A new dawn: Baldwinsville pagoda mural restoration nearly complete

BALDWINSVILLE — Around the Fourth of July, Marlene Slade noticed a change to a landmark near her home on East Dead Creek Road in the town of Van Buren. Curious and concerned, she wrote an email to the Messenger.

“There is an old barn down the road from us that was here when we moved here almost 50 years ago. It was known as the Pagoda Hill Farm. It had a beautiful pagoda painted on its door. That pagoda has a story to it I’m sure, although it was old when we moved here and we don’t know what the true story is, although we heard rumors,” Slade wrote. “There was a fire which gutted the house (the barn was spared) and it was sold to new owners, who are in the process of painting over this beautiful pagoda which has been on that barn door for so many years. I will miss seeing that colorful painting!”

A photo of a red barn with an American flag painted on it in primer. There is wooden scaffolding in front of the barn. — Baldwinsville painter David Smart tinted his primer red and blue to paint an American flag on the barn over the Independence Day holiday weekend. Smart is restoring the pagoda mural on the barn. (Photo by Bonnie Kisselstein)

Slade was partially correct. The new owners had indeed hired someone to paint over the mural of the pagoda, but they are not getting rid of it. Baldwinsville-raised painter David Smart gave the neighbors a scare when an American flag appeared on the barn over the Independence Day holiday weekend.

“I tinted the primer for July 4,” Smart told the Messenger as he wrapped up a hot afternoon’s work on the mural in July.

A painter works on a mural of a pagoda on a red barn. — Baldwinsville painter David Smart has been restoring the mural at Pagoda Hill Farm in Van Buren since late June. His restoration has been delayed by uncooperative weather and health issues. (Photo by Ashley M. Casey)

Rest assured, Baldwinsville: the pagoda will be restored to its former glory. While Smart had hoped to finish his restoration by early July, weather woes and injury have delayed his progress.

Pagoda Hill Farm now belongs to Zach and Amy Manchee, who co-own the B’ville Diner with Amy’s parents, Jim and Laura Orlando.

“Our plan is to preserve the history of Pagoda Hill Farm,” Zach Manchee said.

The Manchees purchased the property in 2019 and have spent the pandemic restoring the farmhouse that was nearly destroyed in a 2018 fire.

“The guy who actually bought it after the fire and owned it for three months — I think he realized he was a little in over his head,” Manchee said.

The Manchees, who have documented their renovations on Instagram @pagodahillfarm, moved to Amy’s hometown of Baldwinsville from Texas in 2019. They jumped at the chance to purchase this piece of history on East Dead Creek Road.

“She literally fell in love with this piece of property driving by it and seeing pictures of it. We bought the house when she was pregnant with our daughter. It’s something we want to pass down to our daughter, along with the diner,” Zach Manchee said.

The Manchees’ gift to their daughter was once a gift to another little girl: Neenah Hamill.

A black-and-white photo of a Chinese-American little girl in a plaid, ruffled dress — Neenah Hamill Chapman

According to a 2014 post by descendant Barbara Burns on the New York Historical Society’s “Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion” project website, George Hamill was an engineer who worked on dredging the bay of Shanghai. Hamill’s diary, which is available at the Baldwinsville Public Library, says he married a woman named Iun Laotai in 1867. After her death, Hamill brought their daughter, Neenah, to Baldwinsville in the 1870s.

More than 7,000 miles away from her hometown, Neenah was terribly homesick. George commissioned a painting of the Longhua Pagoda, which was built to house Buddhist relics in Shanghai, for the side of the barn. Neenah would sit on the steps of her home across the road gazing at the mural.

Two pieces of artwork: one is a portrait of a Chinese-American girl in a red plaid dress and the other is a rendering of a pagoda — Zach and Amy Manchee purchased Pagoda Hill Farm in 2019. While the house on the property was badly damaged in a 2018 fire, artwork from the late 1800s survived, including a portrait of Neenah Hamill Chapman and a rendering of the Longhua Pagoda in Shanghai, China. George Hamill had a mural of the pagoda painted on his barn in the 1870s because his daughter, Neenah, was homesick.

Smart said Jim Orlando contacted him about a year and a half ago to ask about restoring the mural.

“I like to match historical stuff,” said Smart, who restored the lettering on the former Smith Restaurant Supply building at 500 Erie Blvd. East in Syracuse last year. The building has been renovated as a luxury apartment complex with retail space.

Smart said he grew up on Downer Street and remembered seeing the pagoda as a kid. The mural has been repainted several times over the last one and a half centuries.

Two photos of the pagoda mural taken about 60 years apart. The mural on the right is faded and chipping — First painted in the 1870s, the pagoda on the side of the barn at Pagoda Hill Farm has been repainted several times, including in 1958 and in the 1970s. “Without primer, that actually causes the deterioration faster,” painter David Smart said. “Every flake you could see colors behind it.”

As Smart began the process of sanding off old paint, he discovered that the original artist had carved the outline of the pagoda into the wooden barn door. Previous restorations had moved the painting off the original outline and added other elements.

“Obviously, there’s going to be some stuff that’s updated. I’m staying as true to the actual pagoda as possible,” Smart said.

Smart laid down a coat of primer before using exterior house paint and Montana spray paint to recreate the pagoda design. He will apply two coats of clear coat varnish when the mural is complete.

“Without primer, that actually causes the deterioration faster,” he said. “Every flake you could see colors behind it.”

Smart has been documenting his process on his Facebook page.

“Much of the original was gone. A failed restoration in 1979 caused the painting to deteriorate faster. Thank God for the new owners giving me the opportunity to restore a relic that has ties to Ernest Hemingway, has a national bestseller (‘View from Pagoda Hill’) written about it, and will now stand the test of time with the months of prep and planning I put into this,” Smart wrote on Aug. 5.

Smart said Hemingway stayed at the home frequently in the 20th century. Hamill descendant Michaela Maccoll wrote a fictionalized version of Neenah’s story in her middle-grade novel “View from Pagoda Hill,” released in 2021.

Neenah Hamill went on to marry Jerry Chapman, who according to descendant Barbara Burns was her schoolteacher. The Chapmans had eight children and eventually divorced. Among their children was noted photographer Mark Chapman, who took the 1958 photo that recently appeared in the Messenger’s History Mystery feature.

A black-and-white photo of a barn with a pagoda mural — Neenah Hamill Chapman’s son, noted photographer Mark Chapman, took the 1958 photo of the pagoda mural that recently appeared in the Messenger’s History Mystery feature.

Baldwinsville Public Library Historian Bonnie Kisselstein said more information about the pagoda is available in the Bailey family genealogy in LH R 929.2 BAL in the local history room at BPL. George Hamill’s diary (929.2 HAM) is also available in the local history room.

The Manchees have a GoFundMe page to raise money for the ongoing restoration of the barn. Visit https://gofund.me/64455bf0 to donate.

“The descendants of the original family reached out and said, ‘If you’re going to restore it, let us know so we can help out,” Manchee said. “Behind the barn looks like our forestry division because we’ve cut down trees that were there [to] make sure that everything that’s there and growing [has] the best chance to grow.”

Editor’s note: Thank you to Bonnie Kisselstein of the Baldwinsville Public Library and Sue McManus of the Museum at the Shacksboro Schoolhouse for their help researching this story.