Performances, poetry readings, lectures, and summer school
The Carmel Arts and Crafts Club was an art gallery, theatre and clubhouse founded in 1905, by Elsie Allen, a former art instructor for Wellesley College. After using the facilities of various town parks and hotels, in 1907, a clubhouse was built at Monte Verde Street in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, where the Circle Theatre of the Golden Bough Playhouse is today. The clubhouse served as Carmel's first community cultural center. It held dramatic performances, poetry readings, lectures, and was a summer school for the arts.[1] Between 1919 and 1948 Carmel was the largest art colony on the Pacific coast.[2]
Many of the local artists living in the area got together and formed a club that became the Carmel Arts and Crafts Clubhouse on Casanova Street.[1][3] Their first meeting was held at the home of Elsie Allen in 1905. The club was established to attract artists to the art colony that became Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Allen was elected president, Jane Powers, wife of Frank Hubbard Powers as vice president, Louis S. Slevin as treasurer, and Mary Braley as secretary. Josephine K. Foster was elected president on September 4, 1906. The club was incorporated under the name of Arts and Crafts Club of Carmel. Activities held at the club included dances, card parties, plays, lectures, music recitals, and art exhibitions. The club sponsored summer classes for artists.[4][5]
In 1906, the Carmel Development Company provided the club with their first building on Ocean Avenue. Their first art exhibit was held in this temporary building.[6] Foster formed a committee to raise money to build a permanent site for the clubhouse. It raised money by holding a "Dutch Market" with booths to sell goods and food at the park across the Hotel Carmelo. Those in charge of the booths were: George Sterling's wife, Sydney J. Yard's wife, Michael J. Murphy's wife, and others. Sinclair Lewis acted as master of ceremonies. By July 1907, a lot and the clubhouse building costing $2,500 was completed on Monte Verde Street south of Eighth Avenue.[4][7]
Every summer Jennie V. Cannon travelled to the Monterey Peninsula, and in 1907 purchased real estate in Carmel, where she joined the local art colony, participated in its birth and development, and exhibited at the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club.[8]
The clubhouse staged annual and special exhibitions, which attracted visiting artists from across the country, and provided professional instruction in painting, sculpture, and craft.[2]Harold Sutton Palmer spoke at the club in March 1907 as well as musical selections by Mabel Gray Lachmund, Peral Tuttle, Sallie Ehrmann, and a reading by Fanny M. Yard, wife of watercolor artist Sydney J. Yard.[9] Her husband, Sydney Yard exhibited at the club as well.[10] Other early events included the Café-chantant and bazar to raise funds to pay for an art exhibition held at the clubhouse;[11] entertainment for the Manzanita Club, which included music and dancing followed by dinner and speeches.[12]
On July 16, 1908, the first annual breakfast of the club was held at the clubhouse. George Sterling was toastmaster for thirty-two members of the club. Mary E. Hand was introduced as president of the club,[13] which she held for sixteen years.
Percy Gray Gray was very active in the Carmel art colony, often staying for several months at a time, and exhibiting with the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club (1913, 1923) and the Carmel Art Association (1927-1928, 1932–1943).[2]William Frederic Ritschel exhibited at the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club between 1913 and 1924 and continued as a frequent exhibiting member for more than two decades at the Carmel Art Association, where he received numerous awards and served as president and on the board of directors.[2]John O'Shea relocated to Carmel In 1917, and frequently exhibited at the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club.[10]
The last exhibition held by the club was the Eighteenth Exhibition from September–October 1924. The art community saw a decline in the sale of paintings.[17]
In 1924, the Club expanded its offerings by unveiling a second theater located on the Monte Verde Street side of its property, while retaining the small performance hall on Casanova Street for more intimate productions. This strategic move allowed the Club to cater to a broader range of performances and create diverse experiences for its audience.[3]
Carmel Summer School Of Art
Carmel Summer School Of Art.
In 1910, the club established a Carmel Summer School Of Art, with Yard as director, to teach drama, painting, pottery, metalwork and a variety of other crafts. The school's instructors included Mary DeNeale Morgan from 1917 to 1925; William Merritt Chase, in 1914, a former director of the London School of Art; Josephine M. Culbertson, Ida A. Johnson, Helene Woods Smith, of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn; Jo Mora from 1922 to 1926; Paul K. Mays of the Provincetown Printers and the Art Students League of New York.[4] Morgan settled in Carmel in 1909, became the director of the School and Club.[1]
From July through September 1914 William Merritt Chase taught his last summer class, his largest with over one hundred pupils, at the Summer School Of Art.[7] His former student, Jennie V. Cannon, in conjunction with Chase's business manager Channel Pickering Townsley and Carmel's co-founder James Franklin Devendorf, persuaded the painter to visit the Pacific Coast.[2] Several of the Carmel students published descriptions of his lectures and teaching methods. Chase found the art colony at Carmel too confining socially and moved his residence to the nearby Hotel Del Monte in Monterey. In mid-August one of his students, Helena Wood Smith, was brutally murdered by her Japanese lover, which caused the cancellation of several classes, near violent hysteria in the art colony, and the early departure of some of his students. Chase continued with his regular teaching schedule, held meetings with important regional artists, such as William Ritschel, painted several local scenes, and experimented with monotypes.[2]
Mary Hand, president, helped build the Carmel Arts and Crafts Theater in 1924, where the Club put on their own theatrical productions. The formal opening of the Arts and Crafts Theater was highlighted by the performance of two plays produced by John Northern Hilliard, The Thrice Promised Bride and The Queen's Enemies.[4]:p33
Real estate developer Byington Ford and his wife Ruth, were active in the Abalone League productions at the Arts and Crafts Theater. Original drams by local playwrights as Martin Flavin, Perry Newberry, and Ira Remsen were produced in the Arts and Crafts Theater at that time.[19]
The play The Bad Man, a three-act comedy by American playwright Porter Emerson Browne, was put on by the Arts and Crafts Theater on January 15, 1926. Artist Jo Mora, Byington Ford, and other Abalone Players were among the actors in the play.[20]
Other plays put on by the Arts and Crafts Theater were The Copperhead,Is Zat So,Cinderella,Doubling in Brass,Captain Brassbound's Conversion,Children Of The Moon,Clarence,In His Arms,One Of The Family, and What Happened to Jones.[21][22]
To help raise funds to pay off the Arts and Crafts Theater debts, and avoid the competing Forest Theater, the two groups decided to merge in 1924, into the Forest Theater Corporation, as a unifying entity to produce and manage plays staged at the Forest Theater.[23][24][5]
In 1928, the Abalone League, a local amateur baseball club and active thespian group, bought the Carmel Arts and Crafts Hall and renamed it the Abalone Theatre. The proceeds were used to pay off the Forest Theater debts.[25][26][27][4]
In 1929, after returning from is European trip, Edward G. Kuster was approached by the Abalone League who, beset by financial trouble, offered to sell Kuster its entire theatre operation, including both the Monte Verde and Casanova Street buildings - an offer that Kuster readily accepted. Kuster remodeled the facility and renamed it the Studio Theatre of the Golden Bough.[28][3] He moved all of his activities - plays concerts, traveling theatre groups, lectures - to the theatre on Monte Verde Street. He then leased the Theatre of the Golden Bough on Ocean Avenue to a movie theater chain for a period of five years.[26]
In 1940, Kuster renamed the Golden Bough Theatre on Monte Verde Street to the Golden Bough Playhouse, presenting plays, along with American and foreign films.[3]
Related Research Articles
Carmel-by-the-Sea, commonly known simply as Carmel, is a city in Monterey County, California, located on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 census, the town had a total population of 3,220, down from 3,722 at the 2010 census. Situated on the Monterey Peninsula, Carmel is a popular tourist destination, known for its natural scenery and rich artistic history.
The Forest Theater is an historic amphitheater in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Founded in 1910, it is one of the oldest outdoor theaters west of the Rockies. Actor/director Herbert Heron is generally cited as the founder and driving force, and poet/novelist Mary Austin is often credited with suggesting the idea. As first envisioned, original works by California authors, children's theatre, and the plays of Shakespeare were the primary focus. Since its inception, a variety of artists and theatre groups have presented plays, pageants, musical offerings and other performances on the outdoor stage, and the facility's smaller indoor theatre and school.
The Golden Bough Playhouse is a historic three-story theatre in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California on Monte Verde St., between 8th and 9th Avenues. The playhouse occupies the site of the former Carmel Arts and Crafts Club, Carmel's first cultural center and theatre, built in 1906–1907 on Casanova Street, and the Arts and Crafts Hall, built in 1923–1924 on an adjacent lot on Monte Verde Street. Since 1994, the facility has been owned and operated by Pacific Repertory Theatre, Monterey County's only year-round professional theatre company. A two-phase renovation of the aging facility began with an interior building project in 2011. A second phase project, including both interior and exterior renovations, is scheduled for 2023-2024. The theatre was recorded with the National Register of Historic Places on July 3, 2002. It is significant as a California historic building because it is located on the original site of the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club and Hall, the oldest indoor performing arts venues in Carmel.
The Theatre of the Golden Bough also known as the Golden Bough Theatre, was located on Ocean Avenue in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. This "Golden Bough" was one of two theaters in Carmel's history. It was destroyed by fire on May 19, 1935. Kuster moved his film operation to the older facility on Monte Verde Street, renamed it the Filmarte and it became the first "art house" between Los Angeles and San Francisco. It later became the Golden Bough Playhouse that still exists today.
Jessie Hazel Arms Botke was an Illinois and California painter noted for her bird images and use of gold leaf highlights.
John O'Shea was a California impressionist painter known for landscape, marine, figure, and portrait painting. He was one of the major artists in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California between 1917-1945. He was a resident of Carmel for 36 years.
Herbert "Bert" Heron was an American writer, actor, and poet. Heron is best known for founding the Forest Theater in 1910. He was the former mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, for two terms in the 1920s. He lived in Carmel for 62 years.
Pine Inn, once called the Hotel Carmelo, is one of the early first-class Arts and Crafts, Tudor, Spanish style hotels established in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. The Pine Inn is a historical resource dating back to 1889 when pioneer Santiago J. Duckworth built Hotel Carmelo. James Franklin Devendorf, renamed the hotel the "Pine Inn" in 1904. Today, it is a full-service hotel. The Pine Inn qualified for inclusion in the city's Downtown Historic District Property Survey, and was registered with the California Register of Historical Resources on March 18, 2003. The Inn is significant under the California Register criterion 1, as the first hotel in the history of the downtown district of Carmel-by-the-Sea.
Edward Gerhard Kuster was a musician and attorney from Los Angeles for twenty-one years before coming to Carmel-by-the-Sea, California in 1921. He became involved in theater and establish his own theatre and school. He built the Theatre of the Golden Bough in 1924, and a second theater, the Golden Bough Playhouse in 1952. Kuster directed 85 plays and acted in more than 50 roles in the 35 years he lived in Carmel.
The Carmel Weavers Studio, also known as Cottage of Sweets, is a historic Tudor-style English cottage in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. It was built in 1922 for Ruth Kuster as a weaving shop, on Ocean Avenue, Carmel's main street. The Studio was one of the first Tudor-style shops in the Court of the Golden Bough. The City of Carmel has recognized the building as a historical resource in the area of architecture, and as one of the earliest commercial shops designed and funded by theatrical entrepreneur Edward G. Kuster.
The Seven Arts Shop, is a one-story, wood-frame Tudor Storybook retail shop in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. During the 1930s, the building served as the reading room for the Christian Science organization. It has been designated as a significant commercial building in the city's Downtown Historic District Property Survey, and was recorded with the Department of Parks and Recreation on January 23, 2002. The building is occupied in 2022 by the beauty supply company Body Frenzy.
The Seven Arts Building, is a one-and-one-half-story, commercial building in downtown Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. It was built in 1925, for poet mayor Herbert Heron. The building was designated as a significant commercial building in the city's Downtown Historic District Property Survey, and was recorded with the Department of Parks and Recreation on January 31, 2003. The building has been occupied by the Carmel Bay Company since 1972.
Sade's is a one-and-one-half-story, commercial building in downtown Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. It was built in 1925, for novelist and dramatist Harry Leon Wilson and his wife Helen MacGowan Cooke as a flower shop and dress shop. In the 1930s, Sade was a former Ziegfeld Follies dancer, made the lower level into a restaurant and bar. The City of Carmel has recognized the building as a historical resource in the area of architecture, as an important contributor to the design of the Court of the Golden Bough, and as a significant example of commercial Tudor Revival design by Lee Gottfried.
The Abalone League was an amateur baseball and softball club based in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California from 1921 through 1938. It was the first softball league in the Western United States. The League was incorporated on September 8, 1927. The League was a Carmel focal point for many years.
Joseph W. Hand, was an early pioneer businessman, real estate agent, leader in civic affairs, actor, and first president of the Forest Theater in Carmel-by-the-Sea.
Ira Mallory Remsen , known locally as Rem Remsen, was an American painter, playwright and Bohemian Club member. He was the son of Dr. Ira Remsen chemist and former president of Johns Hopkins University. Remsen was the author of children's plays notably Inchling and Mr. Blunt, he produced at the Forest Theater in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California in the 1920s. His studio on Dolores Street became the permanent home for the Carmel Art Association in 1933.
Ernest Seraphin Schweninger was an American actor, realtor, and grocer in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. He became owner of Carmel's first Bakery and the Schweninger's Grocery Store. Schweninger was a founding member of the Carmel American Legion Post No. 512 and the Abalone League. He appeared in many of the early plays at the Forest Theater and Theatre of the Golden Bough. He became a partner and sales manager for the Carmel Land Company that helped develop Hatton Fields, southeast of Carmel-by-the-Sea.
Lee Gottfried was an American master builder in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. He had a significant influence on the architecture of the Village of Carmel during his career. Gottfried was one of the main local builders in Carmel and responsible for the first major residential designs done using the local Carmel stone as a building material.
The Blue Bird Tea Room, also known as Blue Bird, was a historic commercial building in downtown Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, United States. Recognized as the oldest tearoom in Carmel, the Blue Bird Tea Room was renowned for its cuisine and ambiance, as well as for hosting after-theatre dinner parties and luncheon and dinner gatherings attended by both local and visiting celebrities. Some of the artists who frequented the tearoom at that time were artist William Ritschel, William Silva, painters Armin Hansen, Paul Dougherty, Paul Whitman, and poet Rem Remsen.
Allen Knight, was an American merchant seaman and political figure in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. He is best know for his service on the Carmel City Council, including a two-year term as mayor, and for co-founding the Sundial Lodge. In 2016 the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association acquired the Allen Knight's maritime collection.
↑ Kovinick, Phil; etal. (1999). An Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. pp.39–40. ISBN9780292790636.
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