Westervelt-Warner Museum
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
By: Jerry Smith
Publisher: StClairCountyAl.com
Date: 06/29/09
So what's a world-class art museum doing at a place called The North River Yacht Club? To understand, you would need to visit the Yacht Club itself. There's not a yacht in sight; rather, it’s a super-fine country club. After you drive the grounds for a while it becomes apparent it's a most suitable place for this museum.
The Yacht Club is definitely posh. Although the club itself is not open to the public, visitors are free to drive through on their way to the museum. The course is spectacular. Their greens are like fine, jade-colored carpet, complete with motor-driven fans at each hole to dry off the morning dew. Impressive outdoor sculpture is everywhere; very photogenic. In fact, the whole site is a photographer's dream come true.
The museum itself sits just beyond the NRYC club house and lodge, on a beautifully landscaped bluff nestled among tall trees. There’s a patio out back that overlooks a steep ravine and offers a fine view of Lake Tuscaloosa. You’ll pass a fine sculpture of an Indian chief in the traffic circle. A genuine Gatling gun stands beside the front door.
Once inside, you know you’re in a special place. This is NOT a roadside museum; it's a collection of tens of millions of dollars worth of fine American art, some of which are familiar to most everyone. In all, there are more than four hundred superb art works. It's the real McCoy, folks, so don't balk at the $9.00 entry fee. You'll not find the likes of Westervelt-Warner anywhere else in Alabama.
There's work here by Andrew Wyeth, Duncan Phyffe, Winslow Homer, Albert Bierstadt, Paul Revere, John Singer Sargent, James McNeil Whistler (everybody's seen his Mom, but her pic is not here), Edward Hicks, and many others of note. I find Bierstadt's gigantic ocean paintings particularly intriguing because, although nothing more than oil on canvas, it appears you can see right through the water. Peaceable Kingdom by Edward Hicks is known to almost everyone, as is a gigantic portrait of George Washington.
All these goodies are part of the collection of Jack Warner, CEO of Gulf States Paper Company. At one time, a lot of his stuff was on display at their home office just across the Black Warrior River, but most has now been moved to this new home. The facility is as much a luxurious tribute to Warner himself as to his artworks collection. A short intro film allows you to watch as Jack bids $1,3000,000 for a single painting, one of the less spectacular now on display. The man definitely had a taste for the finest of everything, and hang the cost.
Here's a link for their website, with directions, hours, virtual tours of the museum, etc.: www.warnermuseum.org
Photography is not allowed in the museum interior, but here's a link for more pictures of the Yacht Club itself: Yacht Club Photos
While enroute to the Yacht Club, take special note of Lake Tuscaloosa and its dam. To your right, you may see a gigantic fountain low on the dam’s earthen slope that's powered by water pressure from the lake. The spillway of the dam itself is a real work of engineering; the water runs over the dam and into a giant rectangular gorge cut through millions of years’ accumulation of sedimentary rock; a paleo-geologist's delight.
For lunch, try the Northport Diner on US82 in the commercial section of Northport, or the Cypress Inn on Rice Mine Road. Anyone can tell you how to reach either place. If time allows, why not also take the Driving Dixie tours of Capitol Park OR the Natural History Museum while in the Tuscaloosa area. If you manage to do all three in one day, you either got up way too early or you’ve not given proper attention to any of them.
The museum keeps banker's hours; noon til 5pm Tuesday thru Friday and 10am til 5pm on Saturday, closed Sunday & Monday. Seniors get an admission discount.
Photos by Jerry Smith
Top Right: Museum Entrance
Middle Left: Golf Course Scene
Bottom Right: Lake Tuscaloosa Fountain