Following the library board of trustees meeting Thursday, Tina Scott, library executive director, said visitors to the library during Doors Open Jamestown will be able to see oil paintings of the Prendergast family and other art work hanging in the fire place room. This is the first time paintings have been hanging on the walls of the Fireplace Room since the library board approved a resolution cosigning the bulk of the art collection to Sotheby’s in June of last year.

“I want people to know,” Scott said about artwork hanging in the library again. “I don’t think people have ever been able to see some of these paintings before.”

Some of the Prendergast family paintings include one of James Prendergast, founder of Jamestown and namesake of the library’s grandfather; Alexander Thomas Prendergast, son of James Prendergast and namesake of the library’s father; Mary A. Norton Prendergast, library founder and mother to the library’s namesake; Prendergast family judges; and drawings done by F. W. Beers for the 1881 Atlas of Chautauqua County. There is also a photo of James Prendergast, library’s namesake.

Throughout the two year process of deciding whether or not to sell the oil paintings purchased following the death of library founder Mary Prendergast in 1889, who left $25,000 to the executor of her will to purchase art for the building, the library board said they would not sell any of the Prendergast family portraits.

Left, James Prendergast, founder of Jamestown, and Alexander Thomas Prendergast, James Prendergast's son, are two of the Prendergast family paintings now hanging on the walls in the James Prendergast Library's Fireplace Room. People can view the oil paintings of the Prendergast family during Doors Open Jamestown Saturday. P-J photo by Dennis Phillips

Doors Open Jamestown is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and offers free admission to a number of area attractions, many of which will be offering special events or features on site. This year’s attractions are: Audubon Community Nature Center, Busti Grist Mill, Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame, Chautauqua Striders, Daughters of the American Revolution, Dykeman Young Gallery, Fenton History Center, Infinity Visual & Performing Arts, James Prendergast Public Library, Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum, Martz-Kohl Observatory, Northwest Arena, Reg Lenna Center for the Arts, Robert H. Jackson Center, Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History and The Spire Theater.

See the Saturday edition of The Post-Journal for more coverage.