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January - February 2024
Volume 4, Issue 1
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Colton Hall
1914, photo by Lewis Josselyn
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Finishing a Big Year
We’ve endeavored to keep our membership aware of the many changes we have been able to make thanks to the generous grants we’ve received. These grants have enabled significant refurbishment in Stanton Center and the Doud House, including new signage outside, exposing hidden windows, repainting the galleries to lighten the overall appearance, complete theater refurbishment with new lighting and sound systems, replacing the Doud House roof, etc. So, on behalf of the Association, I want to thank the Community Foundation for Monterey County, The Marcia DeVoe Fund, The Arts Council for Monterey, The Yellow Brick Road, and the many donors contributing to the MCGives campaign sponsored by the Monterey County Weekly and the Community Foundation for Monterey County and their affiliates, and also many thanks to our membership for your ongoing support.
With the onset of Winter, the Board of Directors approved reducing number of days that the museum is open from six days per week to five days per week. The museum will not be open to the public on Thursdays until Spring. This closure will enable the staff to spend time on many tasks that are difficult (or impossible) to do with visitors in the galleries. The Board also approved reducing the regular admission fee to $10 for adults and $8 for seniors/military; admission is free for members.
Some other changes in the next few months will include a major update to our security system, UV shades for the Jo Mora archive room, purchase of new display cases, and an expansion of the Paul Whitman exhibition with the addition of several new pieces from the Chapman family. We will keep you updated.
Also, if you haven’t seen the new mural on the side of the auditorium at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, you should take a look. Go up the stairs next to Casa Serrano. It can be seen at the far end of the parking lot. It features the beautiful old Monterey Carnegie Library.
- Gary Spradlin, President, Monterey History and Art Association
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The Art of
Casa Serrano
Donald Teague N.A. (1897 – 1991)
Landing Sardine Nets Monterey (1950), Watercolor, 8x8 inches
Donald Teague was a pre-eminent illustrator and fine artist who worked mostly in watercolor. Teague was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. A few years after completing studies at Art Students League in Manhattan, in 1923 The Saturday Evening Post brought Teague on as a story illustrator. Between 1923 and 1956, Teague illustrated over 500 stories for The Post, Collier’s, and other leading national magazines. While Teague could illustrate any story, his ability to illustrate westerns (and horses in particular) became widely recognized, and over 50% of his assignments were westerns toward the end of his illustration career.
Always a fine artist as well, Teague shifted to fine art exclusively in the mid 1950’s. Beginning in the 1930’s, Teague garnered numerous gold medals and other prizes at National Academy, the American Watercolor Society, and other major yearly shows. Teague was made a member of the National Academy in 1948, and was elected into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 1991.
After marrying his wife Verna Timmins in 1938, the Teagues decided to head west. They settled in Encino which, perhaps paradoxically, was advantageous for Teague’s illustration work. Teague was a stickler for accuracy, and Hollywood studios provided highly accurate sets, costumes, props and still images which Teague could utilize in his art making. Teague took advantage of overnight air mail to overcome the geographic separation from publishers, which were all in the eastern U.S. The Teagues’ two daughters Linda and Hilary were born in 1940 and 1941.
After World War II ended, rural Encino underwent a housing and development boom to help accommodate returning Veterans and others seeking to move to the region. The Teagues decided it was time to get out of Dodge and move elsewhere. After scouting locales as far north as Marin, the Teagues decided Carmel was the best fit for them.
When the Teague family moved from Encino to Carmel in 1949, Donald took immediate interest in Fisherman’s Wharf. That year, he took a number of color slides of the working men and their boats. A few months later and back in his studio, he painted Landing Sardine Nets – Monterey. This small but dynamic watercolor captures the energy of the men as they work the nets. It is the only Teague painting known to exist from this period dealing with this subject matter.
Unbeknownst to Teague at the time, the sardine industry was destined to collapse a couple years later in the 1952-53 season. The industry limped on into the 1960’s, but never regained its former stature. This little Teague watercolor is thus one of the last paintings to capture the Monterey Bay sardine industry in its heyday.
The painting hangs in the Sala Grande in Casa Serrano.
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Local People
AnnaMarie Della Sala-Stanton
AnnaMarie was born on August 22,1950, at Carmel Hospital. She is the first born child of Rosie Bruno and Charlie Della Sala. AnnaMarie's mother was born and raised in Monterey and started working in the canneries at age 13. AnnaMarie's father was born in New York, raised in Foreno & Naples, Italy, and came back to the United States at the age of eighteen. He was stationed at Fort Ord and worked at the Presidio of Monterey. Her parents instilled in her a strong work ethic, the importance of accomplishing tasks at an extremely high level, the value of the dollar and love of community. Words to live by often repeated in the Della Sala household were “if there is a will there is a way” and “nothing is beneath you, if there is a job to do, you do it.” That led to many hours of helping her parents paint and clean family owned rental apartments, including the toilets, and a love for solving problems, “finding a way.”
Shortly after her 16th birthday she had a minor fender bender resulting in a day of work at the Monterey Public library. As she quickly completed each task she asked, “What’s next?” By the end of the day she was offered a job earning a whopping $1.00 an hour working weekends and afterschool. Her next job offered a 25% raise at $1.25 an hour working at the Mac & Mac clothing store on Alvarado Street in downtown Monterey. She held that part time job until she left for San Diego State College. In 1971 she returned home for the summer break and worked for Monterey Fish at their Sand City cannery, the last operating cannery on the Monterey Peninsula. For a short moment in time, AnnaMarie continued the fishing legacy of her grandfather and uncles, and her mother and aunts.
AnnaMarie attended Monterey schools, including San Carlos, Walter Colton Junior High, Monterey High, and Monterey Peninsula College. She graduated from San Diego State University with honors and earned her teaching credential locally from the Monterey Institute of International Studies (now Middlebury Institute). AnnaMarie loved school and learning new things and socializing with friends. As a child she was always the teacher with the neighborhood children, all the while having fun. She taught school locally at Hayes and Olsen Elementary School and then Sherman Oaks Elementary School in Southern California until retiring in 2005. AnnaMarie not only taught school, but she also performed as a singer/ songwriter at fundraisers for Sherman Oaks Elementary and in clubs in the Los Angeles area playing guitar and eventually bass as well. She had the opportunity to be backed by talented L.A. musicians including her husband, guitarist Robert Stanton and his band, Freeway Philharmonic. Her first instrument was accordion taking lessons locally at ABC music and she was a member of the accordion marching band playing accordion from 7 to 12 years old. Following her father’s love of all things Italian, her first car was, you guessed it, an Italian Fiat.
After spending 23 years living in Santa Monica she retired from teaching and returned home to Monterey. At that time her parents Rose and Charlie Della Sala were very active in Monterey’s Italian organizations including the ICF Branch 36, Festa Italia, Sons of Italy and the Italian Heritage Society where Charlie was vice president and Anna Panetta was president. Under their leadership the IHS raised $100,000 toward an Italian Heritage center, was in the process of applying for a grant, and was putting on an event at the Sunset Center featuring a trio from Sicily. Unfortunately, the grant writer became seriously ill and did not complete the grant, and the Sicilian Trio did not pack the house at the Sunset Center and there was a loss of thousands of dollars. Charlie asked AnnaMarie to join the Italian Heritage Society Board of Directors at that time when the board was greatly discouraged at having a major set back in achieving the goal of purchasing a heritage center.
After serving several years as a member of the Italian Heritage Society board of directors AnnaMarie became Co-President with Anna Panetta and currently serves her hometown as President of the Italian Heritage Society of the Monterey Peninsula (IHS), is Corresponding Secretary of the Italian Catholic Federation (ICF) and is an active member of Monterey History & Art Association serving as the Co-Chair of La Merienda for the past 10 years. In 2022 MHAA awarded her the Laura Bride Powers Memorial Award in recognition of outstanding service to Monterey. As President of IHS, she originated and coordinated the project that produced the books, "Italian Fishing Families of Monterey” 1st and 2nd editions with the help of Mike Ventimiglia and Rosemary Metzger. The books were a labor of love for Annamarie in honor of her heritage, her mother and her maternal grandfather, Giuseppe Bruno, who fished the waters of Monterey Bay. A website followed featuring the ability to read and flip through all the pages of Italian Fishing Families of Monterey. The follow up book, Italian Americans: “We Don’t Just Fish!” was completed with the continued help of Mike and Rosemary and of all those who contributed their stories. Her most recent Italian Heritage Society project, Bounty of the Sea, was completed in August 2023 and is a timeline of the history of fishing in Monterey Bay with the emphasis on the contributions of Sicilian/Italian fishermen during Monterey’s Sardine Capital of the World era. The exhibit is now open for viewing at Monterey History & Art at Stanton Center.
AnnaMarie has been involved in her family's real estate business and has a keen eye for interior design. AnnaMarie is the "go-to" member of her family when important decisions are considered regarding design, color, and details. AnnaMarie's siblings are Anthony Della Sala, former Monterey Mayor-Chuck Della Sala, Kathy Shepherd, and Mary Ann Randolph. AnnaMarie enjoys writing and playing music with her husband of 44 years Robert Stanton, gardening, and interior design.
If you have a friend or relative that would like to share their story about living in or around Monterey, please contact Monterey History and Art Association at MHAA.org1931@gmail.com.
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Peninsula Diary
Mayo Hayes O’Donnell
This article was published in the Monterey Peninsula Herald on August 12, 1953.
The Voice of the Bells
Claude T. Faw of Carmel has sent us a July copy of “The Highway Magazine” published in Middletown, O., by the Armco Drainage and Metal Products, Inc., in which the editors have featured California and the West.
The two-page feature in the center of the magazine was written by Mr. Faw under the title “The Mission Bells” and illustrated with six handsome black and white photographs of historic spots in California. Another article deals with “Roads, Past and Present” by Deane and David Heller, in which the authors tell of the principal old Spanish trails developed between Mexico City and what is now the United States whose beginnings date back to 1519.
The illustrations accompanying “The Mission Bells” are two of the El Camino Real Bells—one marking Mission San Gabriel Archangel and the other in Carmel giving the distance to Mission San Carlos Borromeo as one mile and to San Carlos de Monterey, four miles. Mission San Diego de Alcala, Mission San Juan Capistrano and Mission San Carlos Borromeo are pictured as other scenic structures. The sixth photograph is of today’s El Camino Real, the old Spanish highway in California, as it parallels U.S. Highway 101, linking the state’s 21 missions.
Mr. Faw wrote: “Between 1769 and 1823, Spanish Padres established the chain of missions, over a 700-mile route from San Diego to Sonoma. In time the road, El Camino Real, became lost, but in the early days of the 20th century several California organizations spearheaded by Mrs. Armithee (Armitage) S.C. Forbes set out to mark the old highway with Mission Bell guide posts.
“The first of these bells was installed by Mrs. Forbes in the Los Angeles area. Today, about 150 of the bells are still in existence. The California Mission Trails Association and the Automobile Clubs of California are now carrying on a program to restore and maintain the markers.”
Doing a bit of research on our own concerning the Mission Bells, we find that probably even the very earliest of the missionaries, beginning in 1697, brought with them bells from across the sea. The voice of these bells must have been a powerful aid to the Mission Fathers in gaining the attention and interest of the Indians.
Eleven of the Missions had distinct bell towers. This does not include the unique tower at Pala, which was only an asistencia church. The Mission at Santa Cruz, which is now only a memory, had a tower and nine bells, which cost $3,900. The largest bell was at San Fernando. Five bells were at Santa Inez. San Gabriel has four of the original six bells. There are two very old bells at Santa Barbara. In many of the Missions these interesting old bells may be seen, and their voices still heard after nearly 200 years of service.
The Mission Bells of Santa Ysabel in the back country of San Diego County, are apparently the most ancient of all the bells in California. There was never a Mission at Santa Ysabel. Probably nothing more than an asistencia ever existed there, and a brush “ramada” was apparently the closest approach to a church structure. The great bells hang in the open on a rough cross-beam as they have done for more than a century.
One of them was unquestionably brought from the Jesuit Mission of Loreto in Lower California. It bears the inscription of “N.S. de Loreto, 1723.” This undoubtedly is the abbreviation for “Nuestra Senora de Loreto” or “Our Lady of Loreta.” The bell was cast almost 40 years before the first Franciscan entered California and was undoubtedly used by the Jesuits when they controlled the Missions of Lower California, which were established about 100 years before Alta California was invaded by the Franciscans. The bell of Santa Ysabel now is more than two centuries old.
This little chapel and the bells of Santa Ysabel are on the east side of the road between Santa Ysabel and Warner’s Hot Springs, about a mile from the former place and about 200 yards from the road.
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‘ADOPT A PAINTING’
ART RESTORATION INITIATIVE
STARTING AT CASA SERRANO
The holiday season often finds friends and neighbors looking for ways to celebrate their relationship with their community through volunteering their time and labor or through monetary donations. One docent at Casa Serrano celebrated her connection with MHAA by ‘adopting’ a painting that needed restoration work; the restored painting of Casa Serrano by Harry Stuart Fonda will be re-hung in the New Year at Casa Serrano and MHAA hopes that it will inspire other visitors and members to ‘adopt’ other works of art that need restoration.
If you are interested in joining this initiative, please send an email to: mhaa.org1931@gmail.com
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PATH OF HISTORY NOTE CARDS FOR SALE
MHAA has produced note cards from the Zella Conan Path of History exhibit at Stanton Center. Note cards are available at Stanton Center Gift Shop and at the Mayo Hayes O’Donnell Library; 5 note cards per box priced at $20.
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SAVE THE DATE
TIME & DATE: 2 – 4 pm, SUNDAY, MARCH 3
WHERE: CASA SERRANO
TERRY TROTTER WILL JOIN US TO DISCUSS THE ART AND ARTISTS ON DISPLAY AT CASA SERRANO.
MHAA MEMBERS FREE
NON-MEMBERS $10 DONATION
RSVP TO: mhaa.org1931@gmail.com
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SAVE THE DATE
TIME & DATE: 2-4 pm, SUNDAY FEBRUARY 11
WHERE: CASA SERRANO
BILL BRIGGS WILL RETURN TO CASA SERRANO TO DISCUSS HIS NEW BOOK:
“The Star, The Saint, and The City: How Sam Brannon’s Newspaper Heralded The Gold Rush and Created San Francisco”
San Francisco has always been a magnet. From Gold Seekers to Flower Children to Tech Wizards, The City has attracted dreamers and doers. Less well known in The City's colorful history:
- How San Francisco began as a colony of religious pilgrims.
- How the first newspaper transformed sleepy Yerba Buena into San Francisco and then launched the Gold Rush.
- How the publisher of that newspaper became the dominant historical figure of his time, only to be downplayed or purposely ignored later by many historians.
Like a Greek tragedy set in Gold Rush California, THE STAR, THE SAINT AND THE CITY is the true story of publisher Samuel Brannan, who amassed California's first great fortune. He became early San Francisco's most influential and flamboyant figure after trading his Mormon faith for his belief in the future of California, only to lose his fortune and die in obscurity.
MHAA MEMBERS FREE
NON-MEMBERS $10 DONATION
RSVP TO: mhaa.org1931@gmail.com
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MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL REMINDER
Our membership year is October 1 to September 30; please remember to renew your membership to continue receiving our newsletter, invitations to lectures and events, and FREE ADMISSION to Monterey History and Art at Stanton Center.
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Come visit our exhibits at Stanton Center.
Free admission for MHAA members!
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P.O. Box 1082
Monterey California, 93942
montereyhistory.org
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