While Wendy Waszut-Barrett is traveling for research and art acquisitions (October 14-29, 2017) she is reposting the first fifteen installments from “Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar Acquiring: The Fort Scott Scottish Rite Scenery for the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center.” Here is her second post from February 16, 2017.
For additional installments, visit www.drypigment.net
Part 2: Road Trip to Fort Scott
In mid-August of 2015, I climbed into the CEO’s vehicle and left for a road trip to Fort Scott, Kansas and Guthrie, Oklahoma. My two other travel companions were the general director for the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center and a local Scottish Rite Mason. At the time, I was the Curatorial Director for the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center. It was planned as a three-day trip and we arrived at Fort Scott on the evening of the first day. After dinner, we strolled around the down town area near the abandoned Scottish Rite complex. Businesses had closed and many of the buildings were boarded up. The most interesting aspect of the town’s layout was the National Park that capped the end of Main Street – the old “fort” of Fort Scott. Flowers in hanging baskets above the town’s brick sidewalks, however, suggested that some residents were trying to keep their downtown area alive.
The Scottish Rite had been vacant for over a year, but the windows on the west side of the building were open. I would later learn that this half of the complex was once a bank. I started to wonder how the open windows and a humid environment had affected the 1924 scenery collection. Had painted scenery been compromised if birds or bats were in the theater, let alone insects or other animals. I knew that most of the Scottish Rite’s artifacts had been auctioned off well over a year ago and sitting in many private homes across the country.
The scenery was the last thing in the building that could remind visitors of Fort Scott’s booming past. Fort Scott had once competed in both size and industry with Kansas City, but that was over a century ago. I had an impending sense of dread when I contemplated the possible removal and transportation of the scenery, realizing that we may be the ones to remove the final “spark” from the downtown area. For me, removing scenery from line sets and putting it into storage was similar a soul leaving the body; only an empty shell remained. I encountered this feeling the previous year when Paul Sannerud and I had put the entire Winona, Minnesota, Masonic scenery collection into storage. At the time, I wondered if that collection would ever see the light of day again.
On the morning of the second day, we left the hotel to meet our Fort Scott Scottish Rite contact. He owned a local jewelry shop and was once the Personal Representative for the Scottish Rite Valley in Fort Scott. He opened the building and explained that there were no working toilets. Only the electricity had been left on. My stomach churned just a little bit as this meant that removing the drops would be a nightmare. I recalled the grimy coating on the Winona drops and how our brief lavatory breaks to wash up were essential during the scenery removal process. That wouldn’t be an option for this project.
I carried my camera up the winding staircase to the second floor theatre. Even as an abandoned building, it was still stunning and held a type of aged beauty that you seldom encounter in many contemporary buildings. Our host turned on the stage lights and lowered the first scene. It was absolutely stunning. Over the next few hours, I worked tirelessly to document as many important aspects of the collection and space. These images would be used for reference when evaluating the condition of the collection and feasibility of transporting it to Minnesota.
I was shocked to find no apparent signs of water damage. Later, I would realize that the reason for the lack of damage was due to the placement of the smoke doors above the stage. They had been placed off to the side of the stage and not directly above the scenery. Most fire doors are placed above the central stage area and immediately above painted scenery. In case of a fire, the fire curtain drops and the doors open, thus preventing the fire from spreading to the auditorium. In Fort Scott, the fire doors were positioned over the stage left area so that any leaking water during a rain storm did not fall onto the stage area. How brilliant.
Excitement grew as I realized that Fort Scott was one of a handful of collections that remained untouched by water damage and was in almost pristine condition. Only a very heavy layer of contamination was detectable on the front and back of each drop. I estimated that this contamination would include soot from heating systems, bat guano, flash powder, Masonry dust, and many other unknown contaminants – all common for historical scenery. I started to suspect that this was probably one of the most important Scottish Rite collections in the United States, produced by a single artist, and in remarkable shape. The size would also make it adaptable to the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center too, just a little too large! My excitement continued as I completed the evaluation that morning.
For me, scenery evaluations are always time-consuming endeavors, typically taking one or two weeks to complete from start to finish. I photograph the front and back of each drop, noting details of damaged areas and any written information. I start every evaluation project with extensive research concerning that particular Scottish Rite and the origin of the Valley; maybe even delving into the arrival of Freemasonry in that State. My job is to “put Humpty Dumpty back together again;” giving the owners of any historical collection an understanding of what originally arrived on their doorstep, its current condition, and cultural significance.
It typically takes me between ten and thirty minutes to record the necessary information for each drop. Then I pair up the scenes to create appropriate settings for the degree productions, as many that the members are unfamiliar with much of the scenery hanging above their stage. In most cases scenery for some degree productions hasn’t been lowered for decades. After a typical two-day to three-day onsite evaluation, I spend another week examining the compiling a written evaluation and appraisal.
For Fort Scott, I was only allotted the time between breakfast at the hotel and lunch to complete an onsite examination and documentation of over eighty drops. The downloading of images, pairing of drops, and everything else would happen in the car while on the road. Unlike other evaluations, this one also needed to verify if the scenery collection would work for the Minneapolis and St. Paul Scottish Rite Valleys once they moved into the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center facility as I was repeatedly told by the CEO. Furthermore, I needed to include a complete estimation for any anticipated expenses associated with the removal, transportation, storage, and restoration of the collection after an initial purchase. This would all be done during the remaining sixteen-hour drive and while working in my hotel room at night. I needed more time but could not get the CEO to change his mind about delaying our stay.
To be continued…
