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historical society

Historical Society elects new President at annual meeting

Historical Society elects new President at annual meeting

Local landscape artist and charcoal kiln historian Cliff Waldow was the featured speaker at the annual meeting of the Amenia Historical Society on Sunday, Oct. 26. Newly elected President Judy Westfall joined him beside his painting of an open door at his Amenia Union home.

Photo by Leila Hawken

AMENIA — The Amenia Historical Society held its annual meeting on Sunday, Oct. 26, electing Judy Westfall to serve as president for a two-year term.

Westfall provided welcoming remarks and led the business portion of the meeting when the additional election results were read. Walter Dietrich will serve a two-year term as vice-president, and Maureen Moore was elected to serve as Secretary. Trustees elected to three-year terms were Julian Strauss, Ericka Howard and Larry Havens. Two-year terms as trustee will be held by Deb Phillips and Vicki Doyle, and a one-year term by Victoria Herow.

The program that followed featured local landscape artist Cliff Waldow whose paintings of local barns, charcoal furnaces and landscapes capture some of the town’s historic features as well as historic kilns dotted throughout the eastern seaboard. Waldow’s talk was titled “Scenes Behind the Paintings.”

Stories of the search for remote charcoal kilns that fired wood to make charcoal, essential to the iron industry over two centuries, engaged Waldow’s audience. Once the industry changed, the kilns were abandoned where they stood. As the years passed, Waldow found that clues about the locations would be found in the fragile memories of the elderly.

Waldow sought to locate forgotten stone kilns, frequently returning to a wooded mountainside numerous times to locate a kiln. Some of these kilns became the subjects for his paintings, his interest in painting having begun in 1951 when he was newly married and had moved to Florida.

Lime Rock has a significant history in iron production, with factories running around the clock with two 12-hour shifts to meet demand.

Included in the display were Waldow’s rural scenes from the Amenia area, including the old Chase Farm in Sharon, no longer standing, and his own Amenia Union home depicted as a slightly ajar rustic door leading to his basement.

Without formal art instruction, Waldow nevertheless managed to capture landscapes with clear authenticity.

“Painting was a challenge,” Waldow said.

Leila Hawken
historical society

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