The Village Bank, 307 Auburn Street, Auburndale, is pleased to share with our neighbors four original paintings of Old Auburndale from the 1950s and ‘60s. They are currently on display in our Community Room. Part of the collection of former Auburndale resident Dr. R. Emerson Sylvester (deceased) and his wife, they will be remain here in the bank for just a few weeks before being donated to Newton’s History Museum at the Jackson Homestead. 

They were painted by local artist Amy Jarvis. Jarvis was born in 1891 in Lynn Massachusetts In 1919, Amy married her husband William Jarvis and relocated to Auburndale. It was while living in Auburndale when Amy studied watercolor paintings with Alma LeBrecht at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and had her first one-woman show at the Copley Gallery in January 1956. Amy’s paintings over the years included both oils and water colors. One of her collections includes these paintings of Auburndale, a village which Amy and her husband both loved.  In one of her letters from her later years, Amy describes Auburndale as “beautiful typical New England town with beautiful trees and well-kept homes.”  After moving to Cape Cod for her final years, Amy passed away at the age of 95, in 1986.

The Village Bank and the family of Dr. Sylvester hope that all will enjoy these paintings, and that they will be reminders of our beautiful village in days gone by.