Goodspeed Works Exhibited At Croton Falls Schoolhouse

NORTH SALEM, N.Y. – Croton Falls’ Schoolhouse Gallery is exhibiting the artwork of the late Albert Goodspeed, founder of the small artists’ colony at the top of Butlerville Road.

In 1948, shortly after he was discharged from the Army, Goodspeed got together with two colleagues to purchase the three abandoned buildings of the defunct Clover Hill Iron Mine.

Clover Hill mined magnetite ore in open pits, according to mindat.org, a minerals database. It opened and closed in 1888.

“Our house was used for processing the ore,” said Goodspeed’s daughter, Maconda. “My father came from a family of builders and cabinetmakers, so he did a lot of the work.”

Maconda Goodspeed’s mother, Janna Pratt Goodspeed, was also an artist, specializing mostly in encaustic art, which involves using pigmented hot beeswax. Janna Goodspeed’s father was Dudley Pratt, whose sculptures ornament a number of Seattle buildings to this day.

Dudley Pratt’s father was Bela Lyon Pratt, also a sculptor and the designer of two turn-of-the-century gold coins for the U.S. Mint: the $5 half-eagle Indian Head and the $2.50 quarter-eagle Indian Head.

What was it like growing up in a family of artists? “I was always happy doing things with my hands,” Maconda Goodspeed said. “We would all sit around the table and talk about our paintings at dinnertime.”

Maconda Goodspeed went on to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Pratt Institute and now works in mixed media. Her brother, however, became an architect, and her sister is a psychoanalyst.

When Albert Goodspeed died in 1982, his wife got involved in the Schoolhouse Theater, creating props and doing the occasional walk-on role.

Albert Goodspeed’s work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago and has recently been exhibited at the prestigious Philadelphia Sketch Club.

The Albert Goodspeed show at the Schoolhouse Gallery will conclude on Sunday. The gallery is in the Schoolhouse Theater, 3 Owens Road, Croton Falls.

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