Gordon Hall on the Marycliff campus

"Marycliff was originally an elegant mansion designed by Kirkland Cutter for F. Lewis Clark and his wife at W. 701 Seventh. It was English in it's architecture style. After Clark became ill, he sold the house to Mr. and Mrs. Burgess Lee Gordon. It was renamed "Undercliff." The whole part of "The Hill," an area of elegance.
In 1929, "Undercliff" was given to the Bishop of Spokane with a value of $150,000. The woodwork in the dining room was made of sycamore and had a secret panel of velvet lined shelves that could only be opened by rubbing across a metal bar with a gold ring.

The Bishop determined it would be exceptionally suited to become a girl's school. Marycllif High School opened in 1929 with fifty seven students. Marycliff Hall was a classroom and a convent. It remained the music conservatory and convent after the main building was added in 1931. in 1945, the Franciscan Sisters moved to the Corbin House (so named after original owner and railroad magnate Daniel Chase Corbin) and twenty four out of town students were allowed to board. In 1951, enrollment reached 355 and Marycliff Hall became Freshman Hall with five class rooms. I attended Marycliff from 1963 to 1967. We had a graduating class of 129 female students.

In 1962 McCauley Hall was completed. Freshman Hall was renamed Gordon Hall (after Mr. and Mrs. Burgess Gordon) and again became a music conservatory. The old carriage house became a chapel. There were two Corbin houses, one donated to Marycliff in 1945 and one is the Art Center east of Marycliff. The southern colonial Corbin House that was part of Marycliff was built for $65,000 on about four acres.

The D.C. Corbin House (currently the Corbin Art Center) is on the National Register of Historic Places.

A friend commissioned me to paint this couple, as he wanted to display them in his barn. He always loved these characters. He is a carpenter, so he cut out the figures and I went at it. It was a very fun project and he was really delighted with the outcome.

My sister LOVES lighthouses. I painted this one for her birthday.

This was my first attempt with house portraits. My friend was relocating and really didn't want to leave her beautiful home. So, for a going-away/birthday gift, I painted a portrait of her home. That way she would always have it with her.

While taking a short trip this fall to both WV and KY, we had the opportunity to visit many sites. This painting is of a cabin that sits on Bryan's Station in Waveland, KY.

It is the site of a Greek Revival home and plantation now maintained and operated as part of the Kentucky state park system. It was the home of the Joseph Bryan family, who followed Daniel Boone through the Cumberland Gap, and became an early settler and horseman of this region.

Waveland was constructed between the fall of 1844 and late 1848. Joseph Bryan had the house built "to please his father" according to a letter written by his son Elijah in 1845. Joseph's father Daniel Boone Bryan had settled the land by 1786. The land surrounding Waveland was owned by the Bryan family until 1894, when Joseph's son Joseph Henry Bryan sold the farm at auction.

Tours include the historic house, the slave quarters, smokehouse and ice house, and focus on the Bryan family and life on a 19th century Kentucky plantation.

While on tour, we were told that some of the Bryan ancestors are the ground's keepers, even though it now belongs to the state park system.

It was named Waveland, due to the way the wind blew on the estate. For more information, check out this site: http://www.fokh.org/history.htm

Or go to this site to see photos: http://parks.ky.gov/findparks/histparks/wl/gallery/

West Orange Bridge

This is a sideview of the bridge in early spring.

West Orange Road Bridge

This is a (fall) painting of our historic bridge on West Orange Road, where we live. This bridge is soon to be removed and replaced by a two-lane bridge. This will affect our scenic river valley, by taking out the mature trees and making way for concrete and clay.

This one-lane "bridge was built in 1898 by the Toledo Bridge Company (which was originally the Smith Bridge Company). Abutments are original stone at the west end of the bridge, while the east end of the bridge has a concrete abutment. The bridge retains a remarkable amount of historic integrity, including original floor beams and lattice railings, as well as builder and commissioner plaques remaining on the bridge. The bridge is a nine panel structure. It features attractive v-lacing on the sway bracing, under the top chord / end post, as well as on the vertical members. Lattice is present on the portal bracing and on the railings.

The Orange Road Bridge is a very long example of a single-span pin-connected Pratt through truss. It is uncommon to find a traditional late 19th century pin-connected Pratt truss at this length. As a function of its length, it features taller, impressive trusses that feature a more complex network of sway bracing that more commonly shows up in a Whipple truss.

The first section of bottom chord (between the end post and the hip vertical) is not the standard eye bar but is instead an unusual built-up beam that has an unusual form of v-lacing. Historic bridge expert David Simmons believes that this is due to the unique elevated position of the bridge, relative to the approaching road. He believe that the Toledo Bridge Company did this to add support to the bridge as the angle at which vehicles would enter the bridge would be different due to the elevated position." (Taken from historicbridges.org).