Swampscott Town Hall has new decorations in its entryway.
The Swampscott Historical Commission has put on display original watercolors by Ira J. Haskell, painted for the town’s 100th anniversary in 1952. The artwork had been in storage ever since. Haskell’s work depicts boats and local landmarks around Swampscott.
Haskell was born in 1883, according to research done by Jonathan Leamon, the vice chair of the Swampscott Historical Commission. He wrote “Chronicles of the Haskell Family,” detailing his family’s genealogy, including their travels on the Mayflower. Leamon said the Haskell family lived in the North Shore area prior to the Salem Witch Trials.
Though an amateur artist, Haskell was a historian, Leamon said.
The artwork dates to the 1950s. After Swampscott’s 100th anniversary celebrations, the paintings were placed in the basement of the library, only to be rediscovered — in yellow, plastic garbage bags — decades later.
“The library was cleaning out storage closets, and they called us, which we are very grateful for, and we actually acquired a number of paintings and photographs and pictures that they had acquired through donations,” Leamon said. “It was actually in one of the snowstorms, believe it or not. We got all of them in our car and drove from the back of the library to the archives.”
The Historical Commission added dark frames and white mats to the artwork.
Haskell’s work was originally displayed in his son-in-law’s florist shop, now the Dockside Pub on Humphrey Street, Leamon said.
“Mr. Haskell, I decided, was pretty modest because he displayed them with thumbtacks. Behind all of this you can see four thumbtack holes on each picture,” Leamon said.
There are also a few ships on display. The Schooner is the oldest fishing boat in Swampscott, Leamon said. The Chebacco was the “newer one,” and the Pinky got its name “because both ends are sort of pinched together,” Leamon recalled. Another shows the wreck of the Spanish ship the Tedesco, which crashed onto the shore of Swampscott in 1857.
On the opposite wall, Haskell’s watercolors of landmarks around town are displayed. One piece is of “little town hall,” which Leamon said was actually a repair shop where people would have lunch weekly to sit around and chat. Fisherman’s Beach (before the construction of the Fish House) is depicted in one piece, and another shows a hay station, where livestock would be able to feed.
“Our main thing (at the Historical Commission) is to preserve buildings but I try to interest people in that by showing our stuff,” Leamon said. “We could store it for another 50 years, but we try to keep things on exhibit because it’s just much better for people to be able to look at these than have them in storage.”
Haskell’s works will be on display for about six months, Leamon said. In the meantime, Leamon and the Historical Society is working to restore some maps and a painting of Henry Baldwin, whom a room in the Swampscott Public Library is named after, for the following exhibit.
