Castle painting by Sarah "Sallie" Armstrong Horn

 

I grew up in the family home in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.  The original part of the house was built for my great grandfather and his family.  Peter R. "P.R." Lawyer and his wife, the former Ida May Casler, moved into the house in October, 1895.

As I was growing up I'd see this painting almost every day hanging in my grandmother's (Anna Lawyer Carroll) front living room on the first floor of the house.  She told me it was painted by Sallie Horn and it was a wedding gift to her parents.

I fell heir to the painting and recently investigated how to clean it.  In working on this I also wanted to document the history of the painting.  I never knew Sallie Horn, as she died five years before I was born.  But I did know her daughter, Miss Mary Horn,  She was a friend of my grandmothers.  The two women were avid readers and they'd share books.  It was one of my chores to carry books between the two of them. 

Sallie Armstrong Horn:  

Mrs. Horn was born on May 16, 1865, in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.  She was the daughter of Emily Armstrong.  Sally married Jacob Horn in 1883, and they had one daughter, Mary. 

Sallie worked as a seamstress along with her mother.  She was also an amateur artist.

She died on April 24, 1953

This painting was a wedding gift to Peter R. and Ida May Lawyer, who were married at the Berkeley Springs Presbyterian Church on January 8, 1890.

The painting hung in the Lawyer family home for over a century.  The Lawyers raised three children, Anna, Herber and Henry “Harry”.  Anna married Eddie Carroll and they raised their children, Edward “Ned” and Margie, in the same home.

Margie Carroll married C. Dwan McBee and their four children, Teresa, Stephen, Patrick, and David, were also raised in the family home.

After Margie McBee’s death in 2008, the painting came into the possession of David and his husband George Allica and was removed to their home in Washington, DC.

The cleaning process:

I took it upon himself to clean the painting.  I found a video on YouTube by Gregory Stewart, on How to clean an Antique or Vintage Oil Painting.  I acquired the materials and cleaned the painting in February, 2026, using the following materials:

Pretreatmet with Kotton Klenser Oil Painting Restoring Oil.

2 cleanings with Regular Kotton Klenser

A final coat of UV Archival varnish (Krylon 1375 gloss) was sprayed on.

The change was incredible - removing 136 years of smoke, nicotine, and dirt.  The painting really came to life and details emerged that I had never seen before!  I couldn't help but think that my great grandparents and my grandmother would be thrilled to see the painting renewed.