A Catskills Mystery SOLVED!

Two years ago, the museum rescued a 1950s expressionist sculpture facing demolition from the grounds of the former Schenk's Paramount Hotel in South Fallsburg. The towering, concrete tour de force had stood in front of Schenk’s card room for more than a half century. But when we tried to learn more about the sculpture — and who had created it — we hit a dead end.

Here’s a video detailing the move, which required a crane and a flatbed truck to bring the sculpture to downtown Ellenville, where it now stands outside the village’s historic former train station.

Last month, Laura Miller, a psychiatrist from Chicago, reached out to us and solved the mystery: it was her father, Hal Schenk, who created the sculpture.

Miller’s immigrant grandparents owned the hotel and her father was its manager, but in his free time, Hal pursued his true passion: making art. “It was an idyllic life for my father because he had the whole winter to work on his art when the hotel was closed,” recalled Miller, who grew up on the grounds of the hotel.

But when her family lost the hotel to bankruptcy in the 1960s and moved to Miami Beach, the sculpture was left behind.

Hal Schenk died in 2005.

There is more to the story — including plans to restore the sculpture and move it to a more prominent location— so stay tuned for more news in the coming weeks.