66
winter
|
spring
park, featuring two world-famous wooden roller coasters. Instead of
gardenias, the scent of hot dogs and cotton candy filled the air. Harriet
would have been appalled!
In 1930, Mary, with the assistance of contractor R. Douglas
Morrison (whom she would eventually marry), designed a Monterey-
style studio/home next to her adobe house. The new building and
surrounding courtyard walls harmonized with the Abrego Adobe and
provided privacy for the interior courtyards and gardens.
In 1933, she sold her personal collection of oil and watercolor
painting with the proceeds going to the Monterey Chamber of
Commerce for beautification projects. She continued to paint
both locally and in Europe. She was a member of dozens of art
organizations and exhibited regularly in Carmel, as well as other
California cities.
When she died in 1943, the local press said, “She possessed
a deep love for human nature, a great spirit of generosity, and has
helped countless numbers of people during her stay here.” Her
Monterey Studio at 556 Abrego is now a historic landmark and on
the National Register of Historic Places. The Abrego Adobe is now
owned by the Abrego Club, a sister organization to Santa Barbara’s
Little Town Club.
The Blacks’ tenure in Santa Barbara was brief, but their
contributions were many and varied. Although only the stone walls
of the Mission and western Riviera, as well as
El Cerrito
itself, remain
as physical representations of their influence, the organizations and
projects they supported and initiated laid the foundations for what
Santa Barbarans enjoy today.
(
Sources: Hundreds of sources! Most importantly: articles by Stella
Rouse Haverland; contemporary news articles and obituaries; artifacts, files
and research completed by Alice Vandewater; Dennis Copeland, Monterey
historian, 2009, and Historic Preservation Plan; photos in possession
of Teri and Eric Gabrielsen; correspondence of Elizabeth Glen, CEO/
Librarian of Muskoka Lakes Library, 2009; Marymount at 50 by Ned L.
Wilson; Santa Barbara and Detroit period histories; passenger lists, census
date, city directories; Francis B. Wheeler’s biography of J. F. Winslow and
the Monitor; Patricia Cleek’s
Noticias
of Summer 2002; photos sent by
Lynn K. Lucas, Adriance Memorial Library, Poughkeepsie.)
MOGULS
&
MANSIONS
(top) Mary Corning Winslow Black found inspiration for
her brush in the bays of Palermo; (bottom) Mary’s home in
Monterey with a painting of her new studio over the doorway
