Paine Art Center and Gardens

Paine Art Center and Arboretum

Paine Art Center
Location 1410 Algoma Blvd., Oshkosh, Wisconsin
Coordinates 44°2′7″N 88°33′30″W / 44.03528°N 88.55833°W / 44.03528; -88.55833Coordinates: 44°2′7″N 88°33′30″W / 44.03528°N 88.55833°W / 44.03528; -88.55833
Area 14.7 acres (5.9 ha)
Built 1927
Architect Bryant Fleming
Architectural style Tudor Revival; Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals; Tudor Gothic
NRHP Reference # 78000152[1]
Added to NRHP December 1, 1978

The Paine Art Center and Gardens is a historic estate with a mansion and gardens located in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. It includes public art galleries and botanic gardens on 3 acres (1.2 ha), and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

History

The Paine Mansion was built for lumber baron Nathan Paine and his wife, Jessie Kimberly Paine. In 1925, upon the recommendation of Mary K. Shirk (Jessie's sister), the Paines commissioned Bryant Fleming, an architect from Ithaca, New York to design the estate. Construction of the Tudor Revival style mansion began in 1927 and the exterior was completed in 1930. All work was halted in 1932 as the Great Depression crippled the Paine Lumber Company.

The mansion was originally built as a home for the Paines but workers of the lumber company threatened to bomb the building should they move in. The Paines returned to the project in 1946 and established a non-profit organization to own and manage the estate for public benefit.[2] Nathan Paine died in 1947 at the age of 77. Jessie oversaw remaining work on the estate, and the property opened to the public in 1948. Until Jessie’s death in 1973 at the age of 100, she served as the museum’s president while residing in La Jolla, California. The Paines never lived in the house.

Features

The Paine estate features a historic house museum with art gallery, and is surrounded by extensive gardens.

The house contains French Barbizon school and American paintings, sculptures, and decorative woodworkings, Persian rugs, tapestries, and English and American silver and china. The Paine Center hosts changing exhibitions and offers educational programs related to historic architecture, art, and to nature.

The estate's landscape gardens have twenty 'outdoor rooms' and designed areas, in various historical—traditional and contemporary themes. They feature thousands of different plant species, serving as a botanical garden.

The Paine Art Center and Gardens are at 1410 Algoma Boulevard in Oshkosh. It is open Tuesday-Sunday throughout the year, and an admission fee is charged.

Paine Art Center and Gardens: entrance—sign

See also

  1. ↑ National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. ↑ http://darrow.law.umn.edu/documents/Very_Pictures_of_Anarchy_crane.pdf
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