Dear Friends,

In February we had a wonderful and unexpected opportunity to purchase two Lee Adams paintings dated 1950 from an estate sale in Ortega. It is very rare to find originals like this anymore. The owners were good friends of Lee and Mimi Adams. These two pieces were both of tropical botanical subjects, seagrapes and passion fruit. Most of these tropical pieces were painted for the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens in Miami. Seen here is : Passiflora Incarnata - a passion vine! You can see one last bloom on the vine near the top.

MMHS does not have a line item in the budget for purchasing items for our collection - most items are given to us by donors. However, these two pieces were just too good to pass up. The estate sale representative had searched up Lee Adams and the MMHS website popped right up because we feature Mr. Adams HERE. So the representative called the museum to see if we were interested. The time schedule for making a decision was very tight. She suggested I ask our members if they would like to help. So I did...and guess what? Within 10 minutes of my email appeal we had enough to purchase the two paintings AND extra to help with re-framing in archival quality mats etc. or for future acquisitions. This was unbelievable really. Thank you to all who called and emailed in support and especially to: John and Leyda Cooksey, Joanne Bellovin, Theresa Alexander, Betty Taylor and Leslie and Stacy Anderson (who live in NC). Plus, there were two prints available as well at a very good price, so when my husband Tracey went to pick up the paintings, he decided to purchase those as a gift to the museum as well. We now have a very robust Lee Adams collection!

On the back of one of the paintings was a writing by Mr. Adams - it almost seemed to be his philosophy of painting. In part, he said:

Last month you got to see the four new Officers of the Board. This month we introduce you to four more members:

Virginia Barker - So many of you know Virginia by her volunteering at the chicken coop for special events. She even brings the chickens! Virginia has been a fixture in Mandarin for a long time, all while have a professional career as a writer and photographer.

Henry Davis is a retired attorney and judge. He was born and raised in the Pine Forest area on the Southside, but has been a Mandarin resident for several decades. His grandmother, Nannie Dosier Davis is one of the featured Black educators in the schoolhouse exhibit.

Karen Droege was the person who sparked the board to try to save and move the 1898 schoolhouse. She was brand new to Mandarin and as a volunteer and she spearheaded and supervised one of the most important projects we've done - moving us to the next level by bringing diversity into our Mandarin stories. Up until the schoolhouse, we had very little information about Mandarin's Black heritage. This school opened the door and demonstrated our our commitment to tell those stories.

Gabriele Dempsey is a whirling dervish, trying to manage an interior design business, being on our board as well as several more that are environmentally focused, setting up park clean-up and planting projects and coordinating the design of the new exhibits in the renovations of Mandarin Museum. But you'll still catch a glimpse of her walking her dog around the park every day.

In March, the historic buildings in Walter Jones Park are scheduled to be open on the first and third Saturdays. The 1875 Webb/Jones farmhouse, 1876 Barn, 1898 St. Joseph's Mission Schoolhouse for African-American Children and Losco Winery log cabin will be open from 10 am – 2 pm on March 5 and March 19 in Walter Jones Historical Park.

The "Under the Oaks" music jam will happen unless it is too cold or raining. All are welcome. If you play an acoustic instrument, bring it and join in the song circle and jam. If you don't, bring a lawn chair and be a "listener" - just sitting out under the oaks enjoying the music. They'll play from 2-4 on Sunday, March 6. The schoolhouse will be open this day also.

The Mandarin Museum will still remain closed for renovation, but the Gift Shop items will be available on the front porch when the park buildings are open as listed above.

The Store and Post Office will be also open on March 19 from 10 am - 2pm at 12471 Mandarin Road, just a mile west of the park. This building is on the National Register of Historic Places and brings great delight to visitors.

Did you know that Jacksonville is celebrating it's Bicentennial in 2022 - two hundred years a city!! OR that Douglas Anderson School of the Arts is celebrating 100 years as a school?

The Jacksonville Historical Society has excellent information on both topics, plus their upcoming speakers and more. Click HERE to see what's happenng.