CityView Magazine

IARTISTNTERRUPTED By Jason Tyson We left off last month with a glimpse into the life of the Russian artist responsible for the dramatic murals at Stone Manor, one of downtown Fayetteville’s most famous homes. Now, new details emerge. A special report. The S.S. Kristianiafjord arrived in New York Harbor on April 15, 1916, as it had done nine Top | The murals of George J. Novikoff are still on display today from Baltimore to Fayetteville. (Photo courtesy of Enoch Pratt Free Library, State Library Resource Center, Baltimore, Md.) Above, right | His work also covers the walls of St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in Philadelphia. Opposite | Novikoff’s dramatic icon screen is still the centerpiece of the St. Nicholas sanctuary. times a year since its maiden voyage in June 1913. As the first ship built by the Norwegian American Line, it stopped at three ports in Norway: Christiansand, Stavanger and Bergen before making its way across the Atlantic. It was at that final port of call, Bergen, that it picked up one George J. Novikoff who was fleeing his native country of Russia to start a new life in America. According to immigration records, he was born in the Russian city of Samara on Jan. 30, 1884. The ship’s manifest says he traveled alone though citizenship papers list a large family back home including a wife, Klavdia, born in 1885, and four children. (See timeline on Page 60.) Pittman and Parker family traditions told something more, the story of a soldier loyal to an ill-fated czar forced to flee his homeland. For 90 years, 60 | Food & Wine • 2010 generations of the Pittman and Parker families owned and lived in the grand manor house overlooking downtown Fayetteville, handing down the story of George J. Novikoff along the way. But the facts were scarce, and despite hours of research, no records of a military career were located, just a clipping from a Baltimore newspaper describing Novikoff in 1933 as an emissary (and trained artist) sent to America to inspect munitions

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