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'Lost' paintings finding new fans (Evening Post) 9-1-81D2—The Evening Timesr Wednesday® July ll1981 Palm Beach County Repo paintingsLost finding new fans By Carol Carnevale Times Staff Writer . NORTH PALM BEACH — Nidi-. torsat the village librar,v's operl house Tuesday saw mare than North Palm Beach's modern facility for books. They also got a glimpse of area history, in the form of two huge, recently -discovered paintings. , The paintings, believed to be done by a Greenwich Village artist named Torno, were recently found on old walls of the village's Winter Club, built in 1926 by Harry S. Kelsey. Kelsey was an entrepreneur "Who sold a restaurant chain and moved to Florida where he started purchasing property and began Kelsey City, now Lake Park and North Palm Beach. He had the Winter Club built, and the structure was later purchased from Kelsey by Harry Oakes, a Brit- ish nobleman. Later it wa`s- pur- chased from Oakes by John D. Mac- Arthur, the late billionaire from this area. . 0 "These paintings were found when they were putting a new roof on the Winter Club several months ago. They were quite excited about it when they discovered them." The paintings were found behind some fake walls that were built al- most two decades ago to make the structure more energy-efficient, said Nancy Moore, North Palm Beach reference librarian. "Everything that was hanging on the walls was covered up," she said. "These paintings were found when they were putting a new roof on the Winter Club several months ago. They were quite excited about it when they discovered them." The two large paintings, one oval and one rectangular, do not bear any signature,but a former friend of Kelsey has told city officials he be-- lieves the two paintings discovered are the ones Torno gave Kelsey in 1927. Charlie Branch was an engineer for Kelsey in the 1920s when the restaurateur was developing his model city, and Branch said Torno painted the two pictures to present to Kelsey when the Winter Club was completed, Mrs. Moore said. "(Torno) had told Mr. Branch that he had wanted to do something for Mr. Kelsey," Mrs. Moore said. "The Winter Club was being built. It was almost completed." The oval painting is believed to have been trimmed down from a rectangular shape, Mrs. Moore said, and the artist's signature could have been cut off in the process. In that picture is a schooner with the initials H.P.B.W.C.S.K. on the sail and mast. The P.B.W.C. is believed to mean Palm Beach Winter Club, and the H. and S.K. are believed to be Kelsey's initials. The larger painting, which is rec- tangular, is believed to be a scene of Lake Worth in this area. The paintings' will probably go back in the Winter Club after ren- ovation is complete there. The village is considering having the paintings appraised to learn their value, but officials say their worth will probably be in historical signifi-, cance, not monetary value. The Winter Club was the first country club for the North Palm Beach area, and was used until the present country club was built in 1963. It, also served as the area's library, until the present librar U was built in 1969.