Our first open house!
On Sunday December 8th we had the first public open house at the historic site and a reception up top at the Hollowpayno base camp. At the reception we premiered the new video created with the help of the folks at Kertis Creative, our new 3 year strategic plan done with the Center for Nonprofit Excellence and a Landscape Inventory completed by Michael Gaige, a historical ecologist. It was a great day with over 100 folks attending, many for the ffirst time to see Payne Hollow! (Photos by John Nation, Susan Griffin Ward and Joe Wolek)
Pete Bartnick, nephew of Anna, visits Payne Hollow
Pete used to visit often as a child with his parents and then as a young adult would come on his own. When here, he would stay in the visitor’s cabin on the south side of the creek. He tells some good stories and memories of his time in the hollow when he visited this past fall.
HARLAN HUBBARD AND WADE HALL: LIFE AND ART.
by R. Ted Steinbock, MD
Wade Hall (1934-2015) was a Professor of English at Bellarmine University for 30 years before retiring and returning to his native Alabama. He was the author of numerous books and articles on Kentucky and Kentuckians such as statesman Wilson W. Wyatt, civil rights leader Lyman Johnson, and country music performer Pee Wee King. He organized the Ohio Valley Book Fair and hosted the long-running interview show on KET called “Wade Hall’s Kentucky Desk.” A fellow inquisitive and inveterate collector, I knew Wade for years, and we often shared our latest Kentucky acquisitions and traded back and forth.
Wade made several visits to Payne Hollow in the last years of Harlan’s life, specifically on June 27, 1987, and later in August about five months before Harlan’s death. They also corresponded back and forth, and Wade used these interviews to publish “A Visit with Harlan Hubbard” that was printed in 1996 by the University of Kentucky Libraries. It is a brief but wonderful account of Harlan’s reminisces about his early life, his past life with Anna, and his current life as an octogenarian and widower living alone at Payne Hollow. This is a much more personal account than in Harlan’s own journals and provides details not generally available elsewhere. Here Harlan becomes an individual rather than writer and artist. Though not readily available, I highly recommend this “Hubbard monologue” that Wade produced from these visits and letters.
On Dec 11, 1986, Harlan received the Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement at a ceremony hosted by Governor Martha Layne Collins. The printed program has a watercolor of the Ohio River shoreline painted by Harlan in 1949. (Fig 1). Titled “River Scene,” the original work was presented by Gov. Collins to Barry Bingham, Sr. (1906-1988) who received the Milner Award that same evening in recognition for his longtime commitment to the Arts. On March 11, 1986, Harlan presented to Wade Hall a large oil painting dated 1950 that was inspired by the watercolor. (Fig 2). On the back in large cursive writing Harlan inscribes “For Wade Hall. Anna and I enjoyed your visits. We look forward to your book. Harlan Hubbard, March 11, 1986.” A note signed by Wade is also attached to the back stating “Oil painting by Harlan Hubbard inspired by the watercolor of 1949 used for the cover of the Governor Arts Award which Harlan received in 1986. Harlan presented me this work in 1986. Wade Hall.”
This large oil painting measures 23 x 28 ½ inches and is a prized part of my Hubbard art collection. Both the watercolor and the oil exhibit Harlan’s looser style and they are imbued with his love for the Ohio River and its everchanging shoreline. I am indebted to Crit Luallen for providing me with the original Governor’s Awards in the Arts program for 1986. She was Commissioner of the Kentucky Department of the Arts at that time.
Lots of restoration work completed this season at the Hollow
Ray Kleinhelter and his team of his son, Zack, and Charles Sledge, finished many tasks so far this summer and fall. Just last week they finished re-enforcing the foundation of the studio building by adding a post and beam truss system and then demolished and reconstructed the cinder block wall that had been crumbling away without destroying the upper brick wall that was so aesthetic. Now there are two means of support for the building so it won’t be going anywhere…. Additionally over the past weeks the iconic picture windows on the front of the house had been repaired to open and close again. These and the other windows had been reglazed and painted as well. The leak in the roof over the main entrance had been sealed and the damage to the ceiling and floor beneath repaired and replaced. And amazingly—as Ray was looking for some scrap masonite to use for the window repair—he discovered an old painting study of Harlan’s on riverboats that had been in the stack of scrap wood for years… Other tasks have been completed as well, such as both cistern systems cleaned and resurfaced, rails put on the balconies of the visitor cabin and the temporary gutters put on parts of the house and studio to drain water away from the foundations and to feed the cistern. Ray’s team hopes to complete the last task of the season and dig a trench to install a french drain system along the rear and side walls of the studio building to further assist in the drainage and remove water flow against the studio walls. Great progress!
AmeriCorps NCCC Team helps out in the Hollow
For three weeks a 10 member AmeriCorps NCCC teamperformed great work at Payne Hollow and Hollowpayno base camp where they stayed. Unfortunately due to the disaster of Hurricaine Helene they were called to service down in the Carolinas and cut their work stint here in half. We are hoping that they—or a different AmeriCorps NCCC team—returns next spring. While here, they transported all of the lumber for footbridge construction along the bell trail, brought to site all of the building materials for the studio foundation rebuild, collected river stones for the pathways, built some benches for the trails and started on creating camping platforms for basecamp shelters. Above all they made good friends with people involved with our mission and some local Trimble County and Madison folk. We miss them already. The materials they brought to the site will help us tremendously in restoring the historic site and we will count on fans of Payne Hollow to come and lend a hand to complete what they were not able to.
The AmeriCorps Team’s first day. L-R: J.P., Elyse, Sam, Jacob, Isaiah, Hailey, Logan, Mack, Lil’ Mack and team leader, Dylan.
Redoing the steps between the house and studio buildings.
Carrying a platform to one of the camping shelters.
Loading the pontoon boat with building materials at the Snellenberger’s boat ramp to float down to the Hollow.
Transporting off the boat one of four 20 foot long cedar beams for the footbridges
Carrying one of the 2 benches made before they had to depart down to the trails.
Sam playing guitar by the campfire on their last night at Hollowpayno.