'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.