Archive for Plattville
Merry Christmas – 124th Anniversary of Hermon and Carrie Brooks MacNeil’s Wedding Day.
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By The original uploader was TonyTheTiger at English Wikipedia.(Original text: en:User:TonyTheTiger) – Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3588095
Carrie as a young girl. Ink drawn portrait by HW Bucknell in 1892 for her parents.
They had a wedding reception in the Marquette Building in the Studio of Hermon Atkins MacNeil.
The Brooks of Winnetka, Illinois hosted the reception for Carol (“Carrie” to her friends) and the “happiest man in the world” – her new husband – “Hermon Atkins MacNeil”.
Carrie’s father and mother, Alden F. and Ellen T. (nee, Woodworth) Brooks lived at 518 Elder Lane, Winnetka. He was a portrait painter for whom President William McKinley once sat. Hermon would later sculpt the memorial statue of William McKinley at the Columbus, Ohio Capitol Building. McKinley was assassinated in 1901 at the Buffalo Worlds Fair.
Carrie preferred sculpture to painting, though she grew up in her parents home with a great awareness and appreciation of the arts and Chicago community, and the Chicago Art Institute.
A 2019 photo of the home where Carrie Brooks parents lived when he died at 93 years of age in 1932. The home still stands at 436 Elder Lane and Woodlawn avenue, in the north shore Chicago suburb of Winnetka, Illinois. The neighborhood appears very original and well maintained even today. They lived elsewhere in Hyde Park when they hosted the wedding reception for Carrie and Hermon 124 years ago.
Happy Christmas Memories
Merry Christmas
and
Happy Anniversary
( X 124) to the MacNeil Sculptor Couple
our favorite Christmas Coupe Today!
Invitation below…
↓
Here is the printed invitation for the Brook’s Christmas Day reception for Carol (Carrie) and Hermon MacNeil at the Marquette Building
Related Images:
February is “MacNeil Month”
Posted by: | CommentsOne month from today, February 27, 2011 will mark the 145th Anniversary of the birth of Hermon Atkins MacNeil. We here at HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com will be celebrating February as MacNeil Month.
Hermon A. MacNeil Commemorative by Artist C. Daughtrey is available at http://www.cdaughtrey.com/
We will be with posting information about the sculptor’s early life history (such as is available).BIRTH: Hermon was born in 1866. Most sources say in Chelsea, Massachusetts, now an inner urban suburb of Boston, the capital city. Chelsea borders Boston Harbor only about three miles from what is now Logan International Airport. The Chelsea area is much like the little peninsula of College Point in Queens, New York where Mac Neil would later set up his New York studio home in about 1904.)
In a 1924 interview with Hermon at the College Point studio, J. Walker McSpadden stated that the sculptor was born “at Plattville near Chelsea.” Plattville is 40 miles south of Chelsea and 35 miles south of Boston. Even more sources associate “Hermon MacNeil” with ‘Everett’ Massachuesetts. Just Googling those 3 words gave me 6 hits for Everett MA as his birthplace. Whether he was born in Plattville and moved shortly after is unclear. There are MANY MacNeil’s in this area of Massachusetts and surrounding New England (or should I say ‘New Scotland?’). Perhaps Hermon was born at the home of grandparents or other relatives. What is clear is that for the next 26 years he would live, grow, and study in immediate area of Chelsea/ Boston .
At the age of 20, he received his first formal training in the arts at the Normal Art School in Boston in 1886. According to the timeline for MassArt on Wikipedia this was the same year that the new art school building was opened:
- 1886: The new Massachusetts Normal Art School building is constructed at the corner of Newbury and Exeter Streets ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Normal_Art_School )
A current Google Streetview of this corner shows a quaint old city neighborhood. The old stone building on the northeast corner of the intersection says “First Spiritual Temple,” a Spiritualist church. According to wikipedia:
On the corner of Exeter and Newbury Street—the address is given both as 181 Newbury Street and as 26 Exeter Street—is a striking building designed by Boston architects Hartwell and Richardson in the Romanesque Revival style. It was originally built in 1885 as the First Spiritual Temple, a Spiritualist church. In 1914 it became a movie theater, the Exeter Street Theatre.
NEXT WEEK: MORE ABOUT MacNeil”s EARLY YEARS AT HOME AND BOSTON.
In the meanwhile find more about MacNeil on our website at:
https://hermonatkinsmacneil.com/about-2/
Here is a Google Map of the corner of Newbury and Exeter Streets in Boston. Enjoy lookin’ around!
[mappress mapid=”16″]
