The plaque underneath this painting reads: “‘Sugaring in Lake Placid,’ 1952, Averil Courtney Conwell, a gift to the community by interested citizens, 1981.” (News photo — Andy Flynn)

LAKE PLACID — Since the old Lake Placid Convention Center was demolished in 2009, and a new conference center was constructed in its place, opening in the spring of 2011, I’ve wondered about the whereabouts of a historic painting.

This was no ordinary painting. It was a large mural, “Sugaring in Lake Placid,” painted in 1952 by local artist Averil Conwell.

The mural was on display with others by Conwell at the Whiteface Inn, then purchased in 1981 by local arts advocates as the property went up for sale, and donated to the town of North Elba, which owns the expansive Olympic Center property. In 1982, the painting — a maple sugaring scene — was put on display at the convention center. As people climbed the stairs on the way to the 1932 Rink, they could see it.

During maple season in 1997, as a staff writer for the Lake Placid News, I wrote about the mural, calling it “Maple Sugaring in Lake Placid” instead of the name on the painting’s plaque, “Sugaring in Lake Placid.” It had a personal connection. One of my fellow Tupper Lake High School graduates (1987), the best man at my wedding, Scott Bickford, is related to a man in that painting. Scott lived in Lake Placid before moving to Tupper Lake in the late 1970s, and his great-grandfather, Guy Bickford, who worked at the Whiteface Inn for many years, is the man in the painting holding a whip in front of two oxen pulling a maple sledge.

Read the 1997 story.

The plaque reads: “‘Sugaring in Lake Placid,’ 1952, Averil Courtney Conwell, a gift to the community by interested citizens, 1981.” (News photo — Andy Flynn)

I’ve always loved “Sugaring in Lake Placid,” and every spring since 2009, I’ve thought about it. After all, it belongs to North Elba taxpayers, and they deserve to know where it is currently located.

One year, I asked someone in the state Olympic Regional Development Authority’s communications department, “Where is the painting?” He didn’t know. This year, as I wondered again, I was in the office of ORDA President and CEO Mike Pratt for an interview on March 2 and asked him. He promised to look into it. On Friday, March 10, his executive assistant, Emily Stanton, emailed me with the information.

“Sugaring is on display at Heaven Hill Farm in the large meeting room, which has a view of the Maple Sugar Field,” she wrote.

I finally had a lead. So I called Jim McKenna, president and CEO of the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism, which maintains an office in the Lake Placid Conference Center. He’s also the vice chairman of the board for the Henry Uihlein II and Mildred A. Uihlein Foundation, which owns Heaven Hill Farm.

On Monday, March 13, McKenna confirmed that “Sugaring in Lake Placid” is on display in a meeting room, known as Mid’s Room. Just like Mid’s Park in downtown Lake Placid, Mid’s Room is named for Mildred Uihlein.

Heaven Hill Farm, outside Lake Placid, as seen on Monday, March 13. (News photo — Andy Flynn)

McKenna also confirmed that the town of North Elba still owns the painting. It’s in a public space, he said.

“Is it?” I asked. Not like it was at the old convention center, where everybody could enjoy it.

Mid’s Room is available, for free, to nonprofit organizations, McKenna said, and therefore, it’s a public space. A lot of people see it throughout the year. It’s essentially on loan to the Uihlein Foundation.

The painting is certainly in an appropriate place. Just outside the main house — where Henry and Mildred once lived — is the maple sugar house. Henry bought the farm in 1941, and he died in 1997. Sitting at the meeting room table, looking at the painting, it’s almost as though you’re in the scene itself. If we didn’t know the history of the painting — that it was a maple sugaring scene commissioned for the Whiteface Inn — we may think that this was painted at Heaven Hill Farm. Photographs from the farm’s maple sugaring heyday — with metal buckets on trees instead of plastic tubing and a horse-drawn maple sledge — adorn the hallway of Heaven Hill Farm’s residence.

Heaven Hill Farm has a long history of producing maple syrup, which continues today as a participant of the New York State Maple Weekends. McKenna said that the maple syrup produced at the farm each year is donated to nonprofit organizations.

A photograph at Heaven Hill Farm shows the property’s maple sugaring operation from long ago. (News photo — Andy Flynn)

So, how did “Sugaring in Lake Placid” get to Heaven Hill Farm? McKenna said he saw it one day in storage in the wood shop behind the Lussi Rink — a figure skating practice rink in the old convention center named after famed skating coach Gus Lussi. Before the building was torn down, McKenna said he got permission from North Elba town Supervisor Roby Politi to move the painting and have it displayed at the farm, instead of keeping it in storage where nobody could see it.

In July 1982, Lake Placid News columnist Laura Viscome reported that Conwell had visited the convention center to see “Sugaring in Lake Placid” above the landing of the convention center stairway.

“It looks wonderful here,” Conwell said. “I am happy that it is in a place where it can be enjoyed by residents and visitors alike.”

The mural was painted in Conwell’s studio in the town of Jay for Whiteface Inn owner Henry Haynes.

“In fact, I painted him into the scene,” Conwell said. “He is the man sitting on the log at the right. And the dog next to him was actually his.”

The dog’s name was Prince.

When there was a threat that the bankrupt Whiteface Inn would be torn down in 1979, two Lake Placid residents and friends of Conwell — Frances Silleck and Lucy Carroll — decided they would save all the murals in the Whiteface Inn dining room, which included “Sugaring in Lake Placid.” The property, however, was sold, renovated and used for temporary housing during the 1980 Olympic Winter Games.

Following another foreclosure of the property, an announcement was made in September 1981 that the Whiteface Inn and its contents would be sold at auction. With little time to raise money to buy all the murals, Silleck and Carroll collected enough donations from more than a dozen residents to buy at least one — “Sugaring in Lake Placid” — which was Conwell’s favorite at the Whiteface Inn. The women decided to give the painting to the town of North Elba because of its historic and local interest.

After it was purchased, “Sugaring in Lake Placid” hung in the meeting room of the town-funded Lake Placid Sports Council, Viscome reported. In July 1982, with the approval of town Supervisor Matthew Clark, and the workmanship of Oren Preston, it was placed in the convention center’s stairway.

Some of the people who contributed funds to buy the painting in 1981 were Frances and Louise Brewster, May Louise Lockwood, Grace Shea, Frederick Mader, H. Langdon Laws, Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Dennin, Peter Darlington, John C. Holley, Martin Stone, Elizabeth Cornelius, Barbara McGraw Sweet, Jerry Petro, Mr. and Mrs. John Hart, Frances Silleck, Lucy Carroll and Mildred A. Uihlein.

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Maple Weekends start this week

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LAKE PLACID — Maple Weekends are being held this year on March 18-19 and March 25-26, and several producers in the Tri-Lakes are participating.

Sponsored by the New York State Maple Producers’ Association, producers are usually open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day at most locations.

¯ Cornell University Uihlein Maple Research Forest, 157 Bear Cub Lane, Lake Placid. 518-523-9337.

¯ Heaven Hill Farm, 302 Bear Cub Lane, Lake Placid. 315-412-5079.

¯ Mark Twain Mapleworks, 614 Lake St., Saranac Lake. 518-891-5915.

¯ Paul Smith’s College, 321 White Pine Road, Paul Smiths. 518-526-6570.

¯ Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center, 8023 State Route 30, Paul Smiths. 518-327-6241.

Learn more at mapleweekend.nysmaple.com.