I was recently led to the Wilton-Lyndeborough Community Facebook Page while searching for information on the history of the Langdell Auction Barn, including its beginnings in 1949 in the former Intervale Hardware Building. Although not a member of the Facebook Page, I appreciate the importance of such an instantaneous method of communicating with friends and neighbors, but decades ago, my husband and I decided to stay off social media and I’ve stuck with it. Yet this does not stop me from perusing the posted announcements on that community page.
What I ultimately came across were two threads, both tied in different ways to the subject I was researching. One was a discussion about the horse and sulky mural on the side of the original home of the Auction Barn near downtown Wilton. The second thread concerned exactly who occupied the house across from the current Langdell Auction Barn in Wilton Center. Several people suggested that the woman known as the Blue Lady, Mary Ritter Spalding, lived in that house, which, to set that record straight, is most likely not the case. I don’t propose to be an expert on this part of Wilton history, but I have been somewhat involved with both the mural restoration project and the story of Wilton’s Blue
Lady, which has led me to the subject of this week’s column, “Setting Records Straight.”
Let’s start with the horse and sulky mural. Enough time has passed since it was restored that the details of how it came about and who was involved have faded. My involvement with it began in 2002 when the Wilton Main Street Association had just been formed. I was on the original Board of Directors. We were looking for a project that would have a historic component and would also make a lasting impact on Wilton. One of our original board members, Ingrid Howard, remembered riding the school bus and seeing the original mural. She said, “It wasn’t something you’d see anywhere else. To me, it signified that you were coming into downtown Wilton. I miss seeing it.”
TR Langdell, who had purchased the building as his first auction house, commissioned local artist Carl Nelson to create the mural around 1949. It was inspired by Langdell’s love of harness racing and his use of a harness-racehorse as a “sort of logo, on letterhead and anything else,” explained his daughter, Janet Langdell.
Over time, the building sold, and the auction barn moved to its current location in Wilton Center. Meanwhile, the mural faded after its wood became so weathered it could not be touched up. It finally was painted over and remained hidden until 2002. That was when we decided to take this on as our first WMSA project.
I’ve always thought of myself as an artist rather than a writer. This latter description is a more recent iteration of my life. I’ve not only spent long hours creating works in oils but ran art shows and established the Town Hall Gallery during the early WMSA years. This means I knew a lot of artists to call upon for such a large mural restoration project, and we had a perfect place to create it. The Wilton Fall’s Building had been purchased by Chuck Crawford for the use of WMSA. More importantly, the top floor was unrented and accessible by a large freight elevator. What we proposed was to recreate the mural not on the old, rotted wooden siding of the building, but on marine plywood that we could mount on top of the siding with the help of The Wilton Telephone Company. We thought this could easily be removed, repainted and replaced if that became necessary in the future.
After hauling the marine-grade plywood, paint, and varnish donated by Currier Lumber and Richard Rantamaki of Intervale Hardware up on the elevator, I drew a cartoon of the horse and sulky on several primed and shaped sections of the plywood. Then a group of Wilton and Milford artists, including Joanne Tierney, Gerri Lawson, Joan Melcher, Martha Greene, Barbara Maher, Paula Pestana and Sue Peterson, chose areas we each wanted to paint individually, including the design and painting of local buildings and other landmarks, that we added to the original concept. Judging by the comments posted on the W-L Community Facebook page, its restoration has been a success. This information should help set the record straight about its history and all the artists involved in this project.
In the meantime, the Langdell Auction venue continued to thrive in its new location in a large red barn in old Wilton Center. The most striking feature of this venue is its unique gavel weathervane and the popular estate auctions held several Saturdays a year under the guidance of Janet Langdell and auctioneer, Harold French.
While the Auction Barn not only continues to offer auctions, it took on another life when featured in a book, Grandmother’s Guest, a fictionalized children’s story about the Blue Lady of Wilton, written by Wilton author Robin Schoen and published by Hobby Horse Publishing. Robin began this book when her granddaughter learned that her uncle had seen the blue light in the graveyard just uphill from her bedroom window and became fearful of staying overnight. Robin decided to do some research, learned about Mary’s true character and decided to write a story letting her granddaughter know there was nothing to be afraid of.
When she was writing the book, Robin asked me if I would illustrate it, which I agreed to do after having read and fallen in love with the story of Mary Ritter Spalding as written about in The History of the Town of Wilton. What was most appealing was that Mary was a woman of many talents who was said to have earned enough as a seamstress to “wall in her family home,” meaning she was able to purchase the plaster and help needed to add thick walls to its wooden frame. She was also noted as a woman with a loving and gentle character, as inscribed on her gravestone. What has never been confirmed is where Mary and her husband lived, but it was most likely not in the old Langdell estate house that borders the auction barn.
How she became known as The Blue Lady has to do with the multiple sightings of a blue light emanating from her gravesite. The story became so popular that Wilton police have had to close the graveyard at night to prevent people from cutting pieces from her grave marker or do other damage to the centuries-old cemetery. What Wilton residents most want is for her and her grave to be left in peace. Judging from the words on her tombstone, “Her serenity of temper and gentleness of manner threw a charm over a short and peaceful life,” this is exactly what she deserves.
Gail Hoar has given copies of “Grandmother’s Guest” to the Ledger-Transcript to share with the community.
Free to new and renewing subscribers with pick up at our office at 20 Grove St. in Peterborough.
Schools or libraries that wish to have a copy can email circ@ledgertranscript.com.