Merrick Art Gallery

A stable source of income from family businesses and investments allowed Edward Dempster Merrick to retire in 1885 at age 53 and pursue his interest in creating and collecting art. His collection includes paintings bought from New York galleries and at auctions plus purchases made during his tours in Europe with his friend and fellow collector, Andrew Carnegie.  

 

To display the artwork Merrick bought an unused train depot in his hometown of New Brighton and added a second story. As the collection grew he had a matching building constructed next to the train depot with a second story bridge to connect the two buildings. Over two hundred paintings are displayed in the style of the 19th century - close together and organized by subject.  All of the paintings which have elaborate frames are set in plain wooded boxes, something we've never seen and seemed to serve no purpose.  Furniture and other period pieces are also on display. 

Merrick left an endowment so that the museum will always be free to everyone. Unfortunately after his death his family destroyed all of his original paintings. Whether the painting were destroyed because they were really bad or just because his family didn't approve of his hobby, we'll never know since they left no documentation. :( 

 

The museum is accessible. There isn't a desk to check in so after entering take the elevator to the second floor galleries. When we visited the lights were off in all the galleries. There's enough light to find the light switches but not enough to see the paintings so we turned the lights on and then off again when we left.  

The parking lot is small but RVs can be parked on the street. Museum  40.73276, -80.31016