As part of the Town of Bovina’s Bicentennial Celebration, Brooke Alderson enlisted a group of ten local artists to create paintings of Bovina Landmarks. The artists were invited to paint their own interpretations of photographs of different Bovina buildings that are no longer in existence or have been altered. The resulting ten paintings were mounted on easels by Brooke and Scott Hill and were displayed throughout the hamlet during the Celebration at the site where the original structure stood (or still stands).
Over the next few months, I will be doing a series of entries highlighting the buildings and the paintings. The paintings are on display at the Bovina Public Library, where you can order prints of any that catch your fancy for $80, all proceeds going to the library. And stay tuned for an auction of the original works being planned for this fall.
Kennedy Hotel, painted by Sandra Finkenberg
The History
It is not clear when this house was built but it was owned by Rev. Joshua Kennedy, pastor of the Bovina Reformed Presbyterian Church in the late 1860s. It was used as a boarding house for many years. George Gladstone owned from 1904 until 1919 when it was bought by John Aitkens in the 1920s.
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| The building in 1947, when it became the Center Inn. |
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| From the May 16, 1947 Walton Reporter |
In May 1947, Edward Burton Cornell and his wife Ethel opened a restaurant and bar in the building, calling it the Center Inn. The Cornells were experienced restauranteurs. People were attracted to the inn not only by the bar but by the food.
But the bar became an issue almost immediately, spurring an effort by citizens in the town to vote for Bovina to become a dry town. The Center Inn caused problems with traffic in the hamlet. And some families simply didn’t like having it there, seeing it as a distraction for husbands and fathers. When Delhi debated whether to stay dry in the 1940s, the example of Bovina’s situation was brought up. “A prominent Bovina man told me that the residents of Bovina Center are thoroughly ‘fed up’ with conditions created by the recent advent of the saloon there… Pleasure cars, trucks and old jalopies bring customers to the Bovina bar, filling the limited parking space nearby, causing traffic congestion and confusion; children are seen going in and out of the place, and the noise continues until late at night.”
The local option to go dry passed in November 1947 by a two to one margin. Cornell had until about the fall of 1948 before he had to stop the sale of alcohol. He sold the contents in October of that year. The building became derelict and was demolished in December 1960.
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| Photo by George LaFever, December 1960 |
More about this vote in 1947 may be found at this blog at: Bovina (NY) History: Bovina, Wet or Dry? - Part II (bovinanyhistory.blogspot.com)
The Artist
Sandra Finkenberg studied at the Carnegie Mellon School of Art in Pittsburgh and the Art Students League in New York. She has received numerous awards including 2nd place at the Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club (2003), Best of Show Cooperstown Regional(1997), and Best of Show and 2nd Place, UCCA Oneonta (now CANO) (1993 and 1992 respectively).
“My thoughts in painting The Kennedy Hotel: Nothing is permanent but what sticks in memory. My youth was marked by many changes spanning the country. By selling my art and living in Manhattan with my husband and 6 children we managed to stake out the old Chase farm in Bovina. Though I had no history in this Delaware County, its simple style evokes the lives of both grandparents who were rooted in Chemung and Cayuga Counties. Sometimes I find myself checking for accuracy with those soft old memories passed away yet mysteriously passed down.”
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