Women of Watch Hill
LOCAL HISTORY
by CAPTAIN JACK SPRATT
Above: Vintage postcard of summer trolley trips to Watch Hill.
The end of a beautiful Watch Hill day in Village Park: The salt air is filled with music from the Flying Horse Carousel and sprinkled with children’s laughter; the melody soars up and over the village on the wings of gulls, gliding down Bay Street. A line forms at the ice cream window of St. Clair Annex. Beach-goers heading for the parking lot congregate, as the yacht club prepares its signal gun. Boaters come on deck carrying drinks and air horns, while couples spread blankets on the grass. BOOM! The club gun fires; startled, the unsuspecting jump, and the harbor reverberates with the ear-piercing sound. In the words of writer Edith Wharton, it is another spectacular Watch Hill summer sunset “lagooned in gold.” The Artists of Village Park Women of vision and skill have given Watch
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Hill a lasting gift of beauty. Here in Village Park lives the spirit of Chief Ninigret, depicted crouching, noodling Kwam (fish) and gazing across the Bay, enshrined in the statuary fountain by sculptor Enid Bland Yandell (18691934). The Dreamer, a sculpture by Sylvia Shaw Judson (1897-1978) atop the water fountain, captures a boy in peaceful contemplation. The subtle effects of sunset shadows upon the seascape and plantings were envisioned by prominent landscape architect and summer cottager Marian Cruger Coffin (1876-1957). The park is a historical monument to these artists and to generations of Watch Hill women. Watch Hill Improvement Society Chartered by a group of eight men in 1889, The Watch Hill Improvement Society (WHIS) facilitated a Fire District Charter and brought town water, fire hydrants, sidewalks and street lighting. The men turned the Society over to the women of the Hill in 1901, having “rendered Watch Hill a more inviting and desirable place of residence.”1 In 1996, it was renamed Watch Hill Memorial Library and Improvement Society (WHMLIS). While men pursued careers in the city, visiting for short stays, women summering at the seashore enjoyed new-found freedom, unimaginable from the subordination to patriarchal dominance and pigeon-holes of society life described in the writings of Edith Wharton and Henry James. James coined the term “new women,” emblematic of women pushing back against society-imposed limits. Although unable to hold office or vote, the women, self-proclaimed “IMPS” (from
“Improvement Society”) essentially ran Watch Hill’s quasi-municipal fire district. The Society had dirt streets oiled and boardwalks built to the club and beach. They secured year-round police presence and a jail cell; maintained the Flying Horse Carousel; sprayed for mosquitoes; eliminated sewage in the bay; and advocated for an American La France pumper and fire station after the devastating 1916 fire. The Society raised funds through donations; fête champêtre; art, fashion and pet shows; and water carnivals. They also sponsored children’s events like the Fourth of July bicycle parade. In spring 1938, a fire burned the central Sisson block, and a hurricane followed that fall. The “IMPS” were instrumental in rebuilding the community. Village Park Preservation and the Future Looking at the park’s evolution from 1889 to 1940, one can appreciate the impact of women and their role in resort community government; the arts and architecture; and the changes in American attitudes toward nature and landscape. Through the stewardship of the “IMPS;” generous female patronage; and the pioneering artists Enid Yandell, Marian Cruger Coffin and Sylvia Shaw Judson, a remarkable sisterhood has endured, and the park has survived disaster and development. REFERENCES 1. Barnes, Chaplin. (2005). Watch Hill Through Time. 2. Healy, Harry. (1922, August). The Garden Magazine. 3. Blog. (2012, May). "Enid Yandell’s The Gibson Girl." Kentucky Online Arts Resource Blog.
PHOTOGRAPHY: POSTCARDS AND MODERN IMAGE COURTESY OF SPRATT COLLECTION; YANDELL IN STUDIO COURTESY OF RISDI; COFFIN'S DRAWINGS AND PHOTO COURTESY OF WINTERTHUR MUSEUM GARDEN & LIBRARY; SYLVIA SHAW JUDS ON PORTRAIT COURTESY OF LAKE FOREST COLLEGE DIGITAL
Discover the trailblazing female artists behind Village Park
