Saturday, August 15, 2009

Granbury

I came to Granbury TX, a beautiful small town 25 miles west of Ft. Worth. I am giving a painting workshop at the legendary Iron Horse Inn. This great house was built in 1905. The owner of the house Theresa has told us dramatic stories about this house. If you want to know what happened here, please check: http://www.theironhorseinn.com/retreat.htm and contact Theresa.
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1 comment:

  1. theresaAugust 16, 2009 at 6:56 PM

    Hi Qiang and thank you for a wonderful workshop here at the Iron Horse Inn Artistic Retreat Center. All of the participants loved the way you presented your ideas. Many said theyr learned more in this weekend than over the last few years! I loved getting to know you and Song!
    I promised that I would add this historic story to your blog as a follow up to your last posting about my retreat center. Briefly, this is a historic home and the original family had 8 children. The youngest was Josephine Cogdell who was quite a wild young lady - she ran away from home with a travelling salesman in 1913 when she was just 16 years old! After a few years living in California as a dancer, writer and artist, she moved to New York where she met and married an important writer and publisher of the day - George Schuyler. Sadly the family cut Josephine out of their lives after this marriage as this was a 1920's Texas family and George Schuyler was black. Despite a deputation of her older sisters to persuade her to come home, Josephine lived the rest of her life in Harlem with George where they had a daughter Phillipa who turned out to be a musical genius. She started composing at aged 5 and played Carnegie hall at age 13. She had a renowned career as a concert pianist, composer and writer, but sadly died in a helicopter crash on assignment in Vietnam in 1967. The film rights for her biography have been purchased by Hallie Berry and Alicia Keys has a contract to play Phillipa in the movie.
    All of our guests and workshop participants love to hear all of the interesting stories about this old house and its fascinating family, and I love to tell them. I am so glad you found this experience interesting too!

    Theresa Martin
    www.theironhorseinn.com

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