The following comments about the above painting were written by Marian Settle.

This painting of the corner of Main Street and North and South Division Streets in St. Johnsville was made in the 1890s. The roads were dirt, the sidewalks were boardwalks and the watering trough was there.

We met the owner of this painting, Esther Foster, on a tour bus in Los Angeles, headed to San Francisco and Yosemite National Park. In casual talk with Esther and her husband we exchanged the usual information: "Where are your from" our answer "New York State" theirs was "So are we" on to where "Mohawk Valley" theirs was "Syracuse and Brooklyn." They became more inquisitive "Where in the Mohawk Valley" ours "between Utica and Albany". You don't throw in the name St. Johnsville when talking to strangers in California but they were insistent. So finally we said "St. Johnsville" never expecting her answer, "My dad was born in St. Johnsville and my grandparents are buried there!!

They visited our farm several times afterward hoping to rehabilitate a city boy. It didn't work, he almost burned our barn down because his hands were cold. We did enjoy the Fosters, however; and they presented Harold with this painting of her grandmother's which showed her grandfather's shop, which became St. Johnsville Hardware. (J. Burley, the brown store.) The green store was a shoe store. The sign above is (I think) for a fish market. Where Stewarts is now was probably Alter's General Store and feed store.

There was some damage to the painting before it was given to Harold as a birthday present.

 

09.15.12