Donald Hedges
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Don Hedges, photo by Terry Convey, Nancy Hillebrand Collection, courtesy James A. Michener Art Museum library. | | |
ARCHITECT, PAINTER
BORN: June 3, 1905, Pocatello, Idaho
DIED: December 3, 2003, Doylestown, Pennsylvania
After graduation from the University of Michigan with a degree in architecture, Donald Hedges came to Philadelphia to work for his brother-in-law, Russell Black, a pioneer in city and regional planning. The Blacks owned a home near New Hope, and in 1931, when Hedges and Rolf Bauhan were hired to do the remodeling of Black's home Donald and his wife were introduced to the area. Don and Peg Hedges moved to Bucks County in 1930, when the depression halted his career in architecture. The couple opened a shop called The New Hope Craft Shop on Main Street in New Hope in 1932 and operated the business for 52 years, until 1985.
In the late 1930s, Broadway musical arranger Don Walker enlisted Hedges to rebuild the New Hope Grist Mill into the Bucks County Playhouse which opened in 1939. Hedges' architecture was straight forward following the area's traditional styling with a few modernistic designs. Following World War II, during which he was designer for General Motors, he became involved in civic activities. Hedges started to paint in 1968 at age 63. His oil and casein paintings, many done as reverse on plexiglas, feature animals, plants, and Bucks County landscapes. His later work are less realistic and frequently characterized by humor and fantasy and have a mosaic, pointillist effect.
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