An Art Colony Lost and Found

St. Augustine Art Association

Art and history merge in the

historic city of St. Augustine, Florida.

Nestled on a narrow side street just two

blocks from the iconic Bridge of Lions

and the vibrant city square, the Plaza de

la Constitución, is the St. Augustine Art

Association. With colorful Victorian homes

as neighbors, the building’s Spanish

architecture echoes the Spanish roots of the

city, founded in 1565.

As oil tycoon Henry M. Flagler set about

building his Hotel Ponce de Leon in the

late 1880s as the premier winter refuge for

Northern tourists, he included artists in his

vision. Flagler wanted art openings and

exhibitions for his wealthy patrons. Martin

Johnson Heade, regarded as an important

landscape and still-life painter who focused

on the effects of light, moved into one of

the seven comfortable artist studios on the

hotel grounds. Heade was soon joined by

White Mountain School landscape artists

Frank Henry Shapleigh and Laura Woodward

for the winter seasons. But an art colony

needs both artists and patrons. Once tourism

declined in difficult economic times at the

turn of the century, so did the artists.

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Cover: “The Market Place” by William L’Engle represents the Plaza de la Constitución in 1945, looking across the town square toward Trinity Parish Episcopal Church, Florida’s oldest Episcopal church. The Monumento de la Constitución, erected in 1813, is thought to be the only remaining original monument to Spain’s 1812 constitution in the world. The reproduction of a statue by Italian Antonio Canova no longer stands in the plaza. Both the Lighthouse and the Public Market are visible in the background. The inscription in the lower right corner indicates that the watercolor was a gift to the artist’s niece, Tracy, who lived in the city during the Second World War.

Illinois native Walter C. Yeomans began spending winters in St. Augustine in the 1930s, producing his drypoint etchings and paintings from his Sevilla Street studio.

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scenes, with amateur painter J. Dexter

Phinney, who owned a jewelry store,

reorganized the Galleon Arts Club

into the St. Augustine Arts Club. The

Club’s first president, Ralph H. Hillborn,

welcomed “painters, sculptors, writers,

musicians, all the arts” to join the

Club where both professionals and

amateurs could exhibit side by side

and “enjoy equal status.” The former

waterworks building in Davenport Park

was used as a clubhouse and exhibit

space. But it was the Depression and

the group often had trouble raising

45 cents to buy modeling clay.

rom the 1930s through

the 1950s, St. Augustine

resident artists and civic

leaders worked tirelessly to attract

Northern artists to its favorable

climate and scenic streets to live

and paint during the winter season.

The authentic Spanish character of

the historic district and surrounding

untouched landscape were strong

draws. Full-time and winter-season

artists later became known as the

Lost Colony of St. Augustine. Those

artists are the heritage of the Art

Association and left a legacy of fine

art that remains a focus throughout

St. Augustine today.

One of the recruiting tools

sent to such art colonies as

Provincetown, Massachusetts, and

Ogunquit, Maine, to generate

interest in the city was the poem

“St. Augustine, The Oldest City”

by Marjorie Meeker, illustrated by

graphic artist Celia Gregor Reid.

She was one of the most dedicated

supporters of the Arts Club. The 1933

Florida Federation of the Arts exhibit

awarded first prize to Reid for her

woodcut of Aviles Street. By 1939,

the Club held numerous exhibits and

its first arts and crafts festival. Aviles

Street was teaming with artists’

studios, a booming tourist attraction.

The marketing campaigns were

“Fiesta” by Celia Gregor Reid, a linoleum block print, commemorates the March 1948 Aviles Street Festival. Reid gave the print to Tod Lindenmuth, who later donated it to the Art Association.

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ne night in January

1924, a group of writers

and painters known as

the Pen and Brush Club gathered

around a fireplace in the historic

Fatio House and formed the Galleon

Arts Club. They chose a galleon,

under full sail and moving forward,

as their symbol. One of those charter

members was amateur painter Nina

Stanton Hawkins, then a bicycle-

riding society page reporter for the

St. Augustine Record. The first female

editor of a Florida daily not related to

an owner, Hawkins served as editor

from 1934-1953 and saw to it that art

exhibitions were well-publicized.

The 1930s was a period of

explosive creative growth and the

founding of today’s Art Association.

In the spring of 1931, prominent

commercial artist Hildegarde

Muller-Uri, best known for her

woodblock prints of local street

Seascapes, such as “Shrimp Boat,” an oil on panel board, were a favorite subject of Tod Lindenmuth. Influenced by abstract impressionism, he used free brushstrokes and color to evoke mood.

Joi Ditto relied on photographs of

Hildegarde Muller-Uri to create her

portrait. Instrumental in the founding of

the Art Association, Muller-Uri died in St.

Augustine at the age of 90 in 1990.

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John Emmett Fritz moved to St.

Augustine because its Old World

streets reminded him of Italy where

he had served during World War II.

Identified with the Lost Colony artists,

Fritz was an impressionist painter who

took “art history” one step further.

After watching an excavation on St.

George Street in the mid-1980s, he

mixed his acrylic paints with dirt from

the dig site and encouraged people

to “touch the surface and feel the

historic dirt that represents a time

period from the 1600s.”

The Arts Club flourished with

more than 500 members but needed

a home of its own. Following several

changes in location, one of which

included the kitchen and grillroom

of the Alcazar Hotel, closed during

the Depression, the current plot of

land was purchased from Henry

and Wilhelmina Muller in 1945.

Just two years later, the loan was

paid off. But fundraising for a

building, spearheaded by Hildegarde

Muller-Uri, was just beginning.

he city caught the

attention of the nation

when, in 1947, landscape

and marine painter Anthony Thieme

exhibited 21 oils of St. Augustine

and St. Johns County at Grand

Central Galleries in New York. A plein

air painter, Thieme spent many winters

in St. Augustine away from his home

in Rockport. Lithographs of his

rendition of Aviles Street were sold

all over the country.

E.B. Warren thought her art would sell better if people didn’t know she was a woman. Her “Farm Cart in Hastings” was painted during an Arts Club plein air picnic outing along the St. Johns River.

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a success. From Provincetown

came Tod Lindenmuth and his wife,

Elizabeth (known professionally as

E.B. Warren), who wintered in St.

Augustine regularly, then bought

a house in 1940. Among its most

active members, the Lindenmuths

profoundly influenced the growth

of the Arts Club and spread

the word about St. Augustine to

fellow artists in the Provincetown

and Rockport art colonies.

Friends of the Lindenmuths,

William Johnson L’Engle and his

wife, Lucy, first visited in 1940 from

Provincetown. Both couples were

supporters of the modern avant-

garde movement, resulting in a

broader range of artistic styles

exhibited at the Club. But in 1941,

a contemporary exhibit sponsored

by the Federal Art Project was

canceled because the Club

couldn’t afford the $41 fee. And

then the war stymied growth, both

economic and artistic. During

World War II, “there were no cars,

no gasoline and no tourists,”

commented Kay Burtin, past

president. “The Art Association did

survive, just barely.”

In the years following the

war, the Club’s fortunes turned

and efforts to attract artists were

renewed. The banner headline “Like

Painting in Europe, St. Augustine,

Florida” splashed across a 1949

advertisement in Arts Digest. “Paris,

Amsterdam, the Riviera ... all come

to life in St. Augustine,” it promised.

“St. Augustine House” is one of the brightly colored impressionistic oils produced by Emmett Fritz and sold from his shop in the Riberia House on St. George Street. Over his 45 years in St. Augustine, he produced 10,000 paintings and loved meeting the public.

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Fatio House on Aviles Street was a popular subject of the Lost Colony artists in St. Augustine because it was used for meeting and studio space. This interpretation is by Stephen Scott Young.

Gladys Blakeman exhibited her oils with the artists of the Lost Colony of St. Augustine. Her “Shanty Town” took first place landscape in the 1958 Volusia County Art Show.

continued with oyster roasts, lectures

and art sales, but the building

fund was pushed over the top

by a legacy from winter resident

Lena May Newcastle. A loan

from the Mullers allowed building

to get started. The long-awaited

groundbreaking ceremony took

place on the city’s 388th birthday on

September 8, 1953. The ribbon was

cut on January 30, 1954. Attended

by more than 1,000 people, the

open house event was reported in

the New York Times. Just 16 years

later, members celebrated with a

mortgage-burning party.

n the midst of growth and

optimism, fundamental

splits were dividing the

membership. Modernist advocates

sought to educate the public

about such cutting-edge movements

as cubism and abstraction. Those

advocates, in addition to the

Lindenmuths and L’Engles, included

Louise Shanks, Heinrich Pfeiffer and

Muller-Uri. They often clashed with

the traditional artists and more

conservative, business-minded

faction of the Art Association. One

side sought to move with artistic

trends of the day, the other sought to

serve the consumer market. Ultimately,

hard feelings and core differences led

to declining membership.

“When art went abstract in the

’30s and ’40s, no one had to come

to beautiful places to paint, so St.

Augustine lost its former artists colony,”

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In her oil “Bal Masque,” Louise W. Shanks captures the colorful party atmosphere of the 1949 Beaux Arts Ball. Billed as “A Night in Fairyland,” there were prizes for the “most beautiful,” “most unusual” and “most amusing” costumes.

The St. Augustine Art Association

took its present name in 1948,

indicating that “it was a club for all

who enjoyed art, whether they were

creative artists or not.” Show awards

began in the late 1940s, when visitors

paid 10 cents a vote for their favorite

piece in each exhibit. From 1949-

1954, members used gallery space

in the Lightner Museum, paying a

monthly rent of $1.25.

The most popular event to raise

money for the building fund was the

annual costume Beaux Arts Ball,

the first held on February 26, 1949,

in the Hotel Alcazar Casino. Otto

C. Lightner, who was made an

honorary lifetime member of the Art

Association, had recently bought

the decaying property and opened

it as a “museum of hobbies.” The

Lindenmuths produced advertising

posters, and Muller-Uri decorated the

walls with original paintings. The pool

was covered for the dance floor, while

seating around the balconies added

a bohemian bistro touch. It was the

social event of the season and added

$425 to the building fund.

Fundraising for the clubhouse

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artists to exhibit a full range of art in

the varied monthly Art Association

shows, she permanently endowed

the Best in Show award.

In 1975, the Art Association

counted more than 400 members,

“professional, amateur and

others who simply love art.” With

the arts scene revived, more exhibit

space was needed. Ground was

broken for two new wings on

November 15, 1998.

Benefactors Faith Tiberio, and

her husband, Joseph, dedicated

the new wings to Faith’s mother,

Marguerita Phillips. One of the

Lost Colony artists, she was quite

a progressive. With a degree from

Vassar College in 1916, she spent a

summer in Alaska with a geographic

survey team, was one of only eight

women in the U.S. licensed as

wireless operators during WWI, set

up her own radio station and taught

wounded veterans Morse Code.

She moved to St. Augustine in

1925 and quickly became

fast friends with fellow feminist

Nina Hawkins, founding member

of the Galleon Arts Club. “She

was eccentric, yes, but a fearless

pioneer,” said daughter Kay Burtin.

Phillips cited her three children –

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ART- I -FACTS When planning for the future,

St. Augustine has a way of

reconnecting to the past. And so it

was during construction of the new

wings when history touched art.

Sitting in the heart of late-1500s

St. Augustine when Bridge Street

was the city’s southern border,

the Art Association property was

undisturbed. For nine months, city

archaeologist Carl Halbirt and Art

Association volunteers sifted dirt

through unbearable heat. What they

found was a three-foot burned layer,

direct evidence of Sir Francis Drake’s

raid on the city in 1586. Charcoal

was all that remained of a small

residential structure that probably

fronted Charlotte Street.

Unearthed were burned

vegetable seeds and animal bones,

a four-inch pewter needle likely used

for sailmaking and leatherwork, a

wrought-iron spike and two large

shards of pottery, one Columbian

and the other Spanish with a blue

scroll design. “They’re time markers

for 16th-century St. Augustine,”

Halbirt stated. A 19th-century privy

pit encroached into a corner of

the dig site. At the bottom of the

privy was a late 18th-century coarse

earthenware vase.

explained noted portrait painter

Jean Wagner Troemel. She moved to

St. Augustine in 1969 and, in her own

irrepressible style, set about restoring

the arts scene. She founded a co-op

gallery on Aviles Street, so popular

with the art colony founders in their

heyday. Then she originated the

idea of the popular downtown

art walk and the art galleries

association guide.

For more than four decades,

Troemel, mentor, teacher and

promoter, has championed the arts

in St. Augustine. To encourage local

Italian-born Oronzio Maldarelli (1892-1963) is best known for his sculptures of the female form, such as the bronze “Bianca #2.” His work is included in the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

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“St. George Street” by Jean Wagner Troemel shows the influence of one of her early teachers, Lost Colony artist Nunzio Vayana, who specialized in painting impressionist landscapes.

“Aviles Street Looking North” by Joe Taylor looks much the same today with the white Fatio House on the left. The yellow Victorian building in the foreground is now a bed and breakfast.

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life drawing sessions and lectures are

all open to public participation. The St.

Augustine Art Association remains true

to its mission stated in 1931: to welcome

“painters, sculptors, writers, musicians,

all the arts” to join an organization

where both professionals and

amateurs exhibit side by side

and enjoy “equal status.”

What once was “lost” is now found.

The pioneering artists of the Lost Colony

of St. Augustine established a remarkable

heritage of art in the historic city, a banner

the Art Association carries forward today.

Ted Karam created “Wave” from English oak around 1992. After his death in 2005, the Ted Karam Memorial for Best Sculpture award was instituted at the Art Association.

art show in her own gallery so

that children without sight could

experience art. When the show

exploded in popularity, she brought

the Tactile Art Show to the Art

Association in 2002, making the

organization one of 200 international

Art Beyond Sight partners.

hese prominent women

exemplify the inimitable

spirit of the many artists

who left their mark on the Art

Association. Their collective efforts to

nurture creativity continue with juried

exhibits, concerts, films, traveling

exhibits, children’s art camps, school

exhibits and young artist programs.

Painting and clay workshops, weekly 111

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Faith, Kay and Camellia – as her

greatest accomplishment, so it

was appropriate that on October

8, 2000, the two new gallery wings

opened with an exhibit of

children’s drawings.

When former teacher Jean Light-

Willis moved to St. Augustine in 1992

and set up her own art studio, Lost

Colony artist Emmett Fritz paid her

a visit to lend his “moral support.” In

his honor, she spearheaded a 2002

joint exhibit of his work that spanned

the Historical Society and the Art

Association. Light-Willis was much

inspired by the Florida School for the

Deaf and the Blind and the idea of

making art accessible to all children.

She sponsored a “touchable”

Jean Light-Willis describes herself as a passionate plein air painter. Her art often depicts St. Augustine scenes, such as “Water Street.” “Ballet Dancer with Fan” by Louis

Kronberg echoes Edgar Degas’s fascination with ballet subjects. Known as the “Degas of America,” Kronberg died in Palm Beach, Florida, in 1965.

Resources:Lost Colony: The Artists of St. Augustine, 1930-1950 by Robert W. Torchia (2001, The Lightner Museum, St. Augustine FL).St. Augustine Art Association 1924-1974 by Jeannette M. Perrin (manuscript dated May 1975, St. Augustine Art Association archives).St. Augustine Art Association Dedication of New North and South Wings (booklet, October 8, 2000, St. Augustine Art Association archives).“Evidence of Drake’s Raid” by Margo C. Pope (St. Augustine Record, October 1, 1998).Images and text © 2011 by the St. Augustine Art Association. All rights reserved. Elyse Brady, Administrative Director Text by Pat Worrell Graphic Design by Tina K. Greene

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The St. Augustine Art Association is a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts organization supported by memberships, donations, grants and fundraising events. A member of the American Association of Museums, the organization carries out its mission to promote artistic excellence and foster appreciation of the arts through art exhibits, educational programs and community outreach. The art gallery is located in the historic district of St. Augustine, Florida, and is open free to the public. This publication was produced through a grant from the Community Foundation of Jacksonville - JoAnn Crisp-Ellert Fund for Appreciation of the Arts in St. Augustine.

“Fish Wharf,” painted about 1950 by Walter Cole, is a quintessential image of North Florida. Cole was a popular painting teacher at the Art Association who conducted both studio and outdoor classes.

22 Marine Street, St. Augustine, FL 32084(904) 824 - 2310 — www.staaa.org

Joseph Jeffers Dodge was director of the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens in Jacksonville for 10 years before dedicating himself to painting and producing “The Rocks, Washington Oaks.”

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orks of art shown are part of the St. Augustine Art Association permanent

collection, which consists of more than 150 pieces. Many works depict

scenes of St. Augustine and the Florida landscape genre, ranging from

figurative, maritime and abstract paintings to sculpture and ceramics.

The campaign for a permanent collection started in 1935 with an appeal to

members to donate one of his or her “best efforts” for the Club’s walls. The collection

safeguards the artwork created by the founders of the organization and offers a

historical visual resource of St. Augustine.

Through generous donations, this dynamic collection continues to receive historic

artwork as well as contemporary works produced by the artists of today’s art colony.

Plein air painter Charles Dickinson, who divides his time between Florida and New England, grew up in a family of artists, greatly influenced by his father and grandfather. Known for his landscapes, he painted “The Art Center” of the Art Association building in 2011. The main gallery opened with fanfare in 1954.

Artists represented in the St. Augustine Art Association

Permanent Collection

Barclay, Rosalie P.Blakeman, Gladys Boyd, EmilyBringle, CynthiaBrockman, Ann Brooks, W. R.Brown, Charles M.Carr (aka Mrs.Richard Carr), BettyCarver, J.Case, FredCerulli, JillCole, WalterCollings, CliffColson, FrankCrisp-Ellert, Jo-AnnCronn, SueCunningham, Earl Dickinson, CharlesDitto, JoiDodge, Joseph JeffersDowner, HaroldDraper, J.EverettEskew, RobertEtter, Harold Ewald, BarbaraFager, CharlesFreeman, James S.Fritz, EmmettGibson, H.Gould, Martin F.Greacen (N.A.), NanGreen, BillGrubbs, DoloresGrupe, BrigitteHall, EdHamilton, RobertHillbom, Ralph A.Hodgins, JohnHowatt, FrancesHunt, J. CourtenayHuppi, Vernon F.Hylton, Marion W.Jertson, JanJordan, MaryKaram, TedKronberg, LouisKrondorf, W. F.Kuehn, Paul G.L’Engle, WilliamLane, GinaLarge, Cora Mae D.B. RussellLee, FrankLight-Willis, Jean

Lindenmuth, TodLonderee, SarabobMack, L.Maddocks, H. S.Maldarelli, OronzioMcCall, KeithMcIver, JohnMcKenna, SydneyMcKinley, EvelynMitchell, Gladys V.Mulholland, KathleenMullen, LindsayNewhard, HelenNoy, PegPalenske, R. H.Parrish, RosamondPfeiffer, HeinrichPhillips, P.H.Phillips, NanettePolster, Hellen EllerPortman, NancyPratten, John Proctor, WilliamQuan, MunRatliff, SheelaghRatz, WiniReid, Celia GregorRobbins, IreeneRogers, Lorana G.Ryerson, MarjorieSchulthesis, Carl MasShanks, Louise W.Sill, DonSteinsieck, CarlStone, MargaretStratmann, CharlesStrisik, PaulSturgess, LeeTaylor, Joe Torrents, F.Troemel, Jean W.Turano, TonyVago, SandorVayana, NunzioWalters, EdWard, PhillipWarner, JanetWarren, Elizabeth B.Weiderman, JuneWells, Alva D.Yeomans, Walter C.Young, Stephen ScottZayac, Dick

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S t. A u g u s t i n e, F l o r i d a