The Edgar Beers Photo Collection, Now On View, Commemorates Edmond Town Hall

By Kendra Bobowick

The photograph of ornate high-backed chairs surrounding a polished and formal dining table is displayed in a room furnished with ornate high-backed chairs surrounding a polished and formal dining table.

The historic and preserved photo capturing the Mary Hawley Room in Edmond Town Hall is one of many in the recently compiled Edgar Beers Collection that was propped up for display last Monday evening in that room. As if the camera’s flash illuminating the furnishings in the photograph had just sparked off the table’s surface, the formal dining table and chairs in the room today appear unmoved. Concealing the passage of time are the wall art, draperies and color schemes in the photographed room, which are also still in place 75 years later.

“I was truly fascinated by how similar it is from the photos in the 1930s,” said Edmond Town Hall Board of Managers member Jane Sharpe.

As the town hall’s 75th anniversary had approached last year, then Board of Managers Chairman Edgar Beers thought that a commemorative photo history would be a nice touch for the celebration.

 “We knew about the pictures and got a few from desk drawers somewhere,” which is where they began the search, he said.

Other images were found when Mr Beers “got together with Dan [Cruson].” Mr Cruson is the town historian and has composed many historic books on Newtown that are filled with old photographs, including the town hall.

Mr Beers provided the Board of Managers with approximately $5,000, and asked managers “to do something with [the photos],” said Sandra Motyka, who is also a member of the Board of Managers. “So we had prints made, had them framed, and named them The Edgar Beers Collection,” she said.

The array of photos now framed and on display has been reproduced from the negatives or originals that were scattered.

Some of the photos in Mr Cruson’s historic books about Newtown are the same images that have been reproduced for The Edgar Beers Collection.

Ms Motyka knew some trivia about a handful of the photos.

“Some were taken by a custodian of a school [in Newtown], an amateur photographer,” she said.

Embellishing on this lead, Mr Cruson offers further details about the photographer — Henry Tieman, whose initials, TH, are etched into the bottom corners of his photos. Mr Tieman had worked at the Hawley School.

“He was not a usual custodian,” he said. “He was a very highly revered person in town.”

Mr Cruson also contributed his help to completing The Edgar Beers Collection.

“The collection needed some professional help,” he said. Essentially, the reprints done from negatives, for example, reproduced with “much nicer quality.” Connecticut Photographics, located in Danbury, did the printing work.

Pleased with the display, Mr Beers said, “We had nothing ‘in-house’, and now we do.”

Board member Jane Sharpe, who composed the photo captions for the collection, noted, “This is archival.”

Three large frames encapsule different phases of the Edmond Town Hall’s construction. The first involves the demolition of an older town hall that stood beside the General Store. Another series entails construction phases and includes a photo of Mary Hawley, who gave the money to the town for the construction of the town hall building and established a trust fund that perpetually generates funds meant to supplement the building’s function. She appears in one photo, stooped to wrestle the foundation’s cornerstone into place.

The third frame holds a collage of photos of interior rooms including as the Mary Hawley Room, the formal meeting place off the building’s lobby for the Board of Managers. Another room featured is the upstairs Alexandria Room, which has a small stage at one end. This room is a banquet and event hall and has an kitchen.

“There is a lot of history in this building,” Ms Motyka said.

The original formats and reproductions have been archived. The three-frame series will most likely be displayed in the theater lobby. In recent years Edmond Town Hall has made the registry of historic places.

Mr Beers, who had served for many years on the Board of Managers and as its chair, recently retired, and member Jay Gill was sworn in as new chairman last January.