Rhodes Grocery Building, McCleary, Washington, pt. 3

All of the photos in this post are of the north face of the old Rhodes Grocery, the streetfront side, taken Sept. 15, 2013.

The building had been converted to a cram-yer-crap storage business in the 1980s. So far as I know, this little alcove is unique in the Abbott art experience in that he created an area where human faces are the main focus. This was not his strong point and the combined effect is actually sort of unsettling. However, his "canvas" gives the portraits a nice texture.

A very young Nick Rillakis (1893-1970). By the time I met Nick in 1964 he was a large, stout man with no hair at all. Nick was one of the last of what was once a large Greek population in town.

James Abbott portrait of Henry McCleary (1861-1943), the timber baron who virtually ran the town as a one-man principality until 1941.

This is a portrait of a timid person, and Henry was many things, but never that.

 James Abbott's absolutely awful and almost unrecognizable portrait of Ada Johnson McCleary (1861-1923).  She was a remarkable person who knew how to use her power as the First Lady of McCleary to improve the lives of the people in the town.

Of the four portraits by James Abbott adorning the front of the old Rhodes Grocery, this one of George Osgood (1868-1955) is the best.

Osgood was an early business partner of Henry McCleary.

Abbott's murals on waferboard appear to have survived in better shape through the weather over time.

Detail of James Abbott mural of the old school in McCleary, Washington. The teacher portrayed in this picture is based on Emma Heslep (1902-1974) who was also a published poet.