About a year ago, Tide Mill Institute posted a painting of a mill along with an article asking for help in identifying it. Good news! The subject of the mystery mill painting has finally been identified, thanks to help from Tide Mill Institute Co-Founder Bud Warren, the Southold, N.Y., Town Historian Amy Folk and Southold Historical Museum Executive Director Deanna Witte-Walker. What a great team of detectives.
Bud Warren jump-started the discovery process when he found the place name “Mattituck” on a document associated with the painting. Since Mattituck is the name of a tidal inlet in Southold on the north shore of Long Island, TMI inquired with the Southold Historical Museum to see if someone there could ID the painting. At that time, the Mattituck connection seemed strong: news articles on line reported on an old inn on the inlet that was in the process of reopening as a restaurant. Many years earlier, the inn had been a tide mill. Photos of the old Mattituck mill building bore a resemblance to the scene in the painting.
Deanna Witte-Walker further advanced the investigation process by contacting Amy Folk, who identified the scene in the painting in almost no time. She had access to a black-and-white photograph that is very close to the painting in almost every detail. In fact, the photo is probably a reference used by the artist in creating the painting. But – surprise! – the mill in the photo isn’t at Mattituck. It’s another Southold tide mill site called Peconic or Goldsmith’s Inlet, about 5 miles northwest of the Mattituck inlet.
The Peconic Mill has its own an interesting history. According to Wikipedia.org and other sources, it started life as a tide mill in 1840. A windmill was added sometime after 1870 to increase its milling capacity. Unfortunately, a storm in 1898 blew down the windmill addition and it was never rebuilt. The mill continued to operate from tide power alone until the early 1900s when it was abandoned.
The painting still holds a secret awaiting discovery: the artist has not been identified. A signature appears in the lower left of the canvas, but it’s indistinct and difficult to read. Perhaps a reader of this post can help us uncover the painter’s identity.
The signature reads “HNKnowles,” for amateur painter Howard Nesmith Knowles (born Flushing, NY, Sept. 7, 1904; died Northport, NY, Dec. 19, 1999).
Looking at census records, he lived in Queens through 1940, and worked for a magazine.
1920: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRXJ-9HR?i=17&cc=1488411
1930: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRC9-J5H?i=18&cc=1810731
1940: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89MB-92VX?i=32&cc=2000219
Looking in Northport Journal newspaper articles, Knowles appears to have moved there with his family by 1952. In 1955 he participated in a career night at the local high school and he’s credited with formerly working at Fortune magazine: http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn83031119/1955-03-24/ed-1/seq-13/#sequence=0&proxdistance=&county=Nassau&county=Queens&county=Suffolk&phrasetext=%22howard+knowles%22&andtext=&date1=01%2F01%2F1920&city=&date2=12%2F31%2F1999&searchType=advanced&from_year=1920&proxtext=&dateFilterType=range&sort=date&SearchType=phrase&index=8&to_year=1999&rows=20&words=Howard+Knowles&lccn=&am+p=&ortext=&page=2
In Northport he was a trustee of the library, collected decoys, and while president of the Northport Historical Society led the effort to get the Eaton’s Neck Lighthouse listed on the National Register in 1973. In 1975 he lived at 166 Scudder Place in Northport. By 1984 he served as village historian.
Many thanks for identifying the artist and providing his background details!
It is thrilling to follow the sleuthing. Good work, all.