Jack Donovan was not as well known as his wife Mollie.
Until her death 3 years ago, she was a tireless volunteer in a variety of causes. From the Historical Society and Westport Arts Center to the Schools’ Permanent Art Collection, everyone knew Mollie Donovan.
Jack and Mollie Donovan, on their wedding day.
Jack was less visible, more low-key. But in his quiet, unassuming way, he too contributed to a variety of causes in town. He offered his pro bono services as an accountant to many, and he was very active — behind the scenes — helping Mollie in every project.
Jack died yesterday morning at 87. His death came the same way he lived: quietly and gently.
His son Dan — who, thanks in part to the love of Westport instilled by his parents — moved back here several years ago, with his wife and their 6 kids — passes along a story that epitomizes Jack Donovan.
“Mom lost a diamond from her wedding ring,” Dan says. “Dad submitted a claim to the insurance company and they got reimbursed.
“A year later, Mom was sweeping under the radiator in their bedroom. Lo and behold, the missing diamond was found.
Jack Donovan was honest, loyal and smart. He had impeccable integrity. He was a great Westporter and a beloved family man, with values we should all strive to emulate.
Jack Donovan, surrounded by his 12 grandchildren.
Westport has a poor batting average for saving old homes.
But when it comes to preserving murals, it’s all grand slams.
Restored murals by John Steuart Curry and other noted artists hang in our public schools, fire station and Town Hall.
The Westport Art Rescue Committee — led by the late Mollie Donovan, her sister Eve Potts, Judy Gault Sterling and Ann Sheffer, among others — saved Robert Lambdin’s WPA-era “Pageant of Juvenile Literature” when Saugatuck Elementary School was converted to senior housing. It’s now on display at the Westport Library, admired by hundreds of people every day.
Lambdin also painted the grand “Saugatuck in the 19th Century” — actually 3 works. Two — dating to 1964-65 — were installed in the handsome main lobby of Westport Bank & Trust Company, which commissioned the work.
They remained there as the local bank was swallowed up in a series of takeovers by now-forgotten, bigger ones. The building — in the heart of downtown — is now Patagonia. The cool, functional clothing store has lovingly preserved Lambdin’s murals.
Robert Lambdin’s old-time murals lend a touch of Westport history to modern-day Patagonia.
The other “Saugatuck in the 19th Century” painting was hung at Westport Bank & Trust’s Charles Street branch — in the heart of Saugatuck. It was painted around 1969, when the branch opened.
That large mural depicts a lively Saugatuck. It shows agriculture, stables, the railroad and river trade; businesses like Elonzo Wheeler’s button factory; the Bridge Street bridge, and the Saugatuck Bank (Westport Bank & Trust’s forerunner), whose founding partners included Horace Staples.
Though the view was composed with artistic license, Lambdin conducted painstaking research. Town residents modeled for him, including (at the center) Captain Serano Allen.
Robert Lambdin’s Saugatuck mural. Hover over or click to enlarge.
The Saugatuck mural was a point of pride in the neighborhood, even as the branch lost its local roots. Eventually it became a TD Bank.
When TD (whatever those initials stand for) closed the branch last November, the mural’s future was unknown.
The building is being sold. The mural is headed for storage.
But — thanks to town art curator Kathie Motes Bennewitz, and the Westport Arts Advisory Committee — “Saugatuck in the 19th Century” has a new life.
After touch-up work, it will hang in Town Hall. An exhibit is planned too.
The gift from TD Bank is valued at $25,000.
But you can’t put a price on preserving history.
Last Thursday, the large mural was removed from the old bank building.
Who knew, for example, that swimming and lifeguarding would help propel Kathie Bennewitz — 35 years later — to her new position as Westport’s 1st-ever town curator?
Yet that’s what happened, after Kathie Motes moved to Westport in the summer of 1978 — just before her senior year at a new school, Staples High.
Kathie joined the swim team, took art classes, and befriended Ellise Fuchs, whose father Bernie was a world-famous illustrator. Kathie posed for him, pretending to receive a medal for an Olympic scene.
One summer, lifeguarding at Compo, she met Scott Bennewitz. He was a beach security guard — and a fellow Princetonian.
They married, and lived in Dallas, Minneapolis and Holland. She’d earned a masters in art history. Everywhere they moved, she worked in museums.
Kathie learned how deep and broad Westport’s arts history is. And she realized the impact of men like John Steuart Curry, and institutions like the Westport Country Playhouse, on this town.
“Blues Piano Players” — one of the 7 wonderful works by Eric von Schmidt that make up “Birth of the Blues.” They hang in the Staples auditorium.
She also met volunteers like Eve Potts — Mollie’s sister. “Their commitment, passion and enthusiasm for this town, and its arts community, is infectious,” Kathie says.
She worked professionally at Greenwich’s Bush-Holley House and the Fairfield Museum. A year ago, she became an independent curator.
She also was appointed tri-chair of the Permanent Art Collection, and served on the Westport Arts Advisory Committee. The 2 organizations gave her a broad perspective on the arts here.
So, when a group of people — including Ann Sheffer, David Rubinstein, Leslie Greene, Carole Erger-Fass and Joan Miller — floated the idea of a town curator, she was intrigued.
The doughboy statue on Veteran’s Green is part of Westport’s art and sculpture collection.
In her new post, she’s responsible for advising the town on the care of its art and sculpture collection. Westport owns several hundred works of art, displayed in Town Hall, the Senior Center, Parks & Rec headquarters — even the Fire Department. Statues include the Minuteman and Doughboy on Veterans Green.
Kathie will also serve as liaison to the 1,100-piece Permanent Art Collection, and the Westport Library, with its own murals, paintings and illustrations.
That “more” includes plenty. Kathie envisions self-guided tours of the schools’ collections. A “museum on the street,” with Howard Munce’s Remarkable Book Shop work displayed outside that old store (most recently Talbots). Robert Lambdin’s “Battle of Compo” mounted near the cannons.
She’ll be involved in the rehanging of art at Town Hall — something last done in 1976.
Kathie would also like to open up hard-to-see parts of the town’s art collection — like the amazing fire station mural — to the public.
“Pageant of Juvenile Literature” — a 1934 work by Robert Lambdin — hangs in the Westport Library’s Great Hall. This is part of that mural.
She is eager to get started. But she won’t be alone.
Among those helping: Marie-Neloise Egipto, a Staples senior who will do her spring internship with the Permanent Art Collection.
“I’m honored to serve the town,” Kathie says. “This is different from the other positions I’ve held. It really validates all the decades of work done by the Mollies, the Eves and the Anns who have advocated for, and celebrated, our arts community and legacy.
When we think of Westport as an “artists’ colony” — which, hopefully, we still do — certain names leap to mind: George Hand Wright. Harold von Schmidt. Stevan Dohanos. Hardie Gramatky. Howard Munce.
They spanned the 20th century, and helped launch Famous Artists School. Their work lives on, in catalogs, galleries and the memories of art lovers around the world.
But Westport has another arts legacy: WPA paintings. And back in the 1990s, much of it was in danger of disappearing.
The Depression-era works had hung for years in the post office, schools, Town Hall and other public buildings. Gradually, however — during renovations, moves and other events — WPA art was removed from walls, and never replaced. Important pieces of history gathered dust in storage closets, attics and basements around town.
Mollie Donovan and her sister Eve Potts scoured — sometimes on their hands and knees — those nooks and crannies, searching for lost art. They were guided by hearsay, intuition, and a handwritten list of commissions compiled decades earlier by the magnificently named Henrietta Cholmeley-Jones.
Mollie and Eve didn’t find everything. Some works had been destroyed when buildings were torn down. But the ones they rescued were restored — thanks in part to Mollie and Eve’s fundraising efforts — and they’re now an important part of our town’s artistic legacy.
The other day, Westporters Kathie Bennewitz and Carole Erger-Fass traveled to Waterbury’s Mattatuck Museum for the opening of a new exhibit. Called “Art for Everyone,” it celebrates the 1,700 paintings, murals and sculptures created by 173 Connecticut artists, thanks to government support during the 1930s.
Robert Garrett Thew’s street sign was a WPA commission. Apparently, Westport drivers were not so careful in the 1930s, either.
Ralph Boyer’s “Westport WPA Art Committee, 1939” usually hangs in the selectman’s conference room at Town Hall. Now it’s on loan to the exhibit — and is the 1st painting visitors see as they enter the gallery.
Eve Potts was at the opening reception. She had great stories to tell about Henrietta Cholmeley-Jones, who was instrumental in assigning WPA commissions to Westport artists.
Seventeen Westport artists were put to work from 1934 to 1937. They produced 34 artworks and 120 photographs. All the materials, plus framing and placing of the murals, casting of the sculptures and film for the photographs, cost Westport a total of $3,020. For her work as “local supervisor,” Henrietta Cholmeley-Jones earned $1 a year.
But she made it into the painting on exhibit at Mattatuck (below). She’s wearing pearls.
The Westport Arts Awards is one of those you-really-shouldn’t-miss events. This year’s 18th annual ceremony is Sunday, October 23 (2 p.m., Town Hall). If you want to see all that’s right with this town — its long-time residents, its young people, its support of creativity and achievement — save the date right now.
The event honors artists in 4 disciplines — music, film/theater, visual arts and literature — as well as 3 young people, 2 Westporters who work quietly in the background, and 6 local artists who died this year.
You should go to the ceremony if for no other reason than to pay tribute to Miggs Burroughs. For 4 decades, the 1963 Staples grad has shared his graphic design talents — often gratis — with countless area organizations.
The Westport town flag; Levitt Pavilion, Westport Historical Society, Westport Y, Project Return logos; every First Night button; t-shirts for local races — all are Miggs’ creations.
That’s in addition to his postage stamps, Time Magazine covers, lenticular images, cable TV show… No wonder Miggs has earned the “Mollie Award,” named for the indefatigable arts advocate Mollie Donovan.
Speaking of the Levitt Pavilion, Mimi Levitt will receive the “Champion of the Arts” award. The Austrian native — who served as a translator at the Nuremberg war trials — was, with her husband, a major benefactor of the outdoor performing arts center when it was founded on the Saugatuck River in 1973. She still serves on its governing committee.
The Arts Awards span all ages, from 90-year-old Mimi Levitt to a trio who are just beginning what will be spectacular careers.
“Horizon Awards” — to emerging artists under 32 — will be presented to drummer Drew McKeon (he’s toured with Hall & Oates and Jimmy Buffett, and played off-Broadway); filmmaker Nick Ordway (whose “God of Love” earned an Oscar for Best Live-Action Short), and dancer Katrina Gould (she’s performed with the Boston and Los Angeles Ballet companies).
Lifetime Achievement Awards will go to Naiad Einsel (art), Hans Wilhelm (literature), Millette Alexander (music), and Maureen Anderman and Frank Converse (theater/film).
Six names will be added to the Heritage Honor Roll. Sculptor Stanley Bleifeld, violist Keith Conant, artist Tony Marino, architect Abe Rothenberg, author Max Wilk — and of course uber-volunteer Mollie Donovan — all passed away recently.
These are creative people. There are short videos, along with brief dance and music presentations.
Its artistic, musical, theatrical, literary — and very, very talented — best.
A fascinating exhibit opened Sunday at the Westport Historical Society.
Called “Frazier Forman Peters: At Home With Stone,” it honors the man who is arguably Westport’s most famous architect.
He came to Westport in 1919, hoping to work the land as a farmer. The rocky soil intrigued him, and he soon found his calling as a designer and builder of stone houses.
Peters’ homes can be found from Virginia to Maine — but most are in Connecticut. Between 1924 and 1936 he designed and built over 36 stone houses Westport. His designs are revered for their unique fieldstone wall construction method, as well as their spatial organization and sensitive placement in relation to the natural environment.
Were Frazier Peters to build houses today, he’d be receiving all sorts of accolades for being an architect on the leading edge of environmentally-conscious, energy-efficient, sustainable design and construction.
The thick fieldstone walls (as much as 16 inches) typical of a Peters stone house make them energy-efficient; the stones effectively hold the heat in winter and keep the interiors cools in summer….
Another important component of Peters’ designs was the marriage of the house and its surroundings. He wrote a great deal about this and was especially enamored with the brooks, hillsides, and woods of Connecticut.
Adam Stolpen — who lives in a Frazier Peters house — adds: “He was our first ‘green architect. And he was completely self-taught.
The exhibit includes photographs of his houses; artifacts, and a model of stone construction method and materials.
But it would not have come about had it not been for a modern Westporter with an affinity for history — and a connection to Frazier Peters homes.
A few years ago, longtime town volunteer Mollie Donovan wanted a plaque for her son’s family. Dan and Nicole Donovan had just bought a Peters house near Charcoal Hill — one of Peters’ favorite areas.
Most homes with a historic plaque are at least 100 years old. But Bob Weingarten — the WHS member in charge of authorizing plaques — realized that the style, beauty, and placement of the Donovans’ house warranted one.
His interest in Peters was piqued. He searched for other houses. Each time he found — and verified — one, he sent a note to the WHS (and Mollie).
After a dozen, she decided Peters should be honored too — with an exhibit.
Frazier Forman Peters died in 1963. Mollie Donovan passed away last April.
But — thanks to both of them — an intriguing, informative exhibition lives on.
So do Frazier Peters’ houses. According to Bob Weingarten, of the 36 houses he’s found that were designed and built by Peters, only 1 has been demolished.
In today’s Westport, that might be Frazier Peters’ most enduring legacy of all.
Westporters have a variety of ways of honoring the lives of 3 local icons, all of whom died this month.
Mollie Donovan: This Sunday (May 1, 11 a.m.to 1 p.m.) the public is invited to a celebration of life at the Westport Historical Society.
The Douglas Donovan Scholarship Fund, c/o Staples Tuition Grants, PO Box 5159, Westport, Connecticut 06881-5159.
Esther Kramer: A memorial celebration of her life will be held at the Unitarian Church, 10 Lyons Plains Road, on Saturday, May 7 (2:30-4:30 p.m.). The public is invited.
Rich Rollins: Donations in his memory may be made to the Salvation Army, and sent to: 30 Elm St., Bridgeport, CT 06604.