Hallowell Mural

by Chris Cart | American

Category: mural-content

  • Hallowell Mayors

    Hallowell Mayors

    Timson #17, Walker #18, Harmon #19, Stubbs #20,

    several key mayors

    Several recent Hallowell Mayors are shown here, Robert Stubbs, Harvey Harmon, Barry Timson, Mark Walker and George Lapointe.

    Mayor Robert Stubbs #20, is wearing a SAVE HALLOWELL t-shirt. In the 1975 Maine Department of Transportation wanted to widen Route 201 through Hallowell—an act that would have razed many of Hallowell’s historic downtown buildings. Stubbs, the mayor of the time was one of many Hallowellians, calling themselves The Patriots, who fought to preserve the downtown.

    Stubbs is also holding Hallowell’s rare, original broadsheet from 1776 of the Declaration of Independence. Only 250 of these copies of the new Declaration were printed and distributed around the new nation. This rare document was found framed in storage in the Hubbard Free Library in Hallowell. Hallowell’s copy of the Declaration of Independence is now housed at the Maine State Museum.

    I chose these mayors to represent the long list of Hallowell Mayors as they were considered to have contributed a lot to the city during their terms in office.

    artist, Chris Cart

    Mayor Barry Timson #17, was a pillar of the Hallowell community. He served 3 terms as mayor as well as years on the Planning Board, the Water and Sewer District Board, and the Hallowell Water District. He was instrumental in setting up Hallowell’s Head Start program and Hallowell Food Bank.

    Mayor Charlotte Warren #47 served as Hallowell mayor for 5 years. After that she served for four terms in the Maine House of Representatives. and 8 years on the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee. Warren previously served on the Judiciary Committee and as the house chair of Maine’s Mental Health Working Group and the house chair of the Commission to Examine Reestablishing Parole. Charlotte is a social worker and an educator.

    Mayor Mark Walker#18, a lawyer, was elected mayor of Hallowell in 2013 and serve 7 years in that position. Before his election, Walker had served on the City Council since 2006. During that time, Walker said that Hallowell has seen “a lot of change and a lot of development.”

    Mayor George LaPointe #68 was the mayor during the majority of the time the mural was being painted.

    Harmon D. Harvey #19, was mayor of Hallowell from January 1990 – January 1996. Then he served as Councilor at Large from January 1999 – January 2002 and prior he had served as Councilor for Ward Five from January 1977 – January 1987.

    Mr. Harvey oversaw the acquisition of the Jamies Pond Wildlife Refuge and was instrumental in arranging for the location of the William S Cohen Center in Hallowell.

    Charlotte Warren, #47 in the sun glasses behind Betsy Sweet #48 and Libby Thompson #46
    George LaPointe #68
  • those who serve

    those who serve

    national service

    Men and women of Hallowell have served in all the major wars in our nation’s history.

    Mark Francis Bastey, #24, US Army Major, served in Vietnam and received the Purple Heart. He was also awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action and 2 Bronze Stars.  

    His dates of service are June 1969 to May 1984.  He was medically retired from the Army due to the MS diagnoses.  After retiring from the Army, Mark worked for the Maine Department of Labor as a Veteran’s Counselor.

    Ernest “Bev” Bevilacqua, #25, joined the Navy at 17 and served on several battleships as a gunner’s mate in World War II. He was blown off one into the sea. After the war his ship was stationed just 10 miles off Bikini during the nuclear testing.

    Bev was not from Hallowell but he was my dearest friend. He died in 2019. I included him young in his Navy cracker jacks as a memory.

    artist, Chris Cart

    Brian King #22, served in our modern era.

    Local models

    Diana Gibson, #43, a descendent of the Vaughan family, is shown in the mural. She served in the Red Cross in World War II.

    Of the many Hallowell men #23 who served in the Civil War 45 died fighting for the freedom of others. You can see the large obelisk monument for these fallen soldiers in the Hallowell cemetery.

    Diana Gibson, #43 in mural
    Civil War Memorial, Hallowell Cemetery
  • Governor Bodwell

    Governor Bodwell

    Governor Bodwell in black coat with grey waistcoat.

    Joseph Robinson Bodwell | 40th Governor of Maine

    (June 18, 1818 – December 15, 1887) Politician

    Joseph R. Bodwell #16, was first elected Mayor of Hallowell in 1869 and served two terms.  He also represented Hallowell in the Maine legislature.

    In 1886 he was elected the 40th Governor of Maine, the second Governor from Hallowell.  While in office he advocated to improve child welfare and labor conditions for workers in Maine’s industries. He served until his death on December 15, 1887.

    Granite industry

    In his 20’s, Joseph Bodwell and his father bought and worked a farm in West Methuen, MA.  During this time period young Bodwell was also engaged to haul a large amount of stone from the quarries in Pelham, New Hampshire to improve the dam on the Merrimack River at Lawrence, MA.  This was his introduction to all aspects of the stone quarrying industry.

    Successful businessman

    Bodwell also had business interests in lumbering, agriculture, live stock and the important ice business.

    Bodwell eventually became the owner of two stone companies, opening granite quarries on Vinalhaven in 1852 and opening the Hallowell Granite Company in 1866.  The company was reorganized as the Hallowell Granite Works in 1885 becoming one of the largest granite producers in the United States.

    He is buried in the Hallowell Cemetery.

    Governor Bodwell Mansion is newly restored on Middle Street in Hallowell. This photo if c1900.
    Bodwell mansion as seen today.
  • Granite and Quarrymen

    Granite and Quarrymen

    A slab of quarried granite to be sent to Boston to make the cornice stones at Quincy Market.
    A slab of quarried granite being hauled by horses on wagon called galamander.
    A ship being loaded with granite on Hallowell’s riverfront.

    famous monuments of the nation

    Hallowell granite was prized for its light color and fine grain. It has a high percentage of feldspar which made it relatively easy to quarry and carve—relative, but still not easy since it is granite after all. When properly dress by the sculptor it shines almost as white as marble and when polished the surface can glitter like diamonds. It is beautiful stone.

    Hallowell granite was used for many of America’s most important monuments—as well as local doorsteps and foundations still seen around town. The cornice stones for Boston’s Quincy Market were cut from John Hain’s Hallowell quarry, shipped down the Kennebec and cut and placed starting in 1815.

    Eight to ten teams of horses and oxen hauled the granite loaded onto heavy wagons, called galamanders. Once quarried and carved locally the granite was carefully crated for transport in wood from the local lumber mills.

    Granite was shipped by rail and by ship down the Kennebec.

    The Hall of Records and the Metropolitan Art Museum in New York City were built using Hallowell Granite. Hallowell had huge granite contracts for Chicago’s Marshall Field Building and the Post Office in Chicago, Ill. were large contracts. The largest contract was for the State Capitol at Albany, NY, from 1867-1898, totaling 25 million dollars.

    Hallowell granite was used to build the Maine State House, the Kennebec Arsenal, and the Maine Insane Hospital in Augusta.

    Who were the stone carvers and quarrymen?

    Stone cutters and quarrymen came from Italy, England, Spain, Scotland and Canada to work in Hallowell’s thriving granite industry.

    In 1901 a skilled Maine granite cutter could earn between $2.80 to $3.20 a day. This was a solid middle class income at the time. Quarrymen tended to earn between $1.75 and $2.00 per day.

    Tony (Masciadri) was a huge help to me, showing me traditional stone cutting and carving tools and demonstrating the proper way yo use them so I could depict the action in the mural.

    artist, Chris Cart

    Protasio Neri

    Protasio Neri was one prominent Hallowell stone carver. Born in Levigliani, Italy, he was trained in stone carving in the marble quarries of Carrara, the quarries famous for the marble Michaelangelo preferreds. Protasio moved with his family to 1877 at age 27 to pursue his granite carving career in Hallowell. Neri was very involved in unionizing the stone carvers to improve their working conditions.

    William Rich

    Another granite worker, William Rich, came from Cornwall, England to work the Bodwell quarry in 1872. He was a gifted stone carver who worked carving the statue of “Faith,” statue that sits atop the national Monument to the Forefathers now in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Locally in Hallowell, you can see his carving over the door of the Hubbard Free Library.

    Settimio Masciadri

    Settimo Masciadri came from Italy near Lake Como, in 1895 when Governor Joseph Bodwell’s company Hallowell Granite Works sent out a worldwide call for stone carvers.

    Settimio worked for Bodwell for 5 years and got his United States citizenship. He returned to Italy and married his girlfriend. They returned in 1902 where their son Americo, Tony Masciadri’s father, was born.

    Americo grew up working stone like his father. He also worked for the WPA for a time. Then Americo and Joe Perrazi bought Kennebec Monument which eventually became the Masciadri & Sons Monument that we know today.

    In the 1970’s Tony Masciadri came back to town to assist his father in the family stone monument business. He stayed on to take over the business. He only recently retired in 2023. Though he still does some work at the shop.

    Protasio Neri
    Letters carved by William Rich
  • National Monument to the Forefathers

    National Monument to the Forefathers

    Faith, 36 foot sculpture

    The National Monument to the Forefathers #27, formerly known as the Pilgrim Monument, commemorates the Mayflower Pilgrims. Dedicated on August 1, 1889, it honors their ideals as later generally embraced by the United States. It is thought to be the nation’s largest solid granite monument.

    Carved of local granite in Hallowell in the site of the current Camden National Bank

    The “Faith” statue, modelled after the sculptor Hammatt Billings’ mother, stands atop a 45 foot pedestal and ringed by 4 additional figurative sculptures.

    This sculpture was central to the early sketches of the mural.

    artist, Chris Cart

    Carved in Hallowell

    Located at 72 Allerton Street in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the 81-foot-tall (25 m) monument was commissioned by the Pilgrim Society. The 36 foot solid granite Faith figure stands on a 45 foot granite pedestal. The original concept dates to around 1820, with actual planning beginning in 1850. The cornerstone was laid August 2, 1859 by the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts, under the direction of Grand Master John T. Heard. The monument was completed in October 1888, and was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies on August 1, 1889.

    Photo by By T.S. Custadio aka ToddC4176 at en.wikipedia – Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by User:Kelly using CommonsHelper., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16091399

    Hallowell stonecutters, Hallowell Granite

    Statuary cutter Joseph Archie stands on Faith’s outstretched arm. He was the primary cutter and Italian immigrant, Prostasio Neri, supervised the carving of base statues Morality, Education, Law and Liberty. Although the statue appears solid, it was carved in sections and most likely transported to Plymouth in one of the two large ships owned by the Hallowell Granite Works.

    The photo was taken in the cutting yard on Franklin Street and the one-time steeple of the Baptist church can be seen in the background.

    Creating the granite texture in this large sculpture and the other granite elements in the mural design took a lot of work layering close colors and splattering fine paint drips. Any simpler rolled or brushed texture technique ended up looking like concrete rather than Hallowell’s elegant white granite.

    …a lot of work but I think worth it.

    artist, Chris Cart

    local heritage

    Tony Masciadri, #26, shown on the right with the heavy hammer is the owner of S Masciadri & Sons Monuments in Hallowell. Tony is the direct descendant of some of Hallowell’s original stone carvers from Italy, Settimio Masciadri. The family stone carving business was passed from grandfather to father to Tony, who has spent his life carving granite in Hallowell.

    Jon Doody, #28, on the left, is a local stone sculptor who carved the granite sturgeon that can be seen today in Granite City Park in Hallowell.

    Jon Doody on left with mallet and chisel, Tony Masciadri on right with heavy stone hammer.
    Settimo Masciadri is fifth from the left in the back row.
    Settimo Masciadri is the dapper gent in the back.

    stone cutters from Italy, Spain and Scotland

    Settimo Masciadri came from Italy near Lake Como, in 1895 when Governor Joseph Bodwell’s company Hallowell Granite Works sent out a worldwide call for stone carvers.

    Settimio worked for Bodwell for 5 years and got his United States citizenship. He returned to Italy and married his girlfriend. They returned in 1902 where their son Americo, Tony Masciadri’s father, was born.

    Americo grew up working stone like his father. He also worked for the WPA for a time. Then Americo and Joe Perrazi bought Kennebec Monument which eventually became the Masciadri & Sons Monument that we know today.

    In the 1970’s Tony Masciadri came back to town to assist his father in the family stone monument business. He stayed on to take over the business. He only recently retired in 2023. Though he still does some work at the shop.

  • Martha Ballard

    Martha Ballard

    midwife and healer

    Martha Ballard #10, (February 9, 1735 – June 9, 1812) was a midwife and healer in early Hallowell .  Born in colonial Massachusetts, not much is known of her early life but at age 50 she began keeping a diary of her midwifery and healing efforts in the Hallowell/Augusta area.

    With thousands of entries over the 27 years she kept a diary, Ballard writes of delivering 816 babies and being present at more than 1,000 births—amazing when you think the entire population of Hallowell in 1790 was 1194 and the end of her life was only just over 3800. Ballard must have delivered or attended births in most families of the time. 

    Behind Ballard in the mural I included a small writing desk with oil lamp, quill pen and paper to commemorate her writings in her diary, which give us a detailed insight into the daily life of the early nation.

    artist, Chris Cart

    In her diary, Ballard also made note of the daily happenings of her patients, their health, sometimes the weather. It is a great resource for minutia of the day to day lives of 18th century Hallowell people.

    local descendant

    The older woman in the glasses is Alice Ballard Buck #9, a local resident who was a direct descendant of Martha Ballard.

    I wanted to have Alice helping her ancestor Martha Ballard with the delivery in this birthing scene. When I asked Alice if she would mind my including her, her whole face lit up—the biggest smile you can imagine.

    artist, Chris Cart

    For further reading Ballard’s diary is a fascinating read, The Diary of Martha Ballard 1785-1812, as is A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, based on Ballard’s diary. Both available at libraries and bookstores.

    developing an idea

    I worked a lot in the early sketches of this scene with Martha Ballard. I wanted to show the drama and importance of the days of her life. The crescent shaped space next to the river was challenging to depict the birth scene.

    I painted both Martha Ballard and Benjamin Vaughan in the top center of the mural, opposite each other. This placement was no accident. I felt they both represented different, yet essential aspects of the early life in Hallowell on the wild shores of the Kennebec. Vaughan brought his wealth, his vast library and his associations with the important minds of the time. Ballard’s life was no less important to the daily life with her knowledge of healing, herbal medicines and vast experience as a midwife. Her diary gives us a window into the daily life with all its joy, grief and the neighborly gestures of community.

    artist, Chris Cart

    history of the diary

    Ballard’s diary was more than 1400 pages long, some early entries very short but in her later years her writings became longer and more detailed.

    The last entry, dated May 7th, 1812, a month before her death, ends with the words: “Revd mr Tippin Came and Converst Swetly and made A Prayer adapted to my Case.”

    After her death the diary was kept by the Lambard family for 2 generations, when Sarah and Hannah Lambard gifted the diary to Martha Ballard’s great-great-granddaughter Mary Hobart.

    Mary Hobart was one of the first female physicians to be graduated from the New York Infirmary for Women and Children in 1884. This was the year she was given her ancestor’s diary.

    In 1930 Hobart donated the diary to the Maine State Library, in Augusta, Maine. The diary was referenced in a history of the area in 1961.

    Robert R. McCausland and Cynthia MacAlman McCausland spent ten years transcribing the handwritten diary.

    Historian  Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, seeing the importance of Ballard’s diary as a record of the day to day life of early America, spent 8 years working with the diary. She published A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard in 1989. The book received much acclaim:

    In 1991, A Midwife’s Tale received the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, the John H. Dunning Prize, the Joan Kelly Memorial Prize in Women’s History, the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Book Prize, the Society for Historians of the Early Republic Book Prize, the William Henry Welch Medal of the American Association for the History of Medicine, and the New England Historical Association Award.

    In 1997, the PBS series The American Experience aired A Midwife’s Tale a movie documentary based on Martha Ballard’s life and diary and Ulrich’s book.

    Hallowell’s official Historian Sam Webber #41 was a consultant for the movie.

    early study of historian Sam Webber for the mural.
  • Granite Heads

    Granite Heads

    Hallowell granite

    Hallowell granite was prized for being light in color and fine grained, with a high percentage of feldspar which made it easily worked in the quarry and particularly beautiful for sculptural work. When dressed it was almost as white as marble, and when polished its surface glittered like diamonds.

    The mural features a large granite circle or ring #7. I did this knowing the mural was going to have a lot of various detail and I wanted a large element to design or organize parts of the mural. The granite ring and the river are central to the overall design.

    artist, Chris Cart

    the natural world

    I used the granite circle #99 to represent the natural world which surrounds us. I “carved” into the granite ring suggestions of the roots and trees and animals to give a feeling of the natural world that holds us together. The two heads #7 represent the source of life.

    artist, Chris Cart

    For the early settlers and citizens of Hallowell the natural world was crucial to their survival and livelihood. They literally carved and cut their lives from the granite quarries, the trees of the forest and the ice and food from the rivers and lakes of the area.

  • Elizabeth Palmer Peabody

    Elizabeth Palmer Peabody

    educator

    Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, (May 16, 1804 – January 3, 1894) is considered one of the most influential American women of her day. A pioneering educator she was early recognizing the importance of play in childhood development and learning. She started the first English-speaking kindergarten in the country, at 15 Pinckney Street, Beacon Hill, Boston.

    The eldest of the three Peabody sisters of Salem, Massachusetts, Elizabeth early began assisting her mother who was an educator. With a passion for teaching she opened her own school in 1821.

    to Maine

    Benjamin Vaughan recognized Elizabeth Peabody’s importance in the thinking, intellectual world. In 1823 he brought Peabody to his home in Maine as governess and educator for his daughters and sons.

    While in Maine she taught the children to two influential families and pursued her studies under a French tutor.

    Peabody was influenced by the pillars of the Transcendentalist Movement. And in 1834 she assisted Bronson Alcott and fellow Transcendentalist Margaret Fuller in opening the Temple School in Boston—with the goal of bringing a more organic approach to education and development, by encouraging curiosity, play, and embracing of nature.

    Elizabeth Palmer Peabody is not directly in the mural but she had an influential voice in Hallowell.

    artist, Chris Cart

    literary circle

    She opened a West Street Bookstore in Boston (1839-1850), where the local literary elite—Transcendentalists. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Bronson Alcott, George Ripley, Orestes Brownson would gather to discuss ideas.

    The bookstore also became gathering place for the leading women of the time leading to a series of meetings collectively called Conversations.

    Peabody published the Transcendentalist literary magazine The Dial out of the bookstore, among many other publications, making her perhaps the first female book publisher in the country. She published Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience. Peabody was a great thinker and made her mark in the then male-dominated intellectual community.

    Elizabeth’s sister the fine painter Sophia Peabody Hawthorne was wife of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Elizabeth is purported to have “discovered” Nathaniel Hawthorne and helped him get his start.

    Peabody became a writer and prominent intellectual in the Transcendental Movement. She read 10 languages and continued advocating for education her entire life.

    She spent the 30 years of the rest of her life opening kindergartens across the nation and writing articles and books about childhood education.

    Her gravestone reads:

    A Teacher of three generations of Children, and the founder of Kindergarten in America. Every humane cause had her sympathy, and many her active aid.”

    By Jeffrey S. Cramer, Curator of Collections – The Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6327996
  • Benjamin Hallowell

    Benjamin Hallowell

    Portrait of Benjamin Hallowell by John Singleton Copley – https://web.colby.edu/thelantern/2016/09/01/face-off-john-singleton-copleys-portrait-of-benjamin-hallowell-as-a-political-effigy/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=109614641

    Kennebec Proprietors

    Hallowell, Maine is named for the wealthy shipbuilder Benjamin Hallowell (1699-1773) of the 17th century. He was heir to one of the original Kennebec Proprietors owning over 50,000 acres in Hallowell.

    In 1629 King Charles I of England, assuming authority over the lands in America, granted title of land along both sides of the Kennebec river to the Plymouth Colony. Those lands were used for almost a hundred years as access to the Wôban-aki nation people in the fur trade.

    In 1661 four very wealthy Massachusetts businessmen, known as the Kennebec Proprietors, bought land from this original grant from the Plymouth Colony for £400. Benjamin Hallowell was one of the descendant Kennebec Proprietors who controlled the land and began to sell off portions of land to settlers.

    Wars between the Native Americans, French and English in the Maine frontier and along the Kennebec valley discouraged most settlement for close to a century. It wasn’t until the second half of the 18th century that much actual settlement began in the valley.

    The Hallowell who gives the town its name is not to be confused with his son and namesake, Captain Benjamin Hallowell born in 1725, who became a staunch British Loyalist during the Revolutionary War. This second Benjamin Hallowell was the Commissioner of Customs during the fabled Boston Tea Party and became known as “the second most detested man in the Boston.”

    For want of space in the mural I didn’t include Benjamin Hallowell in the mural. He is there in spirit.

    artist, Chris Cart

  • a tale of two families

    a tale of two families

    Benjamin Vaughan early in the mural.
    Benjamin Hallowell

    Vaughan and Hallowell families

    abridged timeline

    Based on full timeline from Vaughan Homestead website.

    Prior to the 1600’s the lands of Hallowell were the home of the Wôban-aki people, also variously called the Abenaki, Wabanaki and locally the “Cussenocke”

    1600-1660. Kings of England stake claim to lands of the Kennebec Valley and grant rights to the lands to wealthy European man and Plymouth Colony.

    Plymouth Colony eventually sells its lands to group of 4 wealthy businessmen, a deal known as the Kennebec Purchase.

    1640. William Hallowell comes from England to work in Benjamin Ward’s Boston shipyard. Hallowell eventually takes over and it is the Hallowell Shipyard for 140 years—one of the most successful shipyards.

    William Hallowell’s grandson Benjamin takes over the shipyard and uses enslaved laborer to build ships, including some ships for slave trade.

    Benjamin Hallowell becomes successor to Kennebec Proprietor , inheriting lands along Kennebec River.

    1736. Samuel Vaughan established with first plantation in Jamaica. He becomes very wealthy with several sugar plantations worked by over 700 enslaved people.

    1750-60’s. Samuel Vaughan and Benjamin Hallowell form partnership. Hallowell providing ships and lumber for barrels to ship Vaughan’s sugar from his plantations.

    1751. Samuel Vaughan marries Sarah, Benjamin Hallowell’s daughter and their first some Benjamin Vaughan is born.

    1753. The descendants of original Kennebec Purchase, reincorporate and become the Kennebec Proprietors, Benjamin Vaughan one of the largest shareholders.

    1750’s. Most of the indigenous people of the area by this time have been driven upriver to Norridgewock and Canada.

    1762. Deacon Pease Clark and family purchase land from Kennebec Proprietors and are first to settle in what is now Hallowell.

    1771 Hallowell incorporated as a town on April 26, named for Benjamin Hallowell.

    1780-90’s Charles and Benjamin Vaughan, Samuel and Sarah’s sons settle in Hallowell.

    1852. Hallowell incorporated as a city on February 17.