When Peacock’s burned last spring, I began investigating the history of the building –first as Wyckoff’s General Store, then Holcombe’s, then Manner’s and into the 20th century as Stein’s Store. Then there was a blank period when the building was used a Gray’s Watercolors, followed by Sarah Peacock bringing back a store with apartments, and later Peacock’s with Sherri and Khalid. So what was Gray’s Watercolors, sometimes known as The College Watercolor Group? Fast forward to a recent auction in Three Bridges where they auctioned off three of Gray’s Watercolors, one of the Flemington Courthouse which I purchased. Now the plot thickened. I needed to know.
Upon some quick investigating I found out that Paul and Wilda McConaughy owned and ran Gray’s. Their son John is the person who has been doing so much renovating in Hopewell, including starting the Brick Farm Market. Upon calling John, I found out that his father had died this past spring but his mother, feisty as ever, is still running Gray’s but out of Mississippi. After a long conversation with Wilda, I had my history.
In 1965, Paul McConaughy and his wife were living in Skillman. He was a Cornell graduate, with a degree in art, commuting to New York everyday working as a marketing executive. He had been searching for an inexpensive way to produce limited editions of watercolor prints. He decided to try his idea out at his old alma mater and made a series of prints of Cornell University buildings. They were an instant hit and his new company, The College Watercolor Group was formed. Soon, working out of his house on Hollow Rd. was no longer an option and looking around he found the building in Wertsville. Louis Stein had sold the building to a Brooklyn, New York investor, a Dr.Tuby. Under his ownership the building had sat vacant. Striking a deal, the McConaghy’s bought the building and had the Weidl brothers from Skillman renovate it. Soon they were faced with the task of actually making inexpensive watercolor prints of college buildings – from all over the country. Following the model developed by Currier & Ives more than a century before, they would make a pen and ink drawing of a building, have it reproduced on watercolor paper as an 8” x 10” lithograph and then have artists color paint each picture. The old store building at the time was uniquely set up, with the living quarters and the store downstairs, but a with wide open dance hall upstairs. This large space was used by the artists. Large lazy susan’s were set up and artists would paint only one color on a print and the lithographs would spin around until all the colors were complete. Then onto the next college building. Limited edition sets of 4 scenes or large prints, framed or unframed were available. Soon more colleges and universities were added until they were painting scenes of over 400 schools! Space in the building was limited so the McConaughy’s bought a house on Welisewitz Road (now owned by Barbara and Dart Sageser). Their old apartment was turned into another studio and the old store became the shipping department. At this point they were still only painting college buildings, hence The College Watercolor Group. But the Bicentennial was fast approaching!
Next month –Gray’s becomes the largest employer in the Township!
Jim Davidson