty colleague asked me to elaborate on a story that in 1775, General Henry Knox had removed the lion (or lions) from Fort Ticonderoga and transported it (them) to Boston along with the Ticonderoga cannon, which were to be used in the fortification of the city.\u00a0 Depending on which version of the story I heard, the lion was either left behind when the Knox expedition passed through Easthampton \u2013 an event not otherwise recorded in local history \u2013 or ended up in the Charles River, whence its history resumes with the George Moore\/Hazel Clare story.<\/p>\n

The Ticonderoga tale, completely new to me, demanded investigation.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t take much to discover that the story had originated with a highly respected member of the History Department, who told it while making a guest appearance in a colleague’s AP U.S. History class.\u00a0 Apparently he wanted to see how credulous they were.\u00a0 If so, he was not disappointed.<\/p>\n

Hunting Lions, or the Legend Continues<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Lionhurst (Walpole Historical Society)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

True to the traditions of folklore, Hazel Clare\u2019s tale \u201cgrew in the telling.\u201d1\u00a0 <\/sup>In fairness to Hazel, most of her information probably came from Ed Clare\u2019s Aunt Treby, who had grown up with George Moore\u2019s stories.\u00a0 A more-or-less canonical version was established around 1965, when Hazel related it to Williston\u2019s Director of Public Relations, Dorothy Potter.\u00a0 Potter placed the story in the Daily Hampshire Gazette and Boston Globe.2<\/sup>\u00a0\u00a0 But neither she nor Headmaster Phillips Stevens was entirely satisfied, even though Hazel, in an October 5, 1965 note to Potter, suggested that \u201cMaybe we\u2019d better let well enough alone.\u00a0 I think it is a pretty good story as it is.\u201d\u00a0 There were two nagging questions: first, what were the pre-Revolutionary origins of our lion, and second, whatever happened to the other one?\u00a0 The latter question was of particular interest to Stevens, who thought that if it could be found, an effort might be made to reunite The Lion with its twin.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Detail of the Lionhurst photo. The Lion is faintly visible left of center.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Colonel Moore’s recumbent lions (Walpole Historical Society)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dorothy Potter\u2019s investigations took her to the Historical Society in Walpole, Mass., from whom she learned that Colonel and Treby Moore had indeed maintained a residence named Lionhurst, on which property there were three<\/em> cast iron lions.\u00a0 By 1965 the property had passed to another owner, but the Society was able to provide a grainy photograph, in which two recumbent<\/em> lions are clearly present, on either side of the front porch.\u00a0 Williston\u2019s lion is less obvious, but it is there, faintly visible next to the house (see photo above).\u00a0 There was also an intriguing story: that \u201cthe officer in charge of retrieving the two British lions acquired one and shipped it off to his home in Ohio.\u201d3<\/sup><\/p>\n

So Potter placed a press release in several Ohio newpapers, while Stevens sent a \u201cHelp Us Find the Lion\u201d letter to the Ohio parents and alumni. No Ohio lion ever materialized.\u00a0 But one Edward Shucki contacted Columbus resident Cameron Coe \u201868, with this terse but definitive note: \u201cI have reason to believe the Lion Casting of the mate you\u2019re searching for is located at Wisconsin Dells, Wisc., in front of the first house north of the Crandall Hotel on River Road.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Helen Johnson’s lion in Wisconsin Dells<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ultimately this led Potter to Helen Johnson, owner of the Helen M. Johnson Knit and Needle Shop at 905 River Road, Wisconsin Dells.\u00a0 Yes, she had a lion statue.\u00a0 But no, it was not from Boston.\u00a0 Her understanding of its history was that it had belonged to a family named Dickson or Dixon, who had brought it from Cornwall, Canada, shortly before the Civil War.\u00a0 The Dicksons had owned what was now Johnson\u2019s house, and had placed the lion there.\u00a0 Helen Johnson sent a photograph, of a lion similar to Williston\u2019s, but with a different tail.\u00a0 (The location of this lion is presently unknown.\u00a0 Google Maps indicates that the intersection near the Johnson address has been reconfigured, and the house is gone.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Gaskin Lion, in Kingston, Ontario<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To further muddy the waters, a lion identical to Williston\u2019s turned up in Macdonald Memorial Park in Kingston, Ontario.\u00a0 It was donated to the city by activist John Gaskin<\/strong><\/a>, and has recently been restored.\u00a0 Nothing in its history suggests that it was ever anywhere near Boston.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, attempts to document the lions\u2019 salvage from the Charles River met with frustration.\u00a0 Neither the United States Navy, nor the Boston Maritime Association, nor several other agencies were able to locate records of any statuary having been recovered during the Navy Yard construction.\u00a0 All sources agreed that it had been a long time ago, and that record-keeping during the Civil War might have been haphazard.\u00a0 But in addition, records at the American Antiquarian Society and elsewhere could not identify the name of the British merchant whose lions had supposedly been dunked, nor did they contain any corroborating evidence of the incident at all.\u00a0 Col. Moore\u2019s narrative was beginning to look like pure invention.<\/p>\n

Nor was there information forthcoming concerning the Lion\u2019s origins.\u00a0 Ultimately, Dorothy Potter was referred to London\u2019s Victoria and Albert Museum, the leading repository of information on British arts and design.\u00a0 In January, 1968, a C. Blair of the V&A wrote that \u201cthe likelihood that a sculpture of this size was cast in England in the 18th century and then transported to America is fairly small.\u00a0 We note that the early part of the story is based on hearsay, and we are inclined to think that the lion probably dates from well after the Revolutionary War.\u201d\u00a0 And there, for the next four decades, the matter rested.<\/p>\n

Finally, the Anticlimactic Truth!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Robert Wood’s lions, formerly adorning the Broadwood Hotel in Philadelphia (liveauctioneers.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In May 2016, Walpole, Mass. historian Susan Anderson emailed the Archives seeking information on Colonel Moore and Lionhurst.\u00a0 It turned out that most of the data held by the Walpole Historical Society was based on Dorothy Potter\u2019s articles about the Lion legend, now considered spurious.\u00a0 But Ms. Anderson sent some information about Moore, who appears to have been, to put it gently, adept at reinventing himself.\u00a0 Then out of the blue, a few days later, she emailed suggesting that I google \u201cRobert Wood\u201d and \u201cpair of lions.\u201d\u00a0 (Try it!)\u00a0 An antiques dealer in western Connecticut was offering two cast iron lions, identical to Williston\u2019s.\u00a0 These beasts, which had once flanked the entrance to the Broadwood Hotel in Philadelphia, were the work of Robert Wood, whose Philadelphia foundries produced ornamental ironwork of all kinds, from fences and lampposts to fountains and garden statuary, 1839 to 1878.\u00a0 (2020 searches of online auction sites indicate that this particular pair of lions has been resold a couple of times since.\u00a0 And other Wood lions have turned up with surprising regularity.)<\/p>\n

More information about Wood can be found at https:\/\/hiddencityphila.org\/2015\/09\/finding-robert-wood-the-long-lost-foundry-of-an-iconic-ironworker\/\u00a0 <\/a><\/strong>There is an 1867 Robert Wood catalog online at archive.org.\u00a0 The page showing a none-too-accurate rendering of The Lion is at https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/portfoliooforigi00robe\/page\/n605\/mode\/2up<\/strong> <\/a>.\u00a0 As it happens, Lionhurst\u2019s recumbent lions are on the same page.\u00a0 Browsing the whole catalog is worthwhile, to get a sense of the range of Wood\u2019s products.<\/p>\n

Endpiece, or The Tail of the Lion.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The repaired tail. The upper raised section is a reinforcing collar; the lower, paint.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a final indignity, in 2015 The Lion\u2019s tail was broken off.\u00a0 It was found one morning lying next to the pedestal.\u00a0 No one knows what happened, but it may well have snapped off when someone tried to use it for a step to climb on \u2013 after all, as has been noted, some of the \u201cchildren\u201d who have tried to ride have likely weighed in excess of 200 pounds.\u00a0 Metal fatigue is real; consider how you\u2019d feel if people had been standing on your tail . . . well, never mind that.\u00a0 Welding cast iron is difficult; it took two attempts, and necessitated adding a collar to reinforce the break point.\u00a0 At the time, campus children Ben and Clark Evelti (who are much larger now) gravely presented the Archives with a large collateral-damage paint chip.\u00a0 Under a microscope, the chip revealed uncountable layers of paint, while the average thickness, measured with calipers, was approximately 1600 microns \u2013 1.6 millimeters.\u00a0 That’s a lot of paint.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Archival donors Bennett and Clark with their paint chip.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Everyone, please be safe and well in these uncertain times! (Photo: Matthew Cavanaugh)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n

1<\/sup>J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings,<\/em> preface to second edition (New York: Ballantine, 1965), p. 8.<\/p>\n

2<\/sup> “Pre-Revolutionary War Lion Gets New Spot at Williston,” Daily Hampshire Gazette,<\/em> August 28, 1965, p. 3; and “Tea Party Lionized,” Boston Globe, <\/em>November 13, 1966, p. B35.<\/p>\n

3<\/sup>Daily Hampshire Gazette <\/em>(1965)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Panama Lion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Anatomical Lion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Tiger Lion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Riding Lion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The Lion has no name, nor does he represent the school\u2019s Wildcat mascot. He stands guarding the flagpole. His empty eyes scan Mount Tom, perhaps anticipating danger from the bike path. For generations he has been a magnet for children, some of them quite old, who cannot resist riding him. Chameleonlike, his colors change so often that while his aging body is cast iron, observers may be forgiven for assuming that he is comprised entirely of layers of paint.”<\/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":[53,164,12,43],"tags":[545,542,539,532,537,541,84,538,546,536,544,543],"class_list":["post-4656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus-and-building-history","category-faculty","category-williston-academy","category-williston-northampton-school","tag-cast-iron-lawn-ornaments","tag-colonel-george-moore","tag-dorothy-potter","tag-edward-clare","tag-hazel-clare","tag-lionhurst","tag-phillips-stevens","tag-robert-wood","tag-susan-anderson","tag-the-lion","tag-walpole-historical-society","tag-walpole-ma"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4656"}],"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=4656"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5288,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4656\/revisions\/5288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}