ODOT Aerial c.1962

A. Vinegar Hill, Schoolhouse Studio, Stanford Road vistas

B. Howard and Ruby Pedersen house (aka the Welker house)

C. Brandywine Falls, Champion Electric Company, creek bridges

D. James Wallace house and barn

E. Zimmerman house and outbuildings (aka the George Young Wallace house)

F. Train trestle bridge

G. Brown/Shirey farmhouse and barns

H. Herman and Lucy Pedersen house

I. LE&P Bridge over Brandywine road

J. Cowan house

K. Warrell/Troyan house

"What no other painter of Cleveland has done, he had made this part of the Cleveland area come to life much as Cézanne did Aix-en-Provence. As subject material it was inexhaustible, and the hills, fields, flowers and fruits, the farm animals, the houses and their inhabitants, are the leitmotifs which he used endlessly in abounding variations. He had the genius for wringing the eternal from the everyday. No greater proof of the wellspring of creative energy that was his can be found than in his complete penetration of this, his own particular workaday world."

— William M. Milliken, "William Sommer the Individual," The William Sommer Memorial Exhibition, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, 1950, p. 13

  • William Sommer in front of “In the Valley — Brandywine”, c1947. Photograph by Henry P. Boynton. Image courtesy of the Ingalls Library at the Cleveland Museum of Art

    William Sommer in front of “In the Valley — Brandywine”, c1947. Photograph by Henry P. Boynton. Image courtesy of the Ingalls Library at the Cleveland Museum of Art

  • William Sommer “painting” In the Valley — Brandywine, c1947. Photograph by Henry P. Boynton. Image courtesy of the Sommer family.

  • “In the Valley — Brandywine”. Watercolor on paper. From left to right, depicts the Wallace House (now the Inn at Brandywine Falls), the Brandywine creek bridge, and the Zimmerman house (also the George Young Wallace house). Image courtesy of Burchfeld Penney Art Center. c1947.

  • The Howard Pedersen house, Stanford Road, c1970s. Land and home taken by the Cuyahoga Valley National Park; now the parking lot of Brandywine Falls. Image courtesy of Cultural Resources of the Cuyayhoga Valley National Park

    The Howard and Ruby Pedersen house, Stanford Road, c1970s. Land and home taken for the Cuyahoga Valley National Park; now the parking lot of Brandywine Falls. Image courtesy of Cultural Resources of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park

  • “Mrs. Sommer”, oil on panel, c1930. Martha Sommer is depicted at the family dining table with the Howard & Ruby Pedersen house visible outside the window. Image courtesy of Rachel Davis Fine Arts

  • Winter, No.1, watercolor on paper c1930. Image courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art. From left to right: Sommer garage, the Pedersen house and garage (top), Vinegar Hill residence and outbuildings (right). Notice the “abbreviated roofline” of the Pedersen house’s east elevation, an artistic theme that manifests in several of Sommer’s paintings and sketches of this structure

  • “House and Barn by the Roadside, Brandywine”, oil on masonite, depicting the Brown/Shirey farm. Notice Sommer’s faithful depiction of the barn’s milk house and windows whereas the roofline of the farmhouse is “adjusted”

    Provenance: Estate of the Artist → Edwin Sommer → Gari Sommer → Martin Lerner → WOLFS Gallery → Hunting Valley, private collection → Boston Township, private collection

  • Directional view of “House and Barn by the Roadside”