Crows, created by acclaimed late artist, land in Hammond and await their next migration

Dec. 2—HAMMOND — Three sculpted crows created by a legendary north country artist who died last year have migrated from Maryland to a field on Calaboga Road as they await their next move to an island where they will be a distinctive feature.

In 2019, a homeowner on Comfort Island commissioned William L. Salisbury of the hamlet of Omar, town of Alexandria, to create three metal crows for his historic residence in Cambridge, Maryland, built in 1760 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Salisbury died in August 2022.

One of his best-known sculptures is the "Three Crows" array that he installed on his property and behind his workshop on the west side of southbound Interstate 81 in Alexandria. Salisbury installed the metal birds, crafted from oil storage tanks in 2000 as a reference to the new millennium.

The crows intrigued Stephen R. Brown, Los Angeles, as he took notice of them in his trips to and from the Thousand Islands. Brown is executive vice president of programming and development at Fox Television Stations. In 2013, Brown purchased the 1883 Victorian estate on Comfort Island and in 2014 began an extensive renovation project. The estate had been abandoned for 30 years.

Liking what they saw off I-81, Brown and James Hoff, who works at Warner Bros. in its intellectual property management division, commissioned Salisbury to create three crows for their estate in Cambridge.

Salisbury finished his Cambridge crows, which have much more detail but are smaller — about 7 feet each — than his 2000 versions, in the summer of 2020.

That was about the same time an exhibit, "Will Salisbury, Sculptor, a Retrospective," opened at the Thousand Islands Arts Center in Clayton. One of the new crows took up temporary residence at the center during the retrospective. As Salisbury and his assistants were working on the Cambridge project, the artist told the Times that he felt his energy ebbing and his days as an artist ending.

The Cambridge crows were installed in December 2020. They have different poses.

One appears as if just landing, one stands guard and the third clutches a black walnut. The crows were viewable from the street, which Brown said was important to him and which had been for Salisbury.

"The local Realtor, the biggest Realtor in town, used to bring new real estate prospects to our house just to look at the crows and to say, 'This place is where cool things happen,'" Brown said recently in a phone interview from Los Angeles.

The crows commissioned by Brown and Hoff have details such as individual feathers and glass eyes.

"He worked very hard on the feathers," Brown said. "Will said that when he made the crows they are meant to be walked around and looked at close up. They're stunning, beautiful sculptures. I was very pleased."

Brown and Hoff recently sold their Cambridge home, but the crows were not part of the package. "They knew we had a love for them," Brown said of the new homeowners. "And by all rights, they should be back in Northern New York."

Brown's sister, Regan P. Brown, resides in Hammond. The Cambridge crows were shrink-wrapped, put on a flatbed trailer and transported north and placed on her property. In the spring, the sculptures will be installed on the Comfort Island estate.

"They are very ornate," Regan said.

The installation of the crows on Comfort Island will be done by Milsap Restorations, Hammond, owned by Paul G. Milsap, partner of Regan. They met about a decade ago when Milsap, before he owned his own company, did renovation work at a cottage at Thousand Island Park that the Brown family has owned for decades. Milsap Restorations also did the renovation work at the Comfort Island estate. Regan is a retired special education instructor at the Penfield Central School District, Monroe County.

Milsap said that the crows will be installed on the east side of Comfort Island, on exposed bedrock, facing Keewaydin State Park.

"The legs that they are on now slide down into the holes that I'll drill," Milsap said. "The actual feet will be down on the ground."

"The boats will be able to see them quite easily," Stephen Brown said. "People on tours often point out the bear. Now, they'll be able to witness a 'murder' every time they go by."

That "bear" is another Salisbury creation: a weather vane measuring 7 feet tall, not including its 4-foot sphere, and weighing 700 pounds that tops off the Comfort Island home. Brown previously owned Brown Bear Productions and wanted the bear to be reaching for the sun.

Milsap and his workers installed the structure with the help of a 135-foot telescoping boom lift.

"It's on roller bearings, so on a say, 5-mph wind, it will spin," Milsap said. "It works perfectly."

The crows heading for Comfort Island in the spring were shrink-wrapped in plastic earlier this fall for their trip north, but that material has been removed.

"The crows have been totally galvanized, dipped and electro-powder coated," Milsap said. "They are made to sit out in the weather. The shrink wrap would just deteriorate, so we took it off."

The three crows will be barged to the island in the spring and be joined by more of Salisbury's creations.

"We have two small bears," Stephen Brown said. "Those will be put on the point of the island. Ultimately, we'll have three bears and three crows on Comfort Island."

Brown has a deep appreciation of Salisbury's legacy and has planned an event to reflect that.

"In September of 2024, I'm hosting a fundraiser for the Thousand Islands Arts Center and it will all revolve around Will's work," he said.

Today at the TIAC, and as part of Christmas in Clayton events, the center is hosting the second annual Elves' Fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Its galleries will be transformed into a festive, family-friendly experience with 18 artisans and artists selling handmade jewelry, paintings, handwoven items, pottery, honey and more. Children can enjoy a complimentary cocoa bar, make a holiday craft and pose for a photo with Spanky, the miniature horse, and Kranky, the elf.

Once A relic, now comfortable

The Victorian mansion on Comfort Island where the crows are heading was in rough shape before Brown purchased it and started renovations with Milsap.

In September 2011, the Times reported: "Passed through four generations of the wealthy Chicago family, this 128-year-old relic across from Keewaydin State Park has been up for sale for three years and could be completely demolished if the eventual buyer opts not to restore the 1883 Victorian estate."

Alson E. Clark, a Chicago tradesman and paint manufacturer, bought the island in 1882 and renamed it Comfort Island after the family's summer home in Comfort, Virginia. His son, Alson Skinner Clark, was an American impressionist painter best remembered for his landscapes. He died in 1949.

Stephen Brown purchased the Victorian home and land it sits on. Renovations took seven years. It had been renovated before. In 1970, the year that project was finished, the Times reported: "Mancel T. Clark, grandson of the original owner, visited his boyhood summer home in 1961 and found the property in a state of decay after almost 40 years of disuse. For the past eight years, Mr. Clark, an architect, has brought his family from Santa Barbara, California to spend summers working on their 'project.'"

The property's coal shed/house, located on the Keewaydin Park side of the island, was refurbished this year. "Our first thought was to tear the derelict building down," Stephen Brown wrote on his "The Restoration of Comfort Island" Tumblr blog which documents renovations. "For the last number of years, it had been used as a place to throw broken objects and trash. The structure itself was so wobbly, Paul (Milsap) was concerned about taking off the boards that covered the corbels ... thinking it might just fall down. I thought if restored, it could provide a nice place to picnic down by the beach."

"As with any home of this size, there is a never-ending list of tweaks," Regan Brown said.

The latest renovation began in the summer of 2014: "The first job is to clear 130 years of trash out of the house and off the island," Stephen Brown wrote on the blog.

The renovated Comfort Island site will be an appropriate place for Salisbury's crows. In addition to danger and misfortune, the birds have historically represented self-reflection, intelligence and loyalty.